Cycle?

[tmcca]

I added 10lbs of caribsea life rock to 10 gallon aquarium. I added 2ml of ammonia and not showing on test kit, I added more ammonia still not showing. I tested Nitrate looks like it is at 20ppm. Is this possible? I’m going to test for nitrite getting that test today

 

[tmcca]

I started this yesterday

 

[tmcca]

The nitrite on Hanna reads 9ppb I’m guessing that’s 0.009 ppm. I’m confused am I cycled?

 

[Fish Fan]

I added 10lbs of caribsea life rock to 10 gallon aquarium. I added 2ml of ammonia and not showing on test kit, I added more ammonia still not showing. I tested Nitrate looks like it is at 20ppm. Is this possible? I’m going to test for nitrite getting that test today

Sorry you're having some difficulty here.

What are you using for test kits? You want to get the ammonia up to about 2.0 ppm initially to get the cycle going. You should not be seeing anything for nitrate at this time, since your cycle is just starting.

You can safely ignore nitrite, that's non-toxic in saltwater aquaria.

Did you add any kind of bacteria-in-a-bottle product to seed the tank with bacteria?

Expect a fish-less cycle with ammonia and bottled bacteria to take about 3 weeks, give or take.

 

[Dan_P]

I added 10lbs of caribsea life rock to 10 gallon aquarium. I added 2ml of ammonia and not showing on test kit, I added more ammonia still not showing. I tested Nitrate looks like it is at 20ppm. Is this possible? I’m going to test for nitrite getting that test today

Did you add bacteria?

 

[tmcca]

The caribsea life rock has bacteria in it. I’m using api test kit to test ammonia.

 

[exnisstech]

All the life rock I find is just colored dry rock with no live bacteria. Unless there is some that doesn't show up in a search.

 

[tmcca]

The life rock for sure has bacteria in it it’s on the box

 

[Fish Fan]

The caribsea life rock has bacteria in it. I’m using api test kit to test ammonia.

This rock is really just a colored dry rock, I would still add some bacteria. Fritz TurboStart works the fastest (like 48 hours), but Dr. Tim's One and Only, Mircobacter7, etc. would also be good to use, they just take longer to cycle the tank.

 

[exnisstech]

The life rock for sure has bacteria in it it’s on the box

If it was not shipped wet I have serious doubts that it contains any live beneficial bacteria. Thats why real live rock is shipped wet. If it dries out the bacteria die.

 

[PharmrJohn]

Well, once your bacteria covers (nearly) all of the surfaces and are processing ammonia to nitrate, you're pretty much golden. This takes nothing but time. The general rule of thumb is once you bring the ammonia level to 2ppm, it should take 24 hours to go to zero. When you can do this for 4 or 5 days in a row, the tank is cycled.

In terms of lighting, I'd hold off on lights for about 2 months. This will allow the bacteria to populate the surface area over diatoms, dinos and algae. It's all about competition for resources.