Cycling readings help..

[Reef_scuba]

Hello everyone!

Has been a little while since I have been in the marine world so I will step back in as a newbie!

I am currently cycling a 60g tank with 'dry?' substrate and half and half mix of dead? And live rock roughly 30kg. I have not added any bacteria.

I set this up on Wednesday, so that is only 6 days ago.

Unfortunately, I only received my testing kit on Saturday ( 3 days ago)

These are the readings:

Saturday ( 3days after set up)
Ammonia 1.2
Nitrite : 2
Nitrate: 0

Today Monday ( 6 days from set up)
Ammonia: 0.4
Nitrite : 2
Nitrate: 0

I have very basic understanding of the cycling process and am aware that I should see nitrate readings.. but my ammonia is lowering?

Have a missed this reading?

It's seems to be reducing the ammonia very quickly.

Is the tank possibly uncycling itself and it needs Bacteria intervention?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Excited to be back!

 

[brandon429]

It's a skip cycle

You were done day one

No testing required

Certainly no bacteria

Nitrite doesn't factor in cycling reef tanks anymore, ignore that portion

Your ammonia isn't .4 that's the freshwater conversion / see kit instructions to convert to nh3, which is for reefing, then it's ~.03 and on non digital kits, this is what reef tanks run at. They do not run zero ammonia as you've read in the past

Your cycle is done bc that degree of live rock carries any fish you add, the inert rocks and sand don't matter as live rock is that powerful. Your tank can carry fish now.

 

[brandon429]

Read this to see, a collection of live rock skip cycles

A thread tracking pure skip cycle instant reefs, no bottle bac

THE GOLDEN EXAMPLE OF A SKIP CYCLE DAY 1 REEF https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/octo-high-end-sps-skip-cycle-build.713256/ read that entire thread before you read ours. that's the heart of skip cycling. Everything we do going forward in this thread reflects on that ability above, in the #1...

www.reef2reef.com

You're not midway done, it's done. The inert surfaces take about 20 days to be cycled due to contact time but you don't need them to be, it's simply extra bacteria the system takes on. You won't be fully stocking the tank anyway within that time, your first additions are covered by the live rock transfered in.

Simply cease testing for any aspect of cycling. Study fish disease protocol from the disease forum/ select a method and run it

If you skip disease preps they'll die in the first 8 mos (see disease forum posts)

 

[TheBear78]

If you skip disease preps they'll die in the first 8 mos (see disease forum posts)

all of them?..

 

[brandon429]

No they aren't usually getting full wipeouts they're staggered losses but some are full wipe outs

Here's a fun way to use free site data and see if you agree with my takeaway from it. Spend about an hr in the disease forum clicking on people's avatar/ find all threads/ read the initial posts they make for new tanks

Be taking into consideration the degree of white rock tanks you see vs live rock vs blended

Note age of tanks, majority of posters give tank age in the opening description

Consider the age of their tank: my rough estimate is within 8 mos avg any white rock/ dry rock start tank is losing fish enough to be posting for help on it

Source also the new tanks forum, take time to set reminders to come back and check recent new tank posts in March.

The combination of those searches is what gives me the guesstimate