Cycling

[jezz2001uk]

Upgrading tank from a 13 G with 2kg of rock to a 55G with 8kg of live rock feom lfs and 12 kg of old rock that dried out, new 40lb of live sand.

I am using microbacter 7 and stability and added some food, wondering what to expect from and when to add fish?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

you add fish when ammonia has dropped to zero and nitrates are present.

 

[jezz2001uk]

you add fish when ammonia has dropped to zero and nitrates are present.

Does the live rock and sand not eat the ammonia

you add fish when ammonia has dropped to zero and nitrates are present.

Because some of the rock from the LFS was established from the coral table I am wondering if I will have still get a spike, the tests I have done are showing zero ammonia and Nitrite and but 2 Nitrate?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Does the live rock and sand not eat the ammonia

Because some of the rock from the LFS was established from the coral table I am wondering if I will have still get a spike, the tests I have done are showing zero ammonia and Nitrite and but 2 Nitrate?

Rocks and sand do not eat ammonia. Rocks and sand grow the bacteria that convert ammonia to nitrite, then grow more bacteria to convert nitrite into nitrate.

You did not provide that information in your original post. If you bought wet dry rocks from the LFS, then they already have the bacteria, and the aquarium is instantly cycled.

If you test show zero ammonia and nitrite and show some nitrate, then to me, it means you have live rock and the tank is cycled. If you want to test it, then you can add 1 or 3 drops of ammonia (buy bottled ammonia from a pharmacy) or add a small pinch of fish food, within a day, the ammonia and nitrite should still be zero, but the nitrate will have increased a little bit more.

Hope this helps, good luck.

 

[brandon429]

Make this a testless cycle for the win

simply take that mix you have and let it run for two weeks

adding nothing else other than what’s stated

testing nothing

only adding the fish food and microbacter one time, at the start


and on day 14 you are done cycling by contact time, duration of wait, not using any test levels at all. Each surface will have its bacteria, this is updated cycling science because you now have an exact start date vs an open ended wait

be sure and read the disease forum for fallow and quarantine needs for new tanks, if you skip them in six months you’ll likely lose your fish to disease having nothing at all to do with cycling.