Cycling

[KyOsIBa515]

Hello all,

New to reef2reef and am very impressed with how friendly everyone is on this site. It’s wonderful...

Moving forward...I recently converted my freshwater tank into saltwater. For the time being I just used filtration I had. I used the canister filter from my freshwater tank (a well established tank) and replaced all the filter media minus bio rings.

I have done several tanks over the last 15 years but have never done a conversion of tanks so I am in uncharted waters. My tank has been up an running for about a week now and I thought I would check water parameters to see where I stand finally. To my surprise after a week I have 0 ammonia and nitrite and very little nitrate. My ph is solid to? How is this possible?

By me using the bio rings did I already establish bacteria in the tank? Still waiting on a diatom bloom which I have still yet to receive.

With all this being said, is it feasible to say may tank is mostly cycled or is this some sort of witch craft trickery happening and my tank will suddenly spike with all parameters? Thanks!

 

[SynGraves]

Did you use any live rock or sand? If not, I would drop a piece of raw shrimp in the tank over night. Test the water for ammonia and remove the shrimp when you see a decent ammonia reading. Test the tank daily to see how fast it converts the ammonia to nitrite and then eventually nitrate. Then you will know for sure that it is cycled.

 

[RamsReef]

You need to dose ammonia some how, either by using a product like DR. Tims or letting food rot.

You might have not even had a cycle or started one yet.

If it was me, I would, and do, get Fritz 9 or 9000, dose that, and add fish.

Watch the BRS 52weeks of reefing

Welcome and have fun,

 

[KyOsIBa515]

Thank you for the input, sorry...for a little bit I have not been able to reply.

 

[ShaunRobinson]

As above l, you need to seed your tank with bacteria and an ammonia source to kickstart a cycle. I would go back to the beginning and make sure you have some ammonia in there so you can watch it coming down. Also diatoms are nothing to do with the cycle. They are a common stage in new tanks and you can expect various algae issues for the first 6 months or so but generally manifest after the cycling process.