Help cycling

[MonsterReef]

Okay guys and gals I've been cycling a new-build for seahorses for two and a half weeks my ammonia will rise and then disappear with no sign of nitrates what is going on and what should I do I've been feeding the tank just like I would feed It with Fish to raise the ammonia

 

[brandon429]

http://reef2reef.com/threads/new-ta...d-cocktail-shrimp-live-rock-no-shrimp.214618/

That's full detail right there!

 

[brandon429]

Likely confounds you are experiencing which are fully covered:

API test kits

Only ammonia matters, tested by non API kit. Specifically, nitrate and nitrite do not matter. That should help!

You mentioned two and a half weeks so far, we need closer to the 40 day mark if you haven't added bottle bac, or a pre seeded source for bac. If you added live rock or live sand already, that speeds things up nicely.

 

[MonsterReef]

Have a pice of live rock in there from my 75 and dosing seed everyday

 

[MonsterReef]

And live sand

 

[brandon429]

Per the thread it sounds like you were already cycled nothing left to do, any uncycled items are incidental. The live sand alone will pass a digestion test, ergo so will the whole tank.

If the tank can cycle 1_or 2 ppm ammonia verified in 24 hours twice, its good to go. Waiting arbitrary time past ammonia digestion is OK too, but the specific start-able time is whenever that test is passed.

I can see the double thread started for the topic has opposite offers on what to test, welcome to web cycling it's too varied to have a consistent following.