On April 7th I started my 36gl bow front tank. I started with 40lbs of live sand and maybe 30lbs of dry rock. One of the guys at my LFS recommended ghost feeding shrimp and dosing Microbacter7 for a few weeks and using the API test kit as a red light/green light for adding creatures. After 5 days of daily capful of Mb7 and ghost feeding, I had some feedback on R2R on how Mb7 wasn't the right stuff for cycling a new tank. My levels never got crazy high; ammonia stayed around .5ppm, nitrite around .25ppm and nitrate 0-5ppm. On April 14th, I decided to move to Bio-Spira to get the ball rolling faster and added 1lb of live rock to help everything . After adding the bio-spira and live rock, I also added a clownfish, peppermint shrimp and 2 hermit crabs. Levels changed to: Ammonia - .5ppm, Nitrite - 0ppm and Nitrate - 20-40ppm for a few days. Did a water change and nitrate dropped down to 10-20ppm. Since then, ammonia has leveled off at 0-.25ppm, nitrite - 0ppm and nitrate to 10-20ppm. Yesterday, 2 weeks after adding the creatures, live rock and bio-spira, I added a Fire Goby and Blue Devil Damsel; also have 2 more hermits, 2 nasarius snails and 2 astrea snails. Everyone seems to be doing fine, everyone is eating and actively swimming or crawling. Did I just have a quick cycle or am I riding the lucky lane right now.
Also I have not had the light on to help prevent the ugly phase of the cycle. So far this has worked.
Side question, we couldn't find one of the hermits for a few days, just figured the shell was stuck in a part of the rock we couldn't see. After 3 days a small blue leg hermit body was on one of the top rocks out of a shell, lifeless. Got it out of the tank and said farewell to one of the crabs. 3 days later I spot the missing shell on the backside of the rocks, grab it to look at it and there is a much larger crab in there now. I'm guessing the crab molted but I didn't think the old body of the crab would have kept its color and I'm pretty sure there was meat attached to the body. We are confused but glad to have 4 hermits again. By the way, that crabs name is Destiny, go figure.
Also I have not had the light on to help prevent the ugly phase of the cycle. So far this has worked.
Side question, we couldn't find one of the hermits for a few days, just figured the shell was stuck in a part of the rock we couldn't see. After 3 days a small blue leg hermit body was on one of the top rocks out of a shell, lifeless. Got it out of the tank and said farewell to one of the crabs. 3 days later I spot the missing shell on the backside of the rocks, grab it to look at it and there is a much larger crab in there now. I'm guessing the crab molted but I didn't think the old body of the crab would have kept its color and I'm pretty sure there was meat attached to the body. We are confused but glad to have 4 hermits again. By the way, that crabs name is Destiny, go figure.