New tank: Need some reassurance or insight

[Bleigh]

So I’ve just converted a fresh water tank to a salt water tank.

On the 12th (4 days ago) we added live sand, live rock, salt water from the Lfs, and a bottle of bacteria. The store owner told us to come back the next day to test the water and for us to add fish. I was SUPER skeptical, but the store is beautiful and any opportunity to go look at his set ups, I’ll take. He kept insisting with all the live components that our cycle would basically be complete. We came back and he said all the measurements were perfect. We added two clown fish, much to my trepidation. (Side note: They fought for about 5 minutes, but now seem very happy.)

I’ve been testing ammonia every day and have had a reading of 0 everyday. I decided to test nitrite and nitrate today, simply to have a start number for my graph. To my surprise... I got a reading. My nitrite was .2, the nitrate was 8 and ammonia was still 0. We did a 10% water change.

I’m totally baffled by this. I’m assuming there must be a least a little die off in the rock during transportation, which would have resulted in some ammonia. I had been expecting an ammonia spike and definitely did not think I could have nitrites or nitrates yet. This is my first experience with salt water set up and thus live rock as well. Could I be so lucky to have the cycle nearly complete or is there something I’m not taking into account?

Thanks for any insight!

 

[sfin52]

you would have some die off. But the rock is loaded with good bacteria. Couple that with sand you may not have much of a cycle.
I started my tank with 35lbs of rock and 40lbs of live sand. I harldy had a cycle.

 

[Bleigh]

Thank you. I’m totally mind blown by this. I may owe the store owner an apology.

 

[sfin52]

@saltyfilmfolks thoughts .

 

[theatrus]

All depends on the source of the live rock and how it was moved. If its been cycling in a system there for a long time, and you moved it wet, its basically a tank transplant and I wouldn't expect much bad to happen. Things will die as everything was shuffled, but nothing major.

Give it time for the tank to settle in a bit - clownfish are generally very hardy and won't have any issues with such a system in my experience.

 

[Katrina71]

Your intial readings could be spot on, but you may get some die off in the rock and have some ups and downs. Just wait until you start getting tank uglies.

 

[KMench]

The bottled bacteria is supposed to help too. Many people will jump start a QT tank with the bottled bacteria and never get a cycle.

 

[Katrina71]

I had a cycle about like yours. I used bio spira and live rock and sand too.

 

[KMench]

How big of a tank do you have? Just curious

 

[Bleigh]

The lfs is an amazing facility, imo. I feel that he could charge admission. I have honestly never seen such a large space, except at public aquariums.

The owner was completely nonplused about us adding the clownfish (he did mention that they were very hardy) and even suggested a coral. I know very little about corals yet and wanted to do some research before I just randomly threw one in, plus, I had never heard of a new tank cycling so quickly and honestly thought he was bs'ing me.

They have several large baths of live rock that kind of water fall onto one another. (I believe there were 4 or 5.) I showed him his set up that I liked the best and he picked some LR and laid them out so I would know how to replicate the look. He put it in a styrofoam bucket and we drove home. It's a little over a 10 minute drive and we got home and started arranging pretty quickly. The rocks stayed wet the whole time. Hopefully all that was ideal.

I do tend to be a cynic, so I am still half expecting the ammonia to suddenly shoot through the roof, but now that I know there's both NO2 and NO3 in the water, I'm cautiously optimistic.

 

[Bleigh]

How big of a tank do you have? Just curious

It's a 29g biocube.

 

[Katrina71]

How big of a tank do you have? Just curious

29 biocube me too

 

[bsn_rn_cen]

me 3 lol

 

[KMench]

Sounds like you should be good to go then. Ten minute drive home shouldn’t cause much die off at all.
From your description sounds like you’ve got a great LFS. That’s an amazing resource to have.
What else do you want to put in the tank fish wise?

 

[sfin52]

Pics we love pics

 

[Bleigh]

Still doing research about livestock. I actually am planning a post asking for some advice on that front. I've been reading through the forums about what others have asked and done. I hate rushing and I hope whatever I have, I'll have for a LONG time.

The hope is that if everything goes well, we'll install a much larger tank to have more room to play. If so, I should be able to seed directly from this one. This will either stay a small display, or perhaps be used as a qt.

The first three pictures are the day of setup and the last is a close up of the residents. If I had any foresight, I would have recorded their first 5 minutes after being introduced. I was honestly afraid that I some how had managed to pick out 2 small females the way they battled. Then suddenly one started to seizure, and the attacker, stopped short of actually attacking the other. They seem pretty coneys with each other already, and it's only been a few days. Fingers crossed I got lucky on that front too.

 

[Katrina71]

Very nice!

 

[Katrina71]

Very nice tank!

 

[sfin52]

Still doing research about livestock. I actually am planning a post asking for some advice on that front. I've been reading through the forums about what others have asked and done. I hate rushing and I hope whatever I have, I'll have for a LONG time.

The hope is that if everything goes well, we'll install a much larger tank to have more room to play. If so, I should be able to seed directly from this one. This will either stay a small display, or perhaps be used as a qt.

The first three pictures are the day of setup and the last is a close up of the residents. If I had any foresight, I would have recorded their first 5 minutes after being introduced. I was honestly afraid that I some how had managed to pick out 2 small females the way they battled. Then suddenly one started to seizure, and the attacker, stopped short of actually attacking the other. They seem pretty coneys with each other already, and it's only been a few days. Fingers crossed I got lucky on that front too.

thanks nice aqua scape. The clowns have great color. Take a black light at night may get some cool hitch hikers.

 

[Bleigh]

I haven't even thought to look at the rock at night. I have stopped to watch the fish sleep.... Think I may run down and have a look see....