Tank not cycling?

[Noenoe]

I have a 3.7 gal saltwater tank. I used Imaginarium Pacific Ocean Water bought from the local pet store, I added live rock/sand, biological booster, and ammonia for a fishless cycle. Ammonia and Nitrates have remained at 2ppm and Nitrites 0ppm for 3days straight. I've been told my tank must not be cycling, hoping someone can confirm or tell me what i did wrong?

 

[Jekyl]

I have a 3.7 gal saltwater tank. I used Imaginarium Pacific Ocean Water bought from the local pet store, I added live rock/sand, biological booster, and ammonia for a fishless cycle. Ammonia and Nitrates have remained at 2ppm and Nitrates 0ppm for 3days straight. I've been told my tank must not be cycling, hoping someone can confirm or tell me what i did wrong?

Just be patient.

 

[brandon429]

was your rock wet from a pet store, or dry

can you post pics of the tank

*reason asking: you may already be cycled and the test kits wrong but we need to know about rock origin to know. non digital test kits always indicate false stalls, they're a huge problem in cycling in fact. if it's wet from the pet store, that's a big deal factor to know

live rock moved wet from a pet store to your home does not require extra bacteria and shows up already cycled. moving rocks from one wet tank to another does not kill bacteria: it transfers it

but some people call dry rock from a pet store live so we needed to know the situation


also factors/not stated in the description: how many days has this arrangement been stewing in the tank

 

[drolmaeye]

I recently started cycling a bare-bottom, no-rock 16 gallon qt tank and a 70 gallon display tank with dry rock and dry sand. I added ammonia and bottled bac to both, both showed 2 ppm ammonia and zero nitrite until the sixth day, when nitrites started to show and ammonia started to fall.

I recognize that neither of these scenarios match your tank, but just giving some points of reference to suggest you keep checking for a couple of days to see if there are signs that things have started.

 

[ptrick21186]

3 days? You've barely begun to cycle

 

[Noenoe]

was your rock wet from a pet store, or dry

can you post pics of the tank

*reason asking: you may already be cycled and the test kits wrong but we need to know about rock origin to know. non digital test kits always indicate false stalls, they're a huge problem in cycling in fact. if it's wet from the pet store, that's a big deal factor to know

live rock moved wet from a pet store to your home does not require extra bacteria and shows up already cycled. moving rocks from one wet tank to another does not kill bacteria: it transfers it

but some people call dry rock from a pet store live so we needed to know the situation


also factors/not stated in the description: how many days has this arrangement been stewing in the tank

Thanks for the reply, its been stewing for 3 days now. I know thats not a long time, but im new to the hobby and just want to hear everybodies opinion. I got CaribSea Life Rock from Petco, and that was dry. I've been using RedSea's test kit, not a digital one.

 

[Lavey29]

As others said just be patient. 2 weeks is when you need to check back.

 

[brandon429]

Quickest fix will be add a small ground up pinch of fish food so that the system gets some carbon, any brand is fine, a small ground up pinch

Leave it all circulating wait until the end of this month, change out all your water for new, and the cycling bacteria have stuck to the rocks and you can begin using the system
what the test kits say won’t matter, that’s calculating your cycle off the ammonia line #of wait days until it drops from a cycling chart and it will be fine

this uses a known # of wait days to call your cycle ready vs having to test.

 

[fishywishy]

Cycled my 29 gallon the same way and it took almost 3 weeks.

 

[brandon429]

No, thats just what the cheap ammonia test kit said. It was done when I said it was done, it’s how we get to page forty with a hundred cycles done and carrying fish and passing any seneye test in the reference threads within ten days. Bottle bac cycles do not take three weeks, look up Dr. Reefs bottle bac thread.

the same kits that made you think it took three weeks are also found reading eight ppm in three year old running reefs routinely, but never a digital ammonia kit.

nobody here can post a formal study showing bottle bac cycling to require two weeks or more. Only personal testimony, using api or Red Sea, that’s key. You have to keep referencing non digital kits to keep stall cycle claims going.

 

[brandon429]

@Noenoe send me a message if you have any future questions we will fix your tank right up. once you follow the timeline given your tank can be used for the initial bioload you planned.

that tank will have challenges unrelated to cycling whatsoever. Salinity control will be harder than discerning the cycle end date.

B

 

[Cell]

LIFE rock is not the same as LIVE rock.

What was the biological booster added?

 

[Cell]

Also stop testing for nitrate. You can't measure them if nitrite is present.

 

[Noenoe]

LIFE rock is not the same as LIVE rock.

What was the biological booster added?

Imagitarium Biological Booster