Hey guys,
I've been lurking for a few months now. Been steadily reading and buying equipment and waited till I moved this past month to jump the gun and get my 40b tank cycled. I'm sure this has been asked a million times but i'm having a hard time finding answers on my particular cycle method. I started my cycle officially on the 25th of June and opted out of using fish. Instead of using shrimp - because I was going on vacation the next day - I opted to just use fish pellets to introduce ammonia to the tank. I was going to use Dr. Tims ammonia but my local fish store told me to skip it as I was using live sand. (The owner of the lfs informed me she had spoken to Dr.Tim and he stated that using his ammonia product with live sand gave un-optimal results? No idea).
I haven't had a real ammonia spike in the last 2 weeks. I'm using live sand - the carrib sea fiji pink variety, dry rock and I spiked the water with Dr. Tim's One and Only when I introduced a food source initially on the 25th. I also added Seachem Matrix biomedia to my sump, as I was told that it was very porous and would help give bacteria more room to colonize. My skimmer has been turned off, lights are off ( such a bummer because they're beautiful) and I put in a pinch of pellets everyday to 'ghost feed'.
I'm using the API test kits which are admittedly a little hard to read. I really cant tell the color differences between many of the tests, but I have seen variable differences. I wanted to ask here first because it looks like my tank did a mini - cycle, but im not sure. I've heard of tanks cycling between 2 and 6 weeks. Not sure where I fall on the scale. Furthermore I haven't done any water changes. Any guidance would be great.
Here's a brief ( relatively ****** because I can't tell the difference between colors apparrently of API tests) reading of the log for the last 2 weeks.
Wednesday 24th
Thursday June 25th
Friday June 26th
Saturday June 27th
Sunday June 28th
Monday June 29th
Tuesday June 30th
Wednesday July 1st
Thursday July 2nd
Friday July 3rd
Saturday July 4th
Sunday July 5th
Monday July 6th
Tuesday July 7th
I've been lurking for a few months now. Been steadily reading and buying equipment and waited till I moved this past month to jump the gun and get my 40b tank cycled. I'm sure this has been asked a million times but i'm having a hard time finding answers on my particular cycle method. I started my cycle officially on the 25th of June and opted out of using fish. Instead of using shrimp - because I was going on vacation the next day - I opted to just use fish pellets to introduce ammonia to the tank. I was going to use Dr. Tims ammonia but my local fish store told me to skip it as I was using live sand. (The owner of the lfs informed me she had spoken to Dr.Tim and he stated that using his ammonia product with live sand gave un-optimal results? No idea).
I haven't had a real ammonia spike in the last 2 weeks. I'm using live sand - the carrib sea fiji pink variety, dry rock and I spiked the water with Dr. Tim's One and Only when I introduced a food source initially on the 25th. I also added Seachem Matrix biomedia to my sump, as I was told that it was very porous and would help give bacteria more room to colonize. My skimmer has been turned off, lights are off ( such a bummer because they're beautiful) and I put in a pinch of pellets everyday to 'ghost feed'.
I'm using the API test kits which are admittedly a little hard to read. I really cant tell the color differences between many of the tests, but I have seen variable differences. I wanted to ask here first because it looks like my tank did a mini - cycle, but im not sure. I've heard of tanks cycling between 2 and 6 weeks. Not sure where I fall on the scale. Furthermore I haven't done any water changes. Any guidance would be great.
Here's a brief ( relatively ****** because I can't tell the difference between colors apparrently of API tests) reading of the log for the last 2 weeks.
Wednesday 24th
- added Live Sand, Dry Rock and Salt water reading at 1.025ppm
Thursday June 25th
- added couple pinches of fish food
- added 1 bottle Dr.Tims' One and Only
Friday June 26th
- ammonia - between 0 & 0.25ppm
- nitrite - 0
- nitrate 0
Saturday June 27th
- no testing, on vacation
Sunday June 28th
- no testing, on vacation
Monday June 29th
- Came home from vacation, tank smelled like a fish shop
- added fish pellets
- ammonia - 0.25/0.5
- nitrite - 0
- nitrate - 0
Tuesday June 30th
- added fish pellets
- ammonia - 0.25/0.5 ppm
- nitrite - 0/0.25 ppm
- nitrate - 0/10 ppm
Wednesday July 1st
- added fish pellets
- ammonia - 0.25/0.5 ppm
- nitrite - 0/0.25 ppm
- nitrate - 10/20 ppm
Thursday July 2nd
- added fish pellets
- ammonia - 0.5ppm
- nitrite - 0.25/0.5 ppm
- nitrate - 10/20 ppm
Friday July 3rd
- added fish pellets
- ammonia - 0.5ish ppm
- nitrite - 0.25 ppm
- nitrate - 20ish ppm
Saturday July 4th
- added fish pellets
- ammonia - 0.5ish ppm
- nitrite - 0.5 ppm
- nitrate - 20/40 ppm
Sunday July 5th
- didn't test - too hung over.
- no extra food source added.
Monday July 6th
- added fish pellets
- ammonia - 0/0.25ish ppm
- nitrite - 0.25 ppm
- nitrate - 20ish ppm
Tuesday July 7th
- added fish pellets
- ammonia - 0/0.25ish ppm
- nitrite - 0/0.25 ppm
- nitrate - 20ish ppm