60 gallon cycling process... confused

[jasongrant15]

Good afternoon everyone,

I have spent quite a bit of time reading through different posts/advice on this website but this is my first posting.

I recently purchased, plumbed and setup a 60 gallon tank to be a reef tank. Right now it sits at about 50 pounds of live rock (I have a 20 gallon tank that I am migrating from, the rest of my live rock will come from that tank. I also have an inch / half inch of live sand and a thumbs worth of raw shrimp in the tank. I started cycling the tank (lights off) on the 14th. My question is, I have been checking tank parameters since the 18th.. Tonight I checked parameters and my ammonia is almost at zero, Nitrites are almost at zero and my nitrates are around 40 ppm. I feel like this is a really short cycle and am unsure if I need to add more flake food, shrimp etc.

I have provided a table below showing the days I have tested and as you can see, the values were pretty much stable until today. Am I near done cycling or did I screw up...

Date, Salinity, Ammonia (ppm), Nitite (ppm), Nitrate (ppm)
9/18/2014 1.025 0 n/a n/a
9/20/2014 1.025 0.5 0 n/a
9/22/2014 1.025 0.6 0.35 20
9/23/2014 n/a 0.6 0.35 40
9/24/2014 1.025 0.25 0.1 40

 

[toothybugs]

Your ammonia levels were really low, spike them to 1-2ppm and watch the nitrite and nitrate rise and fall accordingly to confirm you are cycled. Or slowly dose straight ammonia and see if you NH3 levels climb over time or stay somewhat stable -I prefer to use straight hardware store ammonia (just be sure there are no surfactants in it - it shouldn't get foamy when you shake the bottle) because it gives me more control. And it stinks less than a rotten shrimp.

 

[wooden_reefer]

Your ammonia levels were really low, spike them to 1-2ppm and watch the nitrite and nitrate rise and fall accordingly to confirm you are cycled. Or slowly dose straight ammonia and see if you NH3 levels climb over time or stay somewhat stable -I prefer to use straight hardware store ammonia (just be sure there are no surfactants in it - it shouldn't get foamy when you shake the bottle) because it gives me more control. And it stinks less than a rotten shrimp.

I use both ammonia from a bottle and from decay of animal protein.

For routine cycling I use shrimp blended to milk or very finely chopped. This simulates the effect of overfeeding.

To test a medium to see how well it handles ammonia, ammonia from a bottle is better because a sharp pulse is more indicative of capacity.

Interesting is that it seems shrimp stinks less each time you add. There is possibly microbes that start to grow when shrimp is added, not ammonia.

Unwise is to allow a whole shrimp to decay. This is not the most aerobic way and can cause anaerobic decay. Worse is to attempt to take it out.

 

[jasongrant15]

I really appriciate the suggestions. So I just head over to home depot or lowes and pick up some ammonia? Any concentration will do?

Thanks again!

Jason

 

[Bryopsis]

It needs to be ammonia with no surfactants. (that's the hard part; not many sell pure ammonia anymore)

I would guess you don't need to really add the shrimp or ammonia if you're using rock from another tank.

Some of the bacteria will die, creating ammonia, feeding 1st phase nitrifying bacteria (amm-nitrite-nitrate) and then since it's older rock, the 2nd phase (denitrification) will be taken care of by the bacteria in the rock from the other tank.

As time goes on, each does it's job, and then it will balance out between bacterial masses. This is also another way to prevent a crash after 'cycle' in case the bioload isn't enough to sustain the bacterial masses you have grown.

So I would just leave it alone, change water every week, leave it for a few weeks, go play video games

 

[inetmug]

Get that other rock in the tank ASAP to get it all done. That 1.5" of sand will need to be cleaned on your changes as it is not deep enough to be a biological filter. The gravel vacs work well.

I favor the dead shrimp approach. The main reason is you can see what is happening to the shrimp. But, with 90# of live rock, you should be moving pretty fast.

 

[KazzAhmed]

If you have a ace hardware by you I recommend the ace brand I believe it is 5%