Am I ready to start cycling?

[Ghost25]

I've been curing 20Lbs of Pukani dry rock and I recently put it into a little over 10 gallons of saltwater kept at 79F with 2 powerheads. I has been in the saltwater for five days now.

I am using API test kits, and the resolution isn't great but these are my numbers as of today.

Ammonium: ~1.5 ppm
Phosphate: 0-0.25 ppm
Nitrite: 0.025 ppm
Nitrate: 3-4 ppm

I plan to use Microbacter7 for the bacteria, I intend to do a fishless cycle with ammonium chloride solution approximately following this guide.

So am I ready to cycle or do I need to cure longer? Does the presence of nitrates mean that the cycle has partially started already? Should I just dose to 2ppm ammonium and start adding the bacteria?

 

[mjstech]

I would say a couple more days, when ammonia and nitrite and zero, and only a little bit of nitrate. Maybe a 10-20% water change Sunday, and see where water quality on Monday or Tuesday. You shouldn't have to dose anything more... there is already a cycle starting. so I assume you did dose with something, used live sand, or didn't rinse dry sand/rock properly. It is not a race.

 

[Ghost25]

I would say a couple more days, when ammonia and nitrite and zero, and only a little bit of nitrate. Maybe a 10-20% water change Sunday, and see where water quality on Monday or Tuesday. You shouldn't have to dose anything more... there is already a cycle starting. so I assume you did dose with something, used live sand, or didn't rinse dry sand/rock properly. It is not a race.

Yeah they're actually in seawater from the ocean at the moment. So I should just leave it alone until the NH4 and nitrite go to zero and then start the fishless cycle? Isn't that like allowing the rocks to cycle? And you would say don't add bacteria on top of what's in there until then?

 

[gone fishin]

When cycling the tank your basically promoting bacterial growth on/in the rocks and eventually into the sand bed. Also, some growth on other solid surfaces.

You can stay the course and when your rocks are showing zero for ammonia and nitrite swap them over to the tank. Then get your tank all aquascaped and equipment going. At this point you should be ready to start adding some live stock.

Or you can put the rocks into the tank now and wait for the ammonia and nitrite to drop to zero.

whether or not you use the bacteria in a bottle is up to you.

Good luck just my 2 cents.