cycle reassurance - am I done?

[DavidGraves]

I started cycling my tank (29 biocube) a little over two weeks ago. Dry rock, carib-sea sand, shrimp cycle.

Below is the chart of the progress:

<table><tr><th>Date</th><th>Ammonia</th><th>Nitrite</th><th>Nitrate</th></tr><tr><td>12/10/2015</td><td>0.5</td><td>0</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>12/11/2015</td><td>0.5</td><td>0</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>12/12/2015</td><td>1</td><td>0</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>12/13/2015</td><td>1</td><td>0</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>12/15/2015</td><td>1</td><td>0.5</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>12/17/2015</td><td>0.5</td><td>1</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>12/18/2015</td><td>0.5</td><td>1</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>12/19/2015</td><td>0.25</td><td>1</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>12/21/2015</td><td>0</td><td>1</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>12/22/2015</td><td>0</td><td>0.5</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>12/23/2015</td><td>0</td><td>0</td><td>0</td></tr></table>

Am I ready for a small CUC? Showing algae on the sand and rocks, but not a lot. Planning on going to LFS this weekend to get first fish for QT. Am I ready this soon for a few snails?

 

[seamonster124]

I don't see a nitrite spike? My dry rock took 44 days to cycle.

 

[DavidGraves]

edited the table formatting. The nitrite went up to 1 ppm and then back down to zero.

 

[Sounds Fishy]

I do not think you are through your cycle,yet.Test again in a couple days.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Test your cycle by adding pure ammonia that has no additives in it and dose up to about 2 ppm. Then retest in 24 hours and if ammonia and nitrites are 0 then it's cycled. You can buy the ammonia at any grocery store or hardware store in the cleaning products section. When you find one without scents shake the bottle, if it foams up its got additives, keep shaking bottles until you find one that doesn't foam up. Do this before you add any livestock

 

[Ron Reefman]

Test your cycle by adding pure ammonia that has no additives in it and dose up to about 2 ppm. Then retest in 24 hours and if ammonia and nitrites are 0 then it's cycled. You can buy the ammonia at any grocery store or hardware store in the cleaning products section. When you find one without scents shake the bottle, if it foams up its got additives, keep shaking bottles until you find one that doesn't foam up. Do this before you add any livestock

+1

It looks like you have had a 'soft' cycle. Your ammonia didn't go very high and neither did your nitrites. So you probably have a smaller amount of good bacteria than you really want. Do what Dkuhlmann suggests and you'll have a stronger bacteria colony.

I also question why you have no nitrate? What happened to the nitrite? It's supposed to get processed into nitrate, but you don't show any. Maybe you didn't produce enough to show up in the test. That makes me think you still have a very low level of bacteria.

 

[kmbyrnes]

+2. You are not ready yet.
But there are bacteria in your tank, so dosing to 2 PPM will give them the extra food they need to multiply and get your tank fully cycled.