Cycling a Pico (2nd Attempt)

[paradicio]

Hey all,

So I'm on my 2nd attempt at cycling my 3g Picotope.

The first attempt ended badly, the tank was completely overrun with hair algae, cyano, and aiptasia. Even though I let the tank sit for (I want to say) 2 months the nitrates never dropped below 15.

Thinking I may have just gotten a bad batch of rock I tossed everything out, got some new rock and sand and started over.

I'm now on my 4th week of cycling with the second batch of rock and sand and nitrates are again stuck at 15. I'm just starting to see a diatom bloom.

I spoke with the guy at my LFS (who is very good about giving decent advice - he has even refused to sell me some corals because they will not do well in my tank) and he said it is possible that the nitrates will never drop below 15. His idea was that it is near impossible to get 0 nitrates in such a small body of water.

So, here are my questions...

How long did your picos take to cycle?

What are your water params like?

Have you had a great deal of difficulty keeping nitrates down?

Given that I'm just getting a diatom bloom, should I try water changes to reduce nitrates? Would this stall an already long cycle?

Any other advice?

Thanks!

 

[Andrew_Adrian]

Best Advice:

Get 3 gallons of established tank water from someone.

 

[paradicio]

I actually should have started the tank that way...

Would this be a good idea to do now that the diatom bloom has started?

 

[critmin]

Nitrates won't drop in a tank that small unless you use something to absorb them. I have a pico about that size and I keep a tuft of cheato in it to metabolize the ntirates. You might try doing that. As for cycling, cycling normally only refers to building up the bacteria for consuming ammonia and nitrites. One thing I did to stabalize my pico is to add a 5 gallon sump. It is actually quite easy to make and it works very well. Just let me know if you want to make one, I'd be happy to help.