Cycling question

[necrio]

Its been probably close to 6 weeks going on 7 and I just tested my water.

Its near max Nitrites and near 0 Nitrate. Its not even that big of a tank ( 50 ).

Ive seen people cycle in a healthy 4 weeks.

Sadly, it doesn't matter if it was ready tomorrow or not. I have no money. I mean like, wow how am I gonna pay the phone bill?

Just curious whats taking so long for that bacteria to kick in. I started with a good 15 lbs of live rock from an established tank.

 

[doreo]

may take longer if the bulk of the rock and sand was dry, what you used to start the cycle among other things i forgot.

 

[necrio]

Yeah I meant to say what I added.

Its mostly dry rock and dry sand.

I was doing pure ammonia for the start.

 

[doreo]

never tried the pure ammonia took lfs suggestion on first tank and used chromies, after research 2nd tank i used some cycle kit i won at macna, that stuff worked fast but then again it was 3 gallons of tank lol

 

[rovster]

How are you testing the water? I would have the LFS test it to make sure.

 

[necrio]

Saltwater masterkit.

 

[ravedood]

what i did to kick start the nitrogen cycle in my new tank was add live rock and one of those 4.4 gallon nature's oceans salt water jugs from the pet store. it was cycled in less than a month.

 

[Reefers4U]

are you cleaning the tank with anything? inside or out?

 

[necrio]

I haven't done anything to the tank for over 6 weeks except add water from water loss.

You think buying a little bio spira purple bottle stuff will add some of the much needed nitrite to nitrate bacteria?
Once I get those bacteria, I am good and the tank is cycled, but its been like this for weekzzzz

 

[doreo]

i dont know how well i trust a sealed bottle containing "live" organisms

 

[necrio]

So, to add to this thread. I wanted to ask the question about the cycle of my other tank.

I have a 10 gallon with a few lbs of rock in it ( about 2 live, no dead ). Its been cycling on its own with just a little bit of ammonia added once in awhile to keep it going. Just tonight I noticed there were 3 snails eatting the algae. Either they came with the rock or they came from space. But so far, it supports life. Even though its baby snails.

So, algae is blooming in the tank, spider web stuff, the purple algae i got on the rocks in the start is getting pretty good size, and there is some weird algae on the walls of the aquarium. It looks like a peace sign.

I just tested the water too (except ammonia, since i am gonna put a little in the morning to feed the bacteria) and they read 7.8-8 for PH and 0/0 nitrite/rate. Its been sitting for a few weeks along with the larger one which is being a pain.

In addition, I either don't know how to do the nitrate test or something, because I feel like I should have gotten a result from the 10 gal since there IS algae blooming now.

Am I dumb?