Cycling

[Danny91]

Hi

My tanks been running for two weeks today. Fluval evo 12 with 6 kilos of live rock. I've checked the parameters every other day and they don't seem to have moved...
Ammonia 0.2
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
That's using a red sea marine care kit.
Why am I not seeing any spikes?

 

[nereefpat]

Probably because you haven't added a nitrogen source.

Feed the tank with fish food, or even pure ammonia. The goal is to have an initial ammonia spike of 1-2ppm.

If you are using cured, always wet, live rock, you may not get much of a cycle though.

 

[Danny91]

I've been adding bits of fish food every other day too. The rock was only out of water for 20 minutes from the fish shop to my house.

 

[Danny91]

I've also had alot of algae on my glass that I've just sorted by blacking the tank out for 3 days. And bits of Brown algae on my sand.

 

[nereefpat]

Since you added more than 1 pound per gallon of live rock to your tank, there won't be much of a cycle. I would still keep testing, and wait a couple weeks before adding any livestock.

Algae is a good sign, and is part of a new tank.

 

[Danny91]

Thank you for answering my questions I appreciate it.

 

[nereefpat]

You're welcome. Good luck.