Evidence of Cycle?

[werkkrew]

My tank has been sitting for about 12 days now at 82 degrees, 1.025 SG with 45lbs of live rock in it.

Its a 30gallon tank with a 20 gallon sump for a total volume in the system of about 45 gallons. I have about 1lb of fully cured live rock rubble in my sump, 1lb of sand I got from the LFS to seed my sand with, and about 10 lbs of bagged "live sand", along with enough additional sand to provide a sand bed in my display and a DSB in my sump.

I have had Chaeto growing in my fuge for about 5 days and it seems to be doing pretty well. ( I dont know how to tell other then the fact that it is still bright green ).

I have been checking my Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate levels about every 3 days or so.

On about day 5 or 6 I had an ammonia spike (which, albiet, was very small), and since then my Ammonia and Nitrite levels are trace, and my nitrate levels are readable, but still very low (~10mg/l).

I cannot tell if my tank has even begun to cycle at all, or if by some freak chance, its already done.

The rock I bought from my LFS was sitting in large tubs of salt water, so it was already curing a bit at the store.

I have not been using any light in the display at any point in the cycle so I have not had an algae bloom.

I stimulated the cycle a bit with some fish food, but I have not really seen any of the water levels change all that much.


I guess it should also be noted that I have been running my skimmer the whole time and it has been picking up a signifigant amount of skimmate.


I know I should be very patient and probably just wait another 3 weeks or so before I do anything, but I am becoming concerned that either I did something wrong and my tank isn't cycling at all, or, I did something right, and it is somehow complete.

Are there any other signs I can look for?

Can I add a few cheap snails/hermits or something?


Also, the rock I got is covered with all sorts of evidence of life, but none of that beautiful purple coraline algae, I know it wont be growing at all yet, but if there is a chance the rock somehow didn't have any of the stuff on it, is there a way to introduce some of it later?

 

[Emc2]

Your tank could have cycled but that does not mean the amount of bacteria established is enough to support a given bioload. I usually test the biological filter by adding an ammonia source like frozen mysid in a media bag and then test the amount of time it takes the bacteria to break the ammonia produced down into nitrite. You also need to test to see how long it takes to break the nitrite down into nitrate. If the bio filter can handle the amount of food you would feed the livestock and convert it within a very short period of time then it is probably safe to start adding livestock.

 

[werkkrew]

I am probably just going to let it sit another week or two before I do anything.

 

[Emc2]

If you want to be safe you can use the method described above to increase the size of biological filter during that week.

 

[werkkrew]

I am also curious about coraline algae.

My live rock wasnt all that purple when I got it, it seems like it has an abundance of life on it but its not of the quality of some of the nicer stuff out there which is all covered with purple coraline (I paid $2.89/lb).

Am I likely to get some coraline from this rock or will I have to introduce it manually?

Also, should I start lighting the tank to stimulate an algae bloom?

 

[shaginwagon13]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11597466#post11597466 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by werkkrew
I am also curious about coraline algae.

My live rock wasnt all that purple when I got it, it seems like it has an abundance of life on it but its not of the quality of some of the nicer stuff out there which is all covered with purple coraline (I paid $2.89/lb).

Am I likely to get some coraline from this rock or will I have to introduce it manually?

Also, should I start lighting the tank to stimulate an algae bloom?

I have the same question to be honest. I have nooooooo idea if my tank has started or finished cycling and its been about a month for me

 

[bertoni]

The tank is likely fine for additions. If you're worred about the filtration level, you could try feeding a tiny bit of fish food each day for a few days, and watch the ammonia level. In general, I'd suggest letting the tank sit for three weeks with zero ammonia before adding any animals.

 

[minesinger]

I just set up a 75g with 100lbs cured live rock, 10lbs live sand(from my lfs and direct from the Ocean) and 40lbs Argonite sand. My refugium has 10lbs live rock rubble and a softball sized piece of macroalge.

Day 2 I put in 5 Green Cromis ($30). They've been buzzing around in the tank for 3 Days now, eating great etc.

I'm sure everyone has an opinion, but personally I really felt that there needed to be something in there to get the cycle going. Thus far everything (Ammonnia, Nitrite, and Nitrate) is reading 0.

The guy at my lfs believes that the tank is ready to go because of the quality of material used. (Likely a sales pitch) Nontheless he recomends proceeding with caution.

It's also possible that they will croak as soon as the ammonia spikes. Not sure, as I'm new to this but everything looks good so far.

 

[chin]

Its hard to say if the tank is done cycling yet. Typically in a new aquarium you will see a wave of brown algae take over the tank towards the end of the cycle. There is minimal risk in adding a cleaning crew at this time i.e. snails, crabs. Their bioload is small and they will help to clean the rock and sand of any debris. As far as coralline algae, it takes time, approx 4 months before you notice a major difference in the rock. Coralline algae also does not like intense light so depending on the type of lighting you have, the time my vary.

 

[werkkrew]

I got a couple hermit crabs and 2 turbo snails to see whats what.

So far after a day they are still buzzing around doing their thing. I am going to wait a few more weeks until I do anything else.

As for lighting, I am still shopping around for it, but I will likely go with a T5 fixture, such as the Nova Extreme Pro, or maybe a smaller 4 bulb unit.

Only problem I see with adding the hermits is if they die for some reason due to me adding them pre maturely, I will have to move the rocks all around and hunt them down to remove the shells.

 

[Emc2]

It's not difficult to tell if a tank has an established biofilter. You add an ammonia source and test.

 

[shaginwagon13]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11604104#post11604104 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Emc2
It's not difficult to tell if a tank has an established biofilter. You add an ammonia source and test.

So by adding lets say fish food, how will I kno if i have an established biofilter?:rollface:

 

[Emc2]

You might need to add more than a pinch of fishfood.

Also, you need to understand that there is a difference between an "established" biofilter and the biological carrying capacity of a given amount of bacteria. In other words, you may have an established biofilter that can only support one fish. Bacteria biofilters contract and expand depending on the availability of a food source i.e. the amount of amonia available to support the biofilter.

Adding an ammonia source is not enough to detirmin whether you have a biofilter alone. You need to add an ammonia source until you see a spike regester on your test kit. Then you need to keep testing until the ammonia levels start receding. Then you need to start testing for nitrite. At some point you will see the ammonia levels go down and the nitrite levels rise. Eventually you will see the nitrite levels start to recede then you test for nitrates. I doubt that most newly established tanks will be exporting much in the way of nitrate unless they are being aggressively skimmed. Once you start to see nitrates rising you are pretty safe in assuming you have developed a bacteria colony.

If you have been adding an ammonia source equivalent to what you would feed the bioload you intend to keep then you will have a sense of how much of a bioload the filter can handle. BTW, I would not call the biofilter establsihed until it can handle the ammonia source within a relatively short period of time.

 

[bertoni]

If I was worried, I'd just add a pinch of food each day for a few days to see whether any ammonia showed up. Personally, I wouldn't even bother with that. The tank has some live rock in it, and it's going to have some ammonia filtration.