is my tank done cycling?

[Laz A]

When I started my tank I got all my lr from someone parting out a 2 + year old tank. My sand is a 20 lb bag of agra alive. And I used nsw to fill it then added "cycle" to help expidite things. My tank has now been runing for a week and nitrites and ammonia have been at 0 for the pass two days and nitrates at about 30. The highest I've tested has been at about .80 ppm of ammonia, 70ish ppm of nitrates and about .5 ppm nitrites. Today was my second day at what to me matches 0 ammonia and definitely 0 nitrites. Does this mean my tank is cycled already? I'm confused since my tank has only been up for a week today. (Btw the tank my rock came from had an anemone so I'd say it had to be in good health and pretty established to house one. And the tank had been up over 2 yrs I was told.

If my cycle is done I was told to do a 100% water change. I've seen around here tho that people don't really do complete water changes once cycled, they do like 30%.
I don't mind waiting for my tank to take its course but I don't want to wait and not even know my tank is cycled and there's nothing to wait for heh.

Thanks,
Laz

 

[coralfragger101]

Most people probably don't do a complete water change when the cycle is complete in an effort to save a little bit of cash. Now is the perfect time to do a complete water change. You don't have anything in your system so there is nothing to "shock". A partial water change will only dilute your trates. A complete change (in theory) would eliminate them. You will still have some trates left simply because you won't get all the water out.

Cycle: You probably wasted your money on but we won't go there.

I think what you are seeing is a tank that was set up with media with a good bacterial growth on it to begin with. Add that to a tank with virtually no bio-load and you end up with a mini-cycle. Is this OK? Sure. I set my 150 gal up and had some coral in it from day one and I still have them today (a year later).

The bigger question is do you have enough media for your tank?
What you wrote above could happen with 20 lbs of sand and 30 lbs of live rock in a 500 gal tank. Is it time to start stocking then? - NO

IF you have 1 - 1.5 lbs of live rock per gallonage of tank and I would lean towards the higher end because I'm assuming that with only 20 lbs of sand that you don't have a deep sand bed then I'd say you are cycled.

The only other thing that throws me off a bit is how you got nitrate readings of 70 and now you are down to 30 unless you've already done a water change.

 

[Laz A]

Well now that I think about it I may have read wrong on the 70. API nitrate tests have some of the coloring extremely similar which is a bit annoying. Today I got a second opinion from my gf and she said its between 20 and 40, thus my conclusion of 30ish. And I have a 24g NC, which means my LR is at 1.25 lbs a gallon. I guess Ill do a water change then add some fish like 2 days later?

if anyone else has something to add pls lemme know, every bit of info helps!

 

[coralfragger101]

24 gal minus rock/sand. Maybe 20 gal max of water?

Choose your fish wisely. You will be quite limited on the amount of fish you will be able to stock and it should probably be done one at a time, especially in a small tank.

I would wait at least a week after a water change and then start stocking IF testing comes out OK.

Patience in this hobby is a MUST.

 

[Laz A]

I had this list put together:
fourline wrasse
purple fire fish
yellow watchman w/ pistol shrimp
pair of false percs

this will obviously be put in gradually. I also plan on getting a HOB remora skimmer since i know that load is a bit on the large side.

 

[coralfragger101]

Yea, I'd say on the large side. Given about 2" per full grown fish (that's being generous), you'll have 10" of fish. There is no set rule of thumb but if I was forced to choose one, I'd say 1" of fish per 5 gal.

Here's a rather lengthy but very good write up on fish stocking.

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/fish-diseases-treatments/24702-marine-fish-stocking-limit.html

 

[coralfragger101]

One last comment before bed.

Small tank - firefish = fish on floor unless covered.

Watchman - sand digger: Without looking it up I don't know what depth 20 lbs of sand gives you in a 24 gal tank but he'll need room to dig and you'll want support under your rocks so they don't cave in on him.