No cycle at all

[angieg1123]

I recently set up my 72g bowfront reef tank. I used new sand for the 6" sandbed in the tank and 50lbs of new Marco rock. I added everything from my old 30g tank (40 lbs live rock w/ wood polyps and GSP) and 40# live sand (sand was put in the sump). The live rock and sand were over a year old. I still have not gotten any spikes so far. My diamond goby is in the 72g and so is my yellow tang.

Shouldn't I have gotten a small cycle? Or was there enough stuff from the old tank to stop any spikes? I'm using salifert test kits for nitrate, nitrite, ph, ammonia, and calcium.

Nitrate 5
nitrite 0
ammonia 0
PH 8.3
Calcium 450
Temp 75

 

[angieg1123]

I forgot to add, I also used all of the water out of the old tank when filling the new tank. The rest was new RODI water with oceanic salt.

 

[content12001]

How long has the new 72 tank been set up?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

The old rock may have handled the cycle. I think many of our systems are a lot more resilient once set up than many people think.

I've added large amounts of imported live rock into the sump of my existing system and never saw any problems.

 

[ChuckG]

Marco Key Largo rock is pretreated by them and is pretty sterile. I was unable to detect any ammonia producing organics or PO4 from these rocks. Sounds like the sand was pretty void of organics too.

Sounds like you didnt distirub the bacteria in the old tank much during the transfer and it is carying on busness as usual.

You might keep an eye out for PO4 though, I did notice that the commercial sand I used elevated the phosphate levels just a touch. Nothing alarming but if its there you might want to use GFO or somehting else to get it out so youre not starting off with it in the tank.

 

[angieg1123]

Thanks. The tank has been set up 2-3 weeks. I've always had very lightly stocked tanks. Even in the 30g I only had 2 fish. 2" orange diamond goby and a small yellow tang. ( I knew I was upgrading) Lots of cleaners in the tank. I will keep an eye on the phosphates. I usually only test phosphates when I notice excess algae or corals seem out of wack.


Thanks,
Angie

 

[bhammer]

If you do not have any critters in the tnk, you can always add 1ML of household ammonia and make sure it clears. Just make sure the ammonia does not have any scents added.