No Cycle??

[TruespeedEM1]

Hello everyone. I am currently in the process of setting up a 29G Biocube HQI because of fish attacking my corals in my 120 and plans to make my 265 FOWLR make it unrealistic to keep putting corals in the 120.

I purchased all live rock from Premium Aquatics which arrived here in two days and was still very damp due to awesome packaging. I put the rock in there on thursday. I rinsed half of it off and the other half just threw in there because I figured there was going to be some die off which would start a cycle. I also used Natures Ocean "live" sand (i understand its just dead sand with water).

I tested last night and have a reading of 0 on ammonia and 0 on nitrite. Could it be that I skipped cycle using all live rock?

Link to tank build: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2135839

 

[bertoni]

Yes, that's possible, although I'd wait a week or so, and feed lightly during that period, to see what happens. If something large inside the live rock decides to die, the tank might see a bit of an ammonia spike.

 

[ivans75]

Full nitrogen cycle is when you read your nitrate is 0 not just nitrite. Test your water for nitrate every week during first initial establishment of bacteria colony. If you get 0 reading for 2 consecutive weeks then you can safely add stocks...slowly.

 

[Dragon moray ki]

I had the same thing happen with my real reef live rock that I got about 2 weeks ago and I'm going to start an ding fish tomorrow starting with the chromis.

 

[James77]

Could very well be, it can easily happen with cured live rock. It would mean enough bacteria was on and survived the shipping to handle any die off. I dont't think any saltwater tank I have had has gone through a cycle using the rock I bought online or locally. I havent even tested for ammonia or nitrite in years on any tank. Not sure if that is samrt or dumb, but after about a decade of seeing nothing but zero for both.....

But I would do as Bertoni suggested and give more time. It has only been a few days. Also throw a dead shrimp in there to see if you get anything that spikes.