My ammonia and nitrates never spiked, so no harm, no foul!
then your tank didnt cycle....
^^^ +3... what they said.
Not True! You don't HAVE to see an ammonia & nitrite spike for your tank to cycle.
This is absolutely false.
The reason most people see ammonia or nitrite spike is because they are far exceeding their tanks ability to process waste. This can be because: A) There is no biological filtration to start with (perhaps you started with all dry rock). Or B) Because the waste they are producing is FAR exceeding the ability of the tank to process it. Both things will cause a spike in ammonia, which most people associate with the tank being cycled.
For example, people will usually throw a shrimp in the tank and let it rot. The rotting shrimp FAR exceeds the systems ability to biologically process that much waste, which causes a spike in ammonia. This is why we remove our fish when they die, to ensure they don't cause an ammonia spike that will crash our tanks. It's the same principal. The rotting dead fish would far exceed our tanks ability to process ammonia waste (unless it's very large and very established tank) which is why we remove the fish. Normal tanks will never see the kind of bio load that a rotting shrimp will produce.
As the shrimp rots, it produces a HUGE amount of ammonia which will far exceed the current biological filtration of the system which causes the spike in ammonia. The bacteria multiply slower than the ammonia is produced, so there is a lag time, and thus excess ammonia is detected. If you only feed a small amount of food everyday to start the cycle, then you aren't exceeding the ability of the system to biologically process excess waste, which means you'll never see a spike in ammonia. This DOES NOT mean the tank isn't cycled.
If you use a lot of high quality-cured live rock, or you just feed "phantom fish" with a flake or two of food everyday, then there is a very good chance you won't see a spike in ammonia or nitrite. Just because you didn't see a spike in ammonia, doesn't mean your tank didn't cycle! It only means that your current biological filtration is plenty sufficient to process all the ammonia waste that's being produced. If that's the case, you should take advantage of that, and put fish into the tank - NOT FIVE, but a small fish or two will ensure there is waste being produced to sustain the system. It's a CYCLE and there always needs to be an input of waste (ammonia) to sustain it. If not the bacteria will die and the capacity of your tank to process waste will decline.
