Thanks for the info guys. I understand how the breakdown of the cycle works and when is safe to add livestock. I just don't like the unsightly diatoms and little bit of algae staying to grow on the rocks. I notice a lot of air bubbles from the sand and rock. Before I add any fish after the cycle I'm going to add a small CUC to clean up the algae and a turkey baster to clean all the diatoms.
tank cycling
- Thread starter bizzleb01
- Start date
There are ways to shorten the first part of the process (ammonia to nitrites), but there are no processes, short of starting with a tank full of live rock, that will shorten the second stage (nitrite to nitrate). The second stage will take many weeks. Those type of bacteria just grow a lot more slowly and so far no one has come up with a way to keep them in a bottle for re-sale.
I personally did not want to start with live rock, I wanted totally dead rock, so I started with DR Tims for the Ammonia to Nitrate phase and just fed the tank ammonium until the second stage could handle the amount of ammonia that would be produced in my system. I had used shrimp on systems in the past and I did not like the experience, though it was effective.
My skimmer ran continuously for oxygenation, but dumped directly back to the system. No chemical filtration was turned on. Filter socks were not needed. I did a 100% water change at the end because I had produced a fairly large amount of nitrate in the system to get it to the level of being able to introduce more than just a few fish at a time. If any one does this, most don't, and there is a long period of time before fish are added to the system, you will need to dose more ammonia or ammonium into the system.
Ok, so my tank has been running about a week and a half now. I started with about 80-85lbs of live rock and 100lbs of live sand.
I put four shrimp in the tank to kick start the cycle. I've been testing water every couple of days or so. Ammonia spiked to 1.8 after a couple days and is now back to 0. Nitrites only got to .1 and are now 0. Nitrates got to about 20 when nitrites were up and are now 10. I started getting a lot of diatoms and cyano started forming on sand bed and a little on the rocks along with some what looks to be hair algae. I was running lights but have since turned them off for the past four days. Cyano seems to be clearing up and almost gone.
Would it be safe for me to put a CUC in now or should I still wait another couple of weeks? I got a Mexican turbo snail and emerald crab as hitch hikers and they are still living.
I put four shrimp in the tank to kick start the cycle. I've been testing water every couple of days or so. Ammonia spiked to 1.8 after a couple days and is now back to 0. Nitrites only got to .1 and are now 0. Nitrates got to about 20 when nitrites were up and are now 10. I started getting a lot of diatoms and cyano started forming on sand bed and a little on the rocks along with some what looks to be hair algae. I was running lights but have since turned them off for the past four days. Cyano seems to be clearing up and almost gone.
Would it be safe for me to put a CUC in now or should I still wait another couple of weeks? I got a Mexican turbo snail and emerald crab as hitch hikers and they are still living.
