What stage of cycle is my tank in?

[BillyC]

I'm going to be very detailed to get the best answers possible Thanks.

I set my tank up a week and a half ago. It is a standard 120g with a standard 20g sump, 2mp40s, 2x250w MH, 2x 54w T5, skimmer, etc. I used about 50gallons of live water from a mature tank and the rest was freshly mixed RO saltwater. I used 110lbs of new sand and almost 100lbs of mature live rock from the same mature tank. I have been doing water changes using water from my sps dom 55g reef in hopes of slowly making the tank water values equal for when I'm ready to transfer everything over. I currently have one piece of decomposing fish that has been sitting in there for a few days to aid the cycle.

The hitchhiker invertebrate population has been thriving as I see copepods on the glass and bristle worms crawling around at night. I have been feeding the tank mysis (heavy feeding in my opinion) to feed the inverts. I have a frag of zoanthids and a frag of orange monti cap in there that look very healthy so far since I placed them about a week ago.

So far there is no noticeable algae growth. Am I missing something? There is no way my tank has fully cycled, is there? What stage do you think I'm in and what should I expect to happen in the next few days, weeks, or months? What should my next action be?

Here are my parameters as of today:

Salinity 1.026
Temp 83.1 F (I kept it high like this to speed bacterial/algae cycles)
Ca 440
ALK 8.6
Mg 1340
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrates 5
Phos (don't have a test at the moment)

Any input is GREATLY appreciated. I would like to move everything over from my 55g asap without rushing it.

 

[Gorgok]

With 100 lbs of transferred live rock i don't see the 'heavy feeding' or the fish carcass really getting a cycle going. The rock should handle that easily with its current population. The only reason you would see a cycle happen is if the population of bacteria was too low for the amount of waste present. High population, low waste, tank is 'cycled.'

The bacteria probably couldn't handle a full load yet, but i think you could already handle all the life in my tank just thrown right in.

 

[BillyC]

Thanks for the response.

So is it safe for me to slowly start transferring corals and fish over from my 55g?

Someone told me to expect a diatom bloom. Should I still be expecting this?

 

[Gorgok]

I would expect the new sand to get some colors and stuff yes. But probably not in the terms of a new system, as you already have all stages of the cycle present and are just adding new places for them to live. It won't be like one stage exploding then dieing as the next stage takes the new waste away and so on. It shouldn't affect your numbers as its just slowly building up from the little waste it can get to (your rock will probably hog most of it).

I would say you are perfectly safe to transfer in stuff from the donor tank. Depending on what is left in the donor tank bio filtration wise i might just transfer it all over in one go. If your numbers are spot on then its no big deal either. Catching fish is something i can't really help with, they are smarter than me.

Essentially what you are doing is making your 55g tank bigger right? If you used all of its rock and had little sand (not a DSB) then you pretty much have all the filtering capacity of the 55g with just a little more water. All of the waste the 55g produced should be handled by that filter or you had a system out of balance. The extra water will simply dilute the waste generated to lower levels for the same load, so even the tiny ripples that came from feedings before now are smaller.

 

[BillyC]

Awesome that's what I was hoping to hear but didn't want to jump to conclusions. Thanks a lot!