Whats up with my cycle?

[Smeagle]

In my second week of cycle im measuring Ammonia between 0 and .50 ppm, 0ppm Nitrites, and 20ppm Nitrates using the API testkit.

Im hoping I could get some insight into where I am in my cycle as ive never done this before. Ive been told its likely to take a couple of months because of the dead rock but hopefully that was a high estimate. Ive started dosing Aquavitro Seed in the hopes of speeding up the cycle, signs of life include everything being covered in green algae

Tank info incase its of use:
Dead rock (old liverock that sat in a bucket for a few years from another tank.)
Bagged Livesand
5.5 gallon
hobfilter
led
small powerhead
heater

 

[thegrun]

You are going to need to add some ammonia source to start the cycle, either a dead raw shrimp, some pure ammonia without surfactants or perfumes or dry fish food

 

[Smeagle]

I was told by my lfs that the dead rock im using will have more than enough ammonia, are they wrong?

 

[Mad_Reefer]

The old rock might have cycled already. Add a small pinch of food every day and keep testing.

 

[Jollyg97]

Throw in a chunk of lr and watch her go

 

[Traderdan24]

I have used a raw shrimp from the grocery store to kick in the cycle in the past.

 

[Smeagle]

Alright I have started running Phosguard in my hob and added a pinch of flake food. Im continuing to add bottled bacteria. I dont plan on adding any live-rock because my tanks so small and im pretty far from my lfs, but if its really important I can look into it.

Is ghost feeding enough or is my ammonia really too low?

 

[Mad_Reefer]

Where did the nitrates come from? Source water or cycle?

 

[Smeagle]

Cycle. I used lfs water (instant ocean presumably...) that measures at 0ppm nitrate. I measured ~40ppm after 1 week and ~20ppm this week (those two shades are pretty close.)

 

[Mad_Reefer]

I wouldn't add much, just a little ghost feeding. Seems like a quick cycle.

 

[Smeagle]

Should I do any water changes?

 

[Mad_Reefer]

Water changes are good and shouldn't hurt the cycle. Just my opinion, if you feed for a few days and test daily without seeing ammonia or nitrite, the cycle is done and you could start adding stuff slowly, but your tank is still going to change a lot and you should be very careful.

 

[ssick92]

Water changes are good and shouldn't hurt the cycle. Just my opinion, if you feed for a few days and test daily without seeing ammonia or nitrite, the cycle is done and you could start adding stuff slowly, but your tank is still going to change a lot and you should be very careful.

+1 on everything Mad_Reefer said.

Seems like you probably just had a quick cycle, but keep ghost feeding the tank and testing. If nothing shows up except more nitrate, just do a couple large water changes to get your nitrate to an acceptable level (<5ppm) and then you can start adding livestock SLOWLY.

 

[Smeagle]

This morning im measuring .25ppm Ammonia and .25ppm Nitrite so it seems to have risen slightly. Im going to retest later today to double check. All I changed since yesterday was adding a large pinch of fish flakes and adding a small amount of phosguard to carbon bag in my hob. Visually the tank is a little bit cloudy but I think thats just from the phosgaurd.

So anyways im no longer at 0ppm hich sounds like a bad sign...