When can I expect my first nitrogen spike?

ssungyo

New member
Hey guys!

I just set up a 12 gallon nano cube last week and decided to start testing my water after letting it run for several days. I have 20lbs of live sand and 6lbs of live rock in the tank. my salinity level is hovering around 1.021 and all of the other parameters seem to be in order but i have yet to see a hint of an ammonia spike. any suggestions on speeding up the process?
 
Did you put any food/ raw shrimp in the tank to get the ammonia going? For the cycle to start you need to have an ammonia source. You can use some fish food, a raw shrimp, or pure ammonia to get the cycle going.
 
I suspect the live rock didn't have much in the way of dead organisms on it. I would start feeding very lightly, to see whether any ammonia shows up. If not, I'd wait a week and then start stocking. I've set up multiple tanks that never showed any ammonia. That's perfectly fine.
 
added one fish

added one fish

thanks for the advice guys. i went out and i bought 1x green chromis for $2 and some fish flakes and I'm gonna monitor the progress for a couple of weeks.
 
thanks for the advice guys. i went out and i bought 1x green chromis for $2 and some fish flakes and I'm gonna monitor the progress for a couple of weeks.

Cycling a tank with a fish is not the most humane approach.

Dan
 
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