Cycling troubles

[Ryan_310]

I just set up my 75 gallon tank on Sunday and have had it running for 2 days now. I used live rock 50 pounds new and 20 pounds from an established tank I already had and live sand(was free when I bought the tank but never used). Today when checking the readings the ammonia was at .5 and the nitrates and nitrites were at basically zero. I have a hob refigium, not running the protein skimmer, and have my T5 and MH on during the day for 12 hours. I have not seen any algae growing or anything yet. Since I did not see much ammonia today I threw some fish food in there to try and get some ammonia going. Is it normal for me to not see any change in my levels yet or should I try other ways to jump start the cycle?

[Donkeykong]

Slow down, Take a Breath. 2 days is no time at all. it might be a week or two before you see the full ammonia spike. Also as a side point you dont have to run the lights for that long during the cycle. I would run the T5's for 8 hours and the Halides not at all. Anything else is really just waste of electricity since there isnt any high light corals in there yet.

[poakley723]

Be patient my 180 has been running for 11 days now with me feeding it and still no amonia. it is reading ZERO as of last night.

I did have my dry rock in a tub in my garage for a month and a half with live rock.

Being patient will save you a lot of head ache and money.

[Ryan_310]

The reason that I have the MH on is because im trying to use them to heat up my water instead of using a heater.

[TheAquatard]

Get a heater! if the tank gets too hot or cold the bacteria could die. Remember you have to feed the tank inorder for the cycle to work. You need to be adding ammonia

[BigKahuna]

I think if your tank is cold it could really slow down the cycle or stall it badly. If anything you probably want to cycle the tank a little warmer than what you intend to keep it to help the bacteria's metabolism IMHO. Either way you really need to use a heater sooner or later so why not sooner?

[faisal629]

I know many people say "instant cycle" or "live bacteria in a bottle" is worthless and considered snake oil, but in the 60 i am setting up i bought instant ocean bio spear and dumped the whole bottle in on day one with 2 frozen shrimp, 5 days later my nitrites were through the roof and ammonia declining. I also used seachem stability as well. IMO I believe this product and other similar products do not instantly cycle a tank but i know for a fact they speed up the process substantially.

[faisal629]

+ I find letting a frozen shrimp rot completely in the filtersock to be a cleaner and better way to cycle...IMO

[AquaReeferMan]

Ammonia will not build up unless you add a source. Throw in a couple cocktail shrimp from the grocery store and let them sit in there and rot for a week or so. That will add enough ammonia to get the cycle going. Then let it cycle through. After you hit zero on ammonia and nitrite throw 2 more in for a week and then remove them. This time around you shouldn't see much ammonia and nitrite. This process should take around a month. Once ammonia and nitrate stay at 0 do a water change. Then you can slowly add your clean up crew and some fish. Just go slow....

Oh and get a heater...

[sponger0]

Best advice....just wait it out