Aquarium Cycling Time With Cured LR

u418936 · 11/14/2012, 03:14 PM

Hi

Two days ago, I took water and some LR from my long-established 120g aquarium and put it in a new 5-gallon nano reef and put a pinch of fish food in there. To my surprise, the ammonia levels in the nano reef are pretty high. I thought it'd cycle instantly. Does anyone know how long I'm supposed to wait?

I'm glad I accidentally ran this experiment, because I'm planning on upgrading my 120 to a 300 in a few months, and I would've pre cured a lot of extra live rock in my basement and expected the 300 to cycle instantly. That would've been bad for my fish.

bnumair · 11/14/2012, 04:04 PM

depending on how much bacteria u introduced on the rocks it could be anybodys guess. more bacteria faster cycle.

brandon429 · 11/14/2012, 04:06 PM

I am nearly certain you have no ammonia its a misread, highly common. I'll show you a thread here in a sec where we tested distlled water and new saltwater that certainly had none, and we got some

so no fish feed was needed either. The rock didn't have dieoff, as usually predicted, its just a misread. i instant cycle tanks all the time harmlessly and set up corals on day 1, that'll work here too. Post pics of your nano we can finish the diagnosis with zero testing off pics alone

B

THese posts used to be harder to troubleshoot before we figured out the tests for ammonia are wrong more often than they are right.

plapczynski · 11/14/2012, 06:01 PM

Agree with a retest unless your pinch was huge.....

allsps40 · 11/14/2012, 06:11 PM

When using mature live rock and water from an existing tank cycling is normally not needed. That said, cycling takes as long as it takes but if it is not cycled by a month I would start to wonder what was going on.

brettinteriors · 11/14/2012, 06:19 PM

If there was little die off there we be no cycle time don't wait more than a week your cycle can stop due to lack of waste to keep the bacteria going.

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11/14/2012, 03:14 PM	#1
u418936 Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: NY Posts: 117	Aquarium Cycling Time With Cured LR Hi Two days ago, I took water and some LR from my long-established 120g aquarium and put it in a new 5-gallon nano reef and put a pinch of fish food in there. To my surprise, the ammonia levels in the nano reef are pretty high. I thought it'd cycle instantly. Does anyone know how long I'm supposed to wait? I'm glad I accidentally ran this experiment, because I'm planning on upgrading my 120 to a 300 in a few months, and I would've pre cured a lot of extra live rock in my basement and expected the 300 to cycle instantly. That would've been bad for my fish.

11/14/2012, 04:04 PM	#2
bnumair Dr. Reef at ur service Join Date: May 2009 Location: Tulsa, Ok, USA Posts: 7,751 Blog Entries: 15	depending on how much bacteria u introduced on the rocks it could be anybodys guess. more bacteria faster cycle. __________________ Water Quality: NO3 0,Phos 0,Cal 440,Alk 7.5,Mag 1300 "Reef Fast, You Crash, Reef Slow, You Pass" Mike's Reef 3:16 Current Tank Info: 350g DT,95g sump, 50g Frag tank, 4800gph return 4x Sea swirls. 6x AI Vega Color. 200# Pukani rock, dual recirculating skimmer, Biopellet, GFO Carbon rx's, Cal rx. Closed loop. 1.5hp chiller, genesis renew. Apex & RKE

11/14/2012, 06:01 PM	#4
plapczynski Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Chillicothe, OH Posts: 51	Agree with a retest unless your pinch was huge..... __________________ 40 Gal-2 Koralia 750's, 1 Nano 240 & 425, Remora HOB, Ecoxotic Panorama Pro LED’s (2x 12k, 2x Blue/Magenta, 1xBlue). 60 lbs LR, 60 lbs sand, 2x Ocellaris Clowns, 1xBlue Spotted Watchman Goby

11/14/2012, 06:11 PM	#5
allsps40 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Arizona Posts: 4,627	When using mature live rock and water from an existing tank cycling is normally not needed. That said, cycling takes as long as it takes but if it is not cycled by a month I would start to wonder what was going on. __________________ __________ Current Tank Info: Past reef tanks: 20H softy, 29G mixed reef, 55G mixed reef, 40B sps dominant mixed reef and 75G sps dominant mixed reef. No tank currently

11/14/2012, 06:19 PM	#6
brettinteriors Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Tucson Posts: 1,106	If there was little die off there we be no cycle time don't wait more than a week your cycle can stop due to lack of waste to keep the bacteria going. Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2 __________________ Tucson Reefaholics anonymous meetings are every Friday 6pm behind Gary's fishorama 140 gallon half round mixed reef, 28 gallon Cardiff.

11/14/2012, 04:06 PM	#3
brandon429 Registered Member. Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 3,460	I am nearly certain you have no ammonia its a misread, highly common. I'll show you a thread here in a sec where we tested distlled water and new saltwater that certainly had none, and we got some so no fish feed was needed either. The rock didn't have dieoff, as usually predicted, its just a misread. i instant cycle tanks all the time harmlessly and set up corals on day 1, that'll work here too. Post pics of your nano we can finish the diagnosis with zero testing off pics alone B THese posts used to be harder to troubleshoot before we figured out the tests for ammonia are wrong more often than they are right.