Cycling help

[jdogg]

I'm having trouble with a new setup. I bought a biocube 29 an started the tank with packaged sea water, 25 lbs of cured live rock, and live sand. I let it run for 48hrs. The guy at my LFS said that if there were no nitrites or ammonia then I should add a few hermit crabs and snails. After doing that everything appeared to be going fine however the tank hasn't cycled. The ammonia has remained 0 and so has the nitrites. I added a piece of shrimp which caused a transient spike for 2 days now everything is back to 0. Throughout the process the pH has been 8 and never budged. Is this okay? Am I ready to start stocking the tank with a fish? Should I correct the pH?

[HUNTER1]

If you had ammonia spike after adding the shrimp and now ammonia and nitrite are reading zero then you're cycled. When you add live rock and live sand you will not see a full cycle because of existing beneficial bacteria in those live rocks and sand. If its me I may add one fish and CUC and monitor the tank for a week or so for ammonia and nitrite before adding anything else to make sure your system can support the bio load. Ph is fine where it is as long as it's consistent.

[jdogg]

Thanks for the help. I'll try to add something and see what happens.

[Fizz71]

Originally Posted by HUNTER1

If you had ammonia spike after adding the shrimp and now ammonia and nitrite are reading zero then you're cycled. When you add live rock and live sand you will not see a full cycle because of existing beneficial bacteria in those live rocks and sand. If its me I may add one fish and CUC and monitor the tank for a week or so for ammonia and nitrite before adding anything else to make sure your system can support the bio load. Ph is fine where it is as long as it's consistent.

+1

You also didn't mention nitrate..I would be willing to bet you've had a slow increase in nitrates, especially after adding the dead shrimp.

Just add a nice hardy fish and CUC and keep monitoring...expect some "aging" to occur like diatom blooms and other ugly crap that might creep up from minor die-off from the live rock move. But not seeing ammonia and nitrite with fully cured stuff is not uncommon.

[bnumair]

if live rock is of good kind and has enough bacteria living on it that it can handle a small bio load then u probably will never see a cycle.
specially after placing a raw shrimp in and spike was for just 2 days tell me rocks are well established to process ammonia to nitrite to nitrate.
did u check nitrate levels?

[HUNTER1]

Yeah gotta check that nitrate too, I like mine below 5ppm. Water change with RO/DI should take care of that.

[jdogg]

I checked the nitrate as well at 0 as well. The tank sea totally clean at this point. There is a Cuc in the tank which have survived since the beginning.

[HUNTER1]

I think you're tank is starting out really well. You can even add one coral or two depends on what type of lighting you have.

[jdogg]

I have a full led array. But I think fish need to survive before coral.

[LowezAkar24]

To instantly cycle your tank you can dose Dr. Tims One and Only. That should get things going.

[cobraz]

Natural Seawater is great to cycle a system - 4.4 gallons jugs.
Water changes, water changes will fix this easy.

[HUNTER1]

Originally Posted by jdogg

I have a full led array. But I think fish need to survive before coral.

Not sure what type of led you specifically but putting one or two hard corals like mushroom will not interfere with the fish survival. Thats good planning though, fish then corals.

[jdogg]

I have Steve's LEDs upgrade for the standard lights. Should be good for coral. I may get a drag to try out with a fish.