5th week No spikes??

B

bcarp

Guest
It is my fifth week of cycling my 72 bow tank. I have 25 to 30lbs LR from a established tank and 20lbs. LS on top of 4"dsb. I Put 2 dead shrimp from the grocery store into the tank 2 weeks ago. I also have been putting flake food into the tank. I am not getting any spikes in my amonia,nitrite,& nitrate. Am doing anything wrong? Is my tank skipping the cycle from the LR being established in another tank before I put it in mine? You would think the ammonia level would go high from the shrimp & flake food, but it is sitting right at just under .25. The color on the test is hard to read it was in between 0 & .25. But no nitrites or nitrates??? I had LFS double check my test readings with there own and they got the same readings. Can anyone help???
 
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bcarp

Guest
I was only checking them twice a week. The levels will drop that fast? Sometimes only once a week. Maybe I missed seeing it. Thanks
 
jim672

jim672

Member
BCarp,
It would be my guess that your tank didn't actually cycle. That is to say, it didn't need to. The cured live rock and live sand you put in the tank generated enough bateria to keep up with the bioload (shrimp and flakes) that you placed in the tank.
As jeffandnance said, "yer good to go". Go slowly. I assume you have other filtration on your 72 additional to the lr and ls. That filtration will need to develop the bacteria thats already present in the lr and ls to keep up with bioload of multiple fish. Add one at a time, waiting 2 to 4 weeks between. That delay will allow your filtration to adjust to the additional bioload.
Jim
 
B

bcarp

Guest
Thanks for the info. Jeff&Nance I had a damsel in the tank before the shrimp. It died. So I didnt want to kill anymore fish so I put the shrimp in right away(two weeks ago) plus food flakes. You think it would of spiked by now. I will take it slow and see what happens. Thanks again!!
 
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