A quick question about cycling

[poisonmywell]

Its been a few weeks now since I revamped my tanks. The 29 gal. is going pretty good. Ammonia and nitrites are at 0. My nitrates still have a little bit to go at 10 p.p.m. But my question is about my 50 gal. I re-did it after the little one so its still pretty new. About how long does the ammonia spike last? I have a few traces of 'trites and 'trates, but my ammonia has been sitting at 1.0 p.p.m for awhile now. Theres nothing in the tank. I haven't recieved the live rock yet. I've talked to someone here about putting dead shrimp in there to speed up the cycle. I just gotta remeber to be patient, since thats what screwed me over the firt time. Also, Im wanting the 50 to be a reef tank, when should I start testing for phosphates?
thanks!

 

[kris walker]

It sounds like you have a source of ammonia, but no biological media to seed. Do you have a substrate in the 50? Do you have current flow in the 50?
sam

 

[poisonmywell]

Yeah, I have sand as substrate, a canister filter. and two power heads. I know the canister may have to go, but theres nothing living yet.
thanks.

 

[kris walker]

Hey there,
I was told by some that the upper layer of sand in the substrate would be adequate biofilteration media for ammonia/nitrite conversion. In theory, it seems logical, but I never actually tested this, so cannot confirm it. It may be a rate issue--LR can process ammonia/nitrite faster than the upper layer of sand just because it is more exposed to the water column.
I would suggest adding the LR right away.
sam

 

[jakob4001]

no reason to remove the canister at this time; you can just use if for water movement; not to mention can come in handy to add various media sometimes like phosphate remover or carbon

 

[biggdriver]

As for the cylce it can take 6wks or more to cylce depending on if the tank is seeded or not and the levels of ammonia etc in the tank..As you said yourself don't rush it..If you have a sump you can also make a refugium out of it and add some calerpa about the 2nd or 3rd week to help out the natural filtration of your water..