Ammonia off the charts after 2 days?
- Thread starter duke jjz
- Start date
plumbjohn
Member
No your cycle isn't complete you will see the amonia go down and the nitrites go up. When nitrites spike then they go down and nitrates go up. When your amonia and nitrites are at 0 then your cycle should be complete. The nitrates are the least harmful to fish and can be lowered by doing water changes. Hope this helps and have fun.
:jumping: :happy:
:jumping: :happy:
swnewb
Member
Originally posted by Duke JJZ
One last thing.. Should I have my skimmer on during the cycle? Does it help or harm?? Thanks for all the info!
It will do neither. Leave it off just because there won't be anything to skim. Wait until you get some fish, even then it will take awhile for there to be enough waste to skim.
S
spike_501
Guest
no i disagree, put the skimmer on as it will not hurt and there is bound to be all sorts of crap on ur rocks that can be skimmed out, you have nothing to lose, well if you put the skimmer on, see if it is collecting anything, i bet it will be
vlondi
Member
Originally posted by SWNewb
Using uncured LR will cause you to have high ammonia for a while, probably a couple weeks atleast. Good way to cycle your tank, but not a fast way. It's all good in the end though and I would not do it any other way.
I'm disagreeing here; I used uncured LR in my 55g and my tank cycled in 7 days exactly. The ammonia spiked and zeroed in 4 days. I didn't use live sand, only uncured, unscrubbed LR.
I would also put your skimmer on, especially if you didn't pre-scrub your rock when you put it in your tank. I know that my rock had plenty of dead stuff on it when it was in the tank and most of it floated around the tank until I cut my skimmer on (I cut mine on the 2nd day of the cycle). Even with only rock you won't believe the amount of tank debris you get out.
