Cycle Q's?¿?

[ravechild]

My tank is almost 3 weeks old now and I have yet to see any traces of ammonia, nitrite or nitrate? Is this normal?
I currently have ~50+ lbs of live rock, a 3 stripe damsel, a blue devil, a neon dottyback, 2 hermit crabs and 9 snails. Now before I get yelled at for having this stuff in my tank already, the guy I got my live rock from broke down his aquarium and didn't know what to do with them, so I took them.
The live rock came directly from his tank into mine resulting in almost absolutly no die off. I also have a bunch of little snails, bristle worms and a mushroom living happily in my rock.
So anyways how long can I expect to wait before I see a cycle??
My current params are:
Temp - 77.8 - 79 deg F
S.G - 1.025
Ph - 8.1
Alk - 110-120
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
:notsure:

 

[ravechild]

:help:

 

[greatfullreefer]

This is not unusual, with no die off you will not see a cycle, you need to kick start one though. A popular way is to drop in a raw coctail shrimp. It will start to decay creating Ammonia which will start the cycle.

 

[mburnickas]

I did my cocktail shrimp about 2 months ago and it worked great. It made the cycle move fast. The LR and my DSB I think also aided in this process. I did have the LR die off but the coral vital help it after the cycle.
It took about 1 month to cycle. I then added snails and worms at week 5.5. I just got some fish some SWF today. Only got a small yellow tang, 2 clowens, 1 cleaner shrimp and 1 fighting conch.
Again this is 2 months later. You can't rush it and I tested my water every week. The cocktail shrimp is the way to go.

 

[reverai]

Your tank may not need a major cycle considering your live rock was already cured and likely had no die off between tanks. You could have have had a small cycle the day your placed the live rock but the live rock and sand took care of it. I've seen this happen with a few friends who bought some live rock from a LSF and two years later they still are awaiting a standard cycle. You may have lucked out. Keep on testing and don't bother with trying to start a cycle with a deal shrimp. The purpose of a cycle is to a create a bio filter and you already have one. Don't stress out your fish without needing too!
Steve

 

[ravechild]

Thanks for the help guys.