Cycle tank?

[florida joe]

Quote:
Originally Posted by beaslbob http:///forum/thread/381441/cycle-tank/40#post_3323627
Not necessairly.
If the live rock is curred and covered with algae (hopefully corraline) it is possible you will see little to no ammonia/nitrIte spikes but and initial nitrate spike.
That is because the algae actually prefers ammonia over nitrates. So during the startup time algae can keep ammonia low until the bacteria build up and consume the ammonia. Meanwhile the algae will consume less nitrates hence the initial nitrate spike. Then the nitrates will drop down as the tank matures and the algae get its nitrogen from nitrates and not ammonia.
or it could be you just don't have much of a bioload.
my .02
are we talking about higher forms of Algae here that can be harvested such as caulerpa

 

[geoj]

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