Cycled Tank

jeanheckle

jeanheckle

Member
Well my 29 gallon has been cycled for about two weeks now. I added cured LR so it cycled fairly quickly, I am still waiting however to add my fish. I added CUC about a week ago and Friday I added 2 fire shrimp, since adding the fire shrimp I have been adding a little flake food. Checked my parm today and ammonia was .5, everything else is zero. I added amquel.
So my question is what would cause ammonia to spike, and is the tank going to cycle again? I will do a water change when salt water is mixed and ready to go.
 
nemofreakk23

nemofreakk23

Member
to get the ammonia level to rise you will need to add your first batch of cycle fish. (usually about 2 or 3 damsels or something hardy). the fish waste will produce ammonia. and yes it will cycle again beause of the sudden ammonia spike. ust make sure to watch the ammonia levels and try to keep things balanced as much as possible.
 
spanko

spanko

Active Member
Your tank may have been cycled but not enough bacteria was resident to handle the addtional bio-load you introduced. Tanks will go through some adjusting each time you add something that adds bio load. This is a build up in bacteria to handle increases. This is also why adding one fish at a time and waiting a week or two in between the next addition is recommended. The amquel just masked your cycle for you.
Again JMO others will chime in I am sure.
 
jeanheckle

jeanheckle

Member
I thought the same thing about the amquel. What do you recommend before I add my fish. They are doing fine in QT so I am in no hurry. In fact I want to order a pistol shrimp and watchman goby so I may wait until after adding them to add my 2 black ocellaris.
 
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