Cycling question

[prime311]

A couple of days ago my Ammonia levels had their first spike up to about: .6 Yesterday it was about .25, and today it's nearly back down to 0. I've yet to see any levels of Nitrites or Nitrates in the tank. It's been setup for about a week now and the ammonia spike was caused I believe from some dieoff of my LR. Do I need to start ghost feeding it to keep my ammonia levels up? If so, do I continue trying to keep my ammonia around .5 until I see some levels of Nitrite? Lastly, if I'm ghost feeding then how many pinches of flake food should I add to my 125 gallon(175 total water supply with sump/fuge) per day?

 

[camanuch]

did you scrub the LR b4 adding it to the cycle. if you want to realy jumpstart the cycle buy 2 raw shrimp and add it to the system and let it just sit and decay in the tank. this will help spike the ammonia and help start the cycle. i dont think you really started the cycle yet..

 

[prime311]

No, I didn't the scrub the rock at all. It was sitting in coolers covered by newspaper for about 16 hours tho. I don't want to do the shrimp thing cause I have a live shrimp hitchhiker that I'm trying to avoid killing and I know I can control my ammonia levels better with flake food.

 

[camanuch]

well if you are going to ghost feed then feed as if you are feeding a couple of small clowns. i judge for mine as if i am feed 1 clown in my 30. so maybe do that for like 5 small clowns. i just started to ghost feed so im not sure really if im doing it right. lol... but thats what i have read.

 

[bang guy]

You don't have to add enough to raise the ammonia level, just enough to keep the bacteria population thriving. There's nothing wrong with a zero ammonia level as long as the bacteria can fully process a small amount of fish food. The tank is cycled, now you're just letting the tank stabilize and mature.
Don't forget water changes.
Just one pinch of fish food per day.
Flaked food is fine for ghost feeding, in fact it's ideal. It's not good for feeding fish though.

 

[butler in co]

I thought it was possible to cycle a tank without spiking the ammonia. My 75 has been up for five weeks and I really didn't see a "spike" in ammonia. I did do water changes, but relied mostly on utilizing my canister and making sure I controlled the levels. I cycled with damsels, I know! They all survived and went back to the LFS for a Gold Headed Sleeper and two Percs. Save the responses about how early it is to house a goby, he's doing fine and eats like a pig. Oh, forgot to mention the Fire and three Peppermints in there as well.
At some point, you will have to pull the trigger.

 

[prime311]

Bang Guy are you saying my tank is cycled already even though I haven't seen any Nitrites/Nitrates and its only been up a week? Granted I know to still wait to add anything to the tank for quite awhile, but I'd be surprised if the cycle was done already. I've been changing out like 5-10 gallons per day for the last couple of days. Mainly cause I wanted to bring my SG down from 1.026 to 1.025. Would weekly water changes of 20 gallons be good from here on out?

 

[bang guy]

Yes, I believe the tank has cycled. The host feeding will stabilize the bacteria populations. I'm glad you're going to let your tank mature before adding livestock. Try to entertain yourself by looking for bugs & worms from your rock.
For the size of the water change you need to rely on your preference. The larger and the more often the better but it needs to be practical and convenient as well so you're not tempted to skip the water change.