cycling the tank

floyd37

floyd37

New Member
I have a question.. my tank is almost two weeks this friday and I was needing to know bedides watching the spikes on nh4 no2 and no3 . Is there any other way to test to see if my tank has cycled. Whenever I added the premixed saltwater live sand and rock to the tank I added 2 oz of smart start to the tank and says instantly cycles . After a few days a have 2 peppermint shrimp and a orange and black clowbfish and theyve been doing great . And I now have diatoms growing in there. Is this a way to tell or coukd it be 50/50?. Please respond and thank you in advance.
 
J

jstdv8

Guest
Floyd, did you put anything like a dinner shrimp or something in there to start the cycle or are you planning on doing it with the fish?
that's a pretty harsh way to cycle a tank with a clown and a live shrimp.
 
floyd37

floyd37

New Member
No I didnt put anything in there. Whenever I started the tank I had premixed saltwater from the shop and when I got thd live sand in the bottom and added the saltwater water I let it clear and added the smart start to it. Says it instantly cycles awuariums and basically like a boost . Whatever it is its been fine and iv had no ammonia or nitrites. And my nitrates were at 15 and its like a little over 2 weeks now. The fish are awesome and shrimp have been growing like crazy and shed 2 times a piece . And the diatoms are hardening or getting darkwr and slowly disappearing. And im going to gst my water testing in a little bit to check my ammonia again. Everything been perfect.
 
floyd37

floyd37

New Member
And also the diatoms didnt rsally even grow that much. They only grew very little on the powerhead the pipe to the filter. And on a piece of barnacle and the back glass in small blotches.
 
J

jstdv8

Guest
I'm always nervous to say since the right way to do it is to introduce ammonia and not do it the "quick way" Ive heard horror stories of the quick way backfiring.
Maybe someone else can chime in on this to give you direction through personal experience with adding bacteria.
 
floyd37

floyd37

New Member
Alright then. Well im not sure all my levels are perfect and my reef is healthy. Iv even got corals sprouting up and growing off of my live rocks. All of ths diatoms have died out and everyrhings running smooth. I dont know. Maybe ill have like a weirdly miracle tank or something lol
 
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