Help cycling tank

stbknox

Member
I just started a new aquarium and have it set up tonight, just tested the water and below is the parameters. Is there anything you suggest I need to do. I have some buffer I could ad to get the PH up, do you think its needed. There is 85 lbs of living rock and about 40 of it came from another established tank I had for the last 3 years. Ive been curing the rest of the live rock for 2 weeks. The tank is a 54G corner, also have a megaflow sump set up which contains about 10 lbs living rock. I used of few scoops of living sand from my establised tank to mix in with the living sand I just added. Any help would be appreciated. Im thinking I may mis the cycle sense I added so much allready established rock and the few scoops of living sand.
Salinity - 1.026
PH - 7.8
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 10
Temp - 78
 

nicetry

Active Member
The pH will stablize on it's own. You may indeed bypass a slow cycle, but let the tank sit for a week then retest parameters. If everything looks good, "challenge" the cycle by adding a raw shrimp. If you see no spikes, you should be okay. I did this with my 120. Never saw any ammo or trites.
 
You could use a piece of shrimp. I have never tried it. But ppl use it to jump start their cycle. If you are using cured live rock, than it might not cycle. But about the only possible way for it not to really cycle is if the LR is from a LFS. I ordered mine online and i never had a cycle in my nano reef. It has been up for well over a year. But try the shrimp thing, I bet many others with also suggest that too.
 

jamirlima

Member
Seachem stability works great to cycle tank. ph should get normal within few days. since you used stuff from already established tank you should get cycled soon. did you use any old filter media from established tank. My tank got cycled in 8 days.
 

stbknox

Member
Originally Posted by jamirlima
http:///forum/post/2542895
Seachem stability works great to cycle tank. ph should get normal within few days. since you used stuff from already established tank you should get cycled soon. did you use any old filter media from established tank. My tank got cycled in 8 days.
No, just a couple scoops of living sand and about 40 lbs of rock from my established tank. Im going to get some of the old filter media and drop it in the sump now. Thanks
 

stbknox

Member
Originally Posted by nicetry
http:///forum/post/2542887
The pH will stablize on it's own. You may indeed bypass a slow cycle, but let the tank sit for a week then retest parameters. If everything looks good, "challenge" the cycle by adding a raw shrimp. If you see no spikes, you should be okay. I did this with my 120. Never saw any ammo or trites.
Thanks, that is what I was thinking.
 

mcbdz

Active Member
Good chance you could skip cycle, but I would still give your tank some time to stablize. Also you probly don't need to add a shrimp, just ghost feed your tank for a week and see if your tank stays stable. If so you are good to add cuc or first fish.
 

sk8shorty01

Active Member
Sounds like you have everything taken care of. You did everything how I did it when I started my 220g and it took me about a week or two for my tank to fully cycle. I would definitely grab some of that filter media though, that should really help. Good luck and keep us posted!
 

bang guy

Moderator
Originally Posted by mcbdz
http:///forum/post/2543112
Good chance you could skip cycle, but I would still give your tank some time to stablize. Also you probly don't need to add a shrimp, just ghost feed your tank for a week and see if your tank stays stable. If so you are good to add cuc or first fish.

+1
 
Top