help, i'm so confused

firedad720

firedad720

Member
i just started my tank on the 9th of march. i used shrimp to cycle tank as well as uncured live rock. in my tank i have 50 lbs. of "dead sand", 20 lbs. of live sand ( but have not seen any critters in it?), & 7.5 lbs. of live rock.
after 3 days i removed shrimp & the am. was 1.0, ni. 2.0, & trates 5.o. after day 5 the am. had droped to .25, trites 5.0,& trates 5.0. so i replaced some more shrimp & am. raised to 1.0.
i left shrimp in this time and it is now gone.
ok, now for what is confusing me. after day 13 my levels are already down to am. 0, trites. between .25 & 0, trates 80.
is this not to fast( i know i have to wait for trites to be at 0), or is it normal
signed:
getting more confused with each day.
rick
 
firedad720

firedad720

Member
norman ok., but i grew up in tecumseh. so i guess we are from the same part of ok. & i forgot to ad i have a 29 gallon tank
 
ty_05_f

ty_05_f

Active Member
cool we use to live in tecumseh but moved to shawnee b/c the school was becoming crappy. I really like the fish store in norman it's great. Just got some green star polyps from there today.
 
firedad720

firedad720

Member
so when the tritesget to "0" should i consider the tank cycled, or do something to try and get the cycle back up. i can't see leaveing tecumseh to go to shawnee schools, but do agree they(tecumseh) stink
 
firedad720

firedad720

Member
can i consider the tank cycled when the trites reach 0?
also, if i want to wait on putting fish in the tank, how do i keep the bacteria(spelling?) fed? to keep tank cycled.
 
blue dew

blue dew

Member
Hi,
I too just started my tank this month, on the 3rd. My understanding of the "Cycle" is that it should be complete when both ammonia and nitrites have dropped down to zero. Your nitrates may stay be elevated at this point, but a water change of 25 % or more should drop then down. Quite a few posts that I've read have advised to monitor your ammonia and nitrites for at least a week or more to make sure the tank is truely cycled. You could have something that takes a little longer to die off, like sponges and such.
After that, you want to add things really slow, like a clean-up crew of hermits and snails first. Fish should be added in with a approximatly a two week spread to allow the tank to adjust to the new ammonia load since fish create more of it than the inverts do.
My 30 gallon tank also seems to be going through the cycle process quicker than expected, but my nitrites are still barely showing, so I'm not done yet. I used 32 lbs of cured live rock and 10 lbs of that bagged live sand with 50 lbs of dead aragonite sand. Also used the shrimp. I just added 5 lbs of cured figi rock, but havn't seen another ammonia spike from it. Hope this helps...
Dew
 
fshhub

fshhub

Active Member
once trites reach 0 consider it cycled
wait a week and monitor and do a water change, then add one fish
No need to do something to restart the cycle. with trites that low, it may take a day or 2 or still could take a couple of weeks yet
 
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