Live sand question

tonys

tonys

New Member
Hello Board...
I am in the process of bringing up a 135g tank and installed 120 #'s of live sand two days ago. My question is this. Should I get a Nitrate reading pretty soon? I measured it last evening and found it to be zero.
What sould I see in terms of readings when using live sand at the very beginning of a cycle?
Thanks for any intput.
 
karajay

karajay

Active Member
Anything in there besides the sand? You'll need to throw some type of ammonia source in there to get your cycle going. Uncured LR or a raw cocktail shrimp work nicely. That should spike your ammonia in a few days. After about 7-10 days your ammonia should drop to 0 and your nitrites will rise. That can last up to a few weeks. When that also drops back to 0, then you'll see the nitrates leftover.
 
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