No Ammonia Spike Yet

jttenpro

jttenpro

Member
I have been cycling a 90 gal tank for 6 days. I have 40 lbs of live rock that I had shipped on Thursday w/ minimal die off. I have a wet dry that has been running for about a week.
I also added 2 shrimp 5 days ago.
Ammonia 0
Nitrite .25
Nitrate 30
PH 8.2
Temp 80
I have Salifert test kits. I have been testing everyday and no signs of ammonia. Can I have nitrite without any ammonia spikes. The numbers have been about the same the whole time. I would have thought ammonia would have spiked by now
Any ideas appreciated
 
tombonius

tombonius

Member
It's certainly possible. i have a 55 gal fish-only tank that showed trace ammonia for two days, then it disappeared with the appearance of nitrite as the cycle continued. Do you have GOOD live rock? If so, this could be the case.
 
ophiura

ophiura

Active Member
It looks like it did and has gone past that.
To be sure, before you add any fish, feed the tank as you would with at least the fish in it for a good week (maybe even feed more). Challenge the filter. If you still don't get ammonia then you are good to go, if you did, you avoided a costly mistake :yes:
 
jttenpro

jttenpro

Member
I was going to feed the tank some flake food and get another 45 lbs of live rock before I was going to add live sand and a cleaning crew.
Fish in about a month or so, just thought it was odd w/ what I've added there is not a trace of ammonia at this point. Thought maybe the NO3 solution was bad in the test kit since I'm seeing traces of Nitrite.
Thanks
 
jttenpro

jttenpro

Member
Will the tank cycle without a trace of ammonia. I have checked 2 more days and still no ammonia. Nitrite .25, Nitrate 40. Maybe like you said the cured rock is keeping levels below trace.
I am still confused though. Can you have a cycle without ammonia. I don't think I missed it. I've checked every day since tank was set up.
 
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