THE CYCLE

[silversides]

I was reading the talk on how to cycle a tank (with livestock or with out). On my 30g tank I used molly's and it took 9 weeks. On my 125g tank I used 80lbs live sand and 20lbs live rock and after a week checked for ammo, and nitrites and they were both 0. so I added 4 damsels and waited for the cycle to start and I never did see any spikes in ammo & nitrites. nitrates just eventually showed up. 50 crabs,3 star, and 9 fish later the tank is running great and I still missed the cycle. I know it had to happen but it never showed up in my tests.

 

[jimi]

Your tank probably never cycled because the sand and rock you added probably already had been cured so it already had the nitrifying bacteria present ready to go. In my opinion this is the only way to start a tank. With cured live rock and sand you tank can begin to be stocked much earlier then the old methods.