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black cobra

black cobra

Member
Well I got my tank all setup this past Saturday night. 90 Gallon Reef Ready.
I bought 40 lbs. of live rock and 80 lbs. of live sand. 300 Watt heater. The wet/dry I got, I made a small fuge in. Everything is running smooth and so far all of my tests are great. Trites and Trates are reading 0. Amonia is reading 0. My PH is right where it needs to be. I just got (2) Koralia 3 Power heads.
When should I expect a spike just curious? I know thats part of the cycling process but when does it usually come and what causes it?
 
sickboy

sickboy

Active Member
Well, is was your rock already cycled? Did you transport it from somewhere in buckets of water?
The cycle starts due to die-off on the live-rock. If you do not have die-off, like if the rock never left water, then it probably will not show a spike. You can however create a spike, by either ghost feeding or adding a piece of shrimp in the tank to decay and build up ammonia. You should start to get readings today or tomorrow if your tank has lots of die-off, but if the bio-filter is working fine, it will be converted to nitrates without you seeing amm or trite spikes.
 
cjworkman

cjworkman

Member
You can try to kick start it by throwing a small piece of raw shrimp in there... or you can buy 1 small fish.. although many on here think that is cruel.. but he would probably survive the cycle.
Ammonia will be the first to kick off... with only 40 lbs of LR in a 90 gallon.. it will probably take longer than normal. I would give it a month or so.
First Ammonia will spike... then Nitrite, then nitrate...
Ammonia will be the first to drop to zero.. followed by Nitrite and then Nitrate.
Once Ammonia has dropped to zero... you can do a small water change. (10%)... then again when nitrite gets to zero. Then a larger 15-20% once Nitrate gets close to zero.
Then you are ready to go. Not before then though!.. attempting to speed up this process or disturb it by doing water changes before ammonia spikes and reaches zero will only cause it to last longer.
 
black cobra

black cobra

Member
My LR was already cured. Transportation time + setup was maybe 4 hours total. I do plan on getting another 50 lbs. in the next week or so.
I read alot about the ghost feeding. Some are for it, some not so much....

I do plan on letting it cycle regardless for 5 weeks before I add anything to the tank.
My salinity is alittle high right now so when I do a water change, should I add just regular RO water, or should I mix it with salt?
 
mboswell1982

mboswell1982

Active Member
when you transported the rock, how exactly did you transport it? and it could take anywhere from 2 days to a week before you see your ammonia spike, its not gonna happen in the first couple of hours
 
black cobra

black cobra

Member
Well this is my first SW Tank so thats why I asked. I transported it by a Big Rubber Maid container. It was taken directly out of his tank, into the rubber maid, then into my tank.
 
mboswell1982

mboswell1982

Active Member
then you'll see some die off, could take anywhere from a day to 2 weeks, i saw a slight ammonia spike on mine after about 4 days, but it was minimal, saw another slight one when i added my sand, again, minimal, then nitrites the next day, an nitrates are still unreadable lol
 
black cobra

black cobra

Member
Cool thanks.
What about the water change? Since my Salinity is still kinda high should I just do a water chage with regular RO water and not mix any salt with it?
 
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