longest cycle ever????? Please advise!!!

[kevNnic]

well, im still in the process of cycling my tank i guess.... Seems to be takin light years!!

started my cycle around april 20th and began with 30lbs of dry rock and 10lbs of live. realized i wasnt going to get anywhere with 10lbs of live rock so i added 30 more pounds of live rock on MAY 10th.

It is now june 7th and i have noticed no changed in my tank... no algee other than what was on the live rock, when i purchased it. The dry rock appears to be about the same as when i first got it.

How long can i expect this to take? ammonia has stayed quite low the whole time as well as no nitrate or nitrite spike.

what can i do to speed things up, and what are th proper methods in doing a cycle. should i be doing consitant water changes or just topping up the tank.

Had ignored it for the past 10 days and did a quick test and my specific gravity was 1.030, didn't bother testing anything else, did a water change and brought it back down to the normal range.

its a 65gallon tank, how often should i be changing the water and how much?

i feel i am being pretty patient but it would be nice to notice a change even if minimal!

please help,

thanks

kevin

[bioload]

With no bioload I would guess it would take some time. Was the live rock cured? Suggest you feed which seems strange considering there are no fish, but the food should provide the fuel for the cycle.

[kevNnic]

all the live rock was fully cured. which is odd why i haven't seen any diatom bloom, i was wondering what the heck im doing wrong or if its just cuz i have dry rock and its taking along time to seed?

[bioload]

all the live rock was fully cured

Which may the cause of no/slow cycle being observed. Decaying material would be required in order to "start" the cycle. I wouldn't worry about adding a small bioload at this point.

[bioload]

......and keep monitoring.

[marie]

all the live rock was fully cured. which is odd why i haven't seen any diatom bloom, i was wondering what the heck im doing wrong or if its just cuz i have dry rock and its taking along time to seed?

If all the live rock was fully cured then you won't see any signs of a cycle (It's already happened).
If this is to be a FOWLR, then I would go ahead and start adding small fish. Add them one at a time and feed sparingly so the existing bacteria have a chance to keep up with the extra bio-load.
If you want to add larger fish right from the start then I would throw in a few cocktail shrimp and let the tank cycle a bit longer before adding fish

[kevNnic]

i will be adding two clown fish this week than, just thought my dry rock would cause a cycle.

[BlueWorldAquatic]

I have experienced in the past with good quality rock, you spikes can be minimal, if not non-existant.

I can personally attest that I have set up a customers tank with cured live rock, and we never saw an ammonia spike. This was due to the tank being dosed with Stability also though.

Sounds like it may have already spiked, just very low.

If you are concerned, you can use ProdiBio Startup, or dose with Stability, and should be able to add livestock shortly.

Ken - BWA

[kevNnic]

Thank you ken, we have been using tap water with prime as well for topping up water. I thought i noticed a very small spike about 2 weeks ago, but my nitrites and nitrates never spiked so i waiting for them. i will monitor my specific gravity for a couple days to lower it and keep it constant and aim for fish in a couple days.

Thanks for all the great info once again guys!

[reefbyremote]

I had nearly the same experience and others have talked about instant cycling before.

See this thread

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=38249

[kevNnic]

thats awesome, all my live was cycling in a rubber maid container, and was nice and clean. was also transported in the water to minimize die off. im thinking my tank must be good to go. i will post a couple pictures up, i have a couple weird white fuzzy looking things growing on my live rock. almost like like a bee hive... or a small ball..

[trinac]

I have a couple of those little white things too. Tagging along, in case someone has an idea of what to do with them. They are not the cutest things in the world.

Good luck with your fish purchases. I am impressed with your patience by the way! My tank cycled in record time as well, but I was off to the races and lighter on cash shortly after that. haha

[bioload]

we have been using tap water with prime as well for topping up water

This could also be the reason you have not been reading any levels of ammonia and nitrite.

"Prime® (http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/Prime.html) removes chlorine, chloramine and ammonia. Prime® converts ammonia into a safe, non-toxic form that is readily removed by the tank’s biofilter. Prime® may be used during tank cycling to alleviate ammonia/nitrite toxicity."

[bioload]

i have a couple weird white fuzzy looking things growing on my live rock. almost like like a bee hive... or a small ball..

"Q-tip" sponge ?
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f186/ignateus/qtip_sponge_842.jpg

[kevNnic]

nope it doesn't look like that one? its very small and looks like a little half circle, like a build up of salt. only its not.

[kevNnic]

well took a few readings today


80 degree
specific gravity: 1.024
ph 8.2
nitrite 0 ppm
nitrate 0 pp
ammonia 0 ppm
calcium 450ish ppm is that to high?
alkalinity 2.4

how does that look?

[PoonTang]

Wow, that alk reading is really low. Sure it is correct and in dkh or is the reading in meq ?

[kevNnic]

it is in MEQ.

[kevNnic]

took the plunge last night and picked up

4 ocellaris clowns
10 blue legged hermits
1 larger snail, red leg i beleive?
4 small snails

so far so good!

whats the best to feed them.

[Leah]

I prefer to feed an assortment of frozen food. I use mysis, mussels, algae and squid... all I can think of at the moment. and you may want to pick up some Garlic extreme and Selcon Vitamin C. I defrost food, pour off liquid and feed. I add the Vitamin C and Garlic every once and a while.

[kevNnic]

i purchased some frozen brine shrimp, as well as flake food with garlic, can't think of the brand off the top of my head. I would imagine they would perfer the brine shrimp, fed a little flake last night after i introduced them and they seemed to enjoy it.

With 4 1" clowns how much/often should i feed them
and how long should i run my t5 lights,

i imagine if i do a search i can find all my answers so i will give that a go as well.

Cheers!

[Leah]

I feed brine on occasion, but it is not a delicacy of the sea. So you may wish to add to the menu of frozen delights. :wink: I would feed only once a day.

How long have you had the lights on?

[kevNnic]

haven't even run the lights yet, let them get accustomed to the tank last night and then left for work this morning with them off still. Just wondering how many hours a day i should run it. I will add to the menu indefinetly, i like to eat good and so will my fish.

[Leah]

Before you added the clowns, did you have the light on?

[kevNnic]

maybe ran the light for a total of 5 minutes to see what it looked like with it on, so no while the tank cycled i never ran the light at all. I was told it would grow unwanted algee.

[PoonTang]

Just a word of caution. With 4 clowns in a relatively small tank you are probably going to run into agression problems in the future as they mature and pair off. Clowns are very territorial by nature and will agressively chase off fish many times their size. IMO I would suggest that you return 2 of them and get something else at a later date. Let your tank cycle some more for a month with just the 2 fish.

[kevNnic]

im going to give the 4 a shot, and if they start to get to aggresive i will take a couple back, it seems like they aleady enjoy being in two seperate pairs, there is a fair amount of rock which might seperate the territories a bit im hoping with a couple different anemones.