Cycling a tank

[Summit09]

I've just started my first reef tank four days ago. I went and did a water test today and found 0 ammonia, nitrates at 5 or less, nitrites at .1 or less. The live rock in the tank has been cured, as for the live sand it did have a smell and I thought it would be enough to start a cycle. Should I have seen a rise in my water parameters already or may I have to add something to kick it off ?

[Craigdillman]

How big is your tank? If you started with live rock and live sand you could have cycled that quick. I would still wait a bit for the nitrites to come down and complete the cycle

When I started my 29 gallon with live rock and sand it only took like 6 days and everything was leveled out

[Summit09]

It's 150gallon tank.

[Craigdillman]

how much live rock did you use

[Summit09]

140lbs of live rock and 100 lbs of live sand.

[Craigdillman]

Maybe someone else will chime in but i bet you cycled that quick give it a few more days and see what the parameters do

[NIVLEM09]

you can dose prodibio start up,if you like?also,PATIENCE is also good:wink:I've just started my first reef tank four days ago. I went and did a water test today and found 0 ammonia, nitrates at 5 or less, nitrites at .1 or less. The live rock in the tank has been cured, as for the live sand it did have a smell and I thought it would be enough to start a cycle. Should I have seen a rise in my water parameters already or may I have to add something to kick it off ?

[Summit09]

I'm in no rush, I was just told that I should have seen some kind of higher readings when checking within a couple days of starting the tank.

[MitchM]

It could be fine right now, it depends on how cured the live rock was.
If the live rock was taken from a mature tank and immediately put into your new tank you could have very little die off to give you much of an ammonia spike.
It's good you're not in a rush, and whatever the state of the cycle, make sure to add new additions spread over a period of time, not all at once.
Keep testing the water every few days to be sure.
You could try a fishless cycle to make sure that the ammonia gets consumed and that the bacteria colonies are established.

[naesco]

Your tank probably has not started to cycle. Throw in a dead shrimp and wait.

[kien]

I've just started my first reef tank four days ago. I went and did a water test today and found 0 ammonia, nitrates at 5 or less, nitrites at .1 or less. The live rock in the tank has been cured, as for the live sand it did have a smell and I thought it would be enough to start a cycle. Should I have seen a rise in my water parameters already or may I have to add something to kick it off ?

It really depends on how cured your live rock and sand already was. If it came from an already established tank, or a holding/curing tank at a LFS, then the live rock could potentially already be fully cured which means you'd see little to no cycle.

If you want to be sure that there is no cycle then simply wait a week. That should be enough time to observe a cycle if one should occur. If not, then your parameters will remain zero. No harm, no foul (in waiting).

[JmeJReefer]

Wait. Mine did the same and a week r so later, a remarkable spike as the cycle peaked. So as everyone else said, patience is king.

[asylumdown]

If the rock is cured, and sand is 'live', why would waiting show anything? Doesn't there need to be a source of ammonia to see a spike in ammonia? If I were you I'd throw in small shrimp and let it rot. If while it's rotting you see no spike in ammonia, the tank is cycled. If you do get a spike from the waste generated by one little shrimp, it's probably not cycled enough for fish yet.

[Dearth]

You should start to see a diatom bloom as well looks brown it will usually cover your sand and rock and starts to look like this its usually a good indicator your tank is cycling

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v447/Dearth01/image_zps0ea754ad.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Dearth01/media/image_zps0ea754ad.jpg.html)

[Summit09]

I'll be adding a shrimp tomorrow, as it has been a week and ammonia is at 0, nitrates at 5 or less, and the nitrites came down from .1 to 0.