What to do - thoughts appreciated

[daplatapus]

Originally Posted by gregzz4

OK, I get what you're pointing out, but you've still lost me ....

I've added rock that cured for 3 months
It has run for almost 2 weeks and there are;

0 ammonia
0 nitrites
0 nitrates

Plus, there's;
0 phosphates

I know it will cycle when I add something now, but, unless I'm missing something here, you are telling me that my fallow tank will still cycle on it's own ??????

It has not done so in 11 days

I think I now understand part of your question. I've never tried cycling with any product in a bottle. So my following remarks may not even apply to your situation, and if so sorry for wasting everyone's time if they read this
Understanding the cycling process is key to knowing what's going on and any future spikes you're going to see. Ammonia is the first stage of your cycle. Without it your tank will sit there and evaporate water and that's it. So unless whatever is in the bottle has a decent about of ammonia your cycle can't progress. Ammonia can come from several sources. Dead and decaying matter or pure ammonia poured in. If you have cured live rock, everything on it is very much alive and thus no ammonia. But it still needs to eat so if not fed will die rot and produce ammonia. So what sometimes happens is if the tank isn't fed, either by ghost feeding, adding a non-living shrimp, etc, you cycle stalls out before it even starts. The organisms must be fed to keep alive and for the cycle to continue to it's next stage. Once the 2 main bacteria have developed in your tank your cycle is complete. If you have a DSB there are 3 bacteria. But the 2 bacteria that feed on ammonia and nitrite must be cultured and their growth promoted in your tank for that cycle to complete. W/C's and or a DSB will remove your nitrate's.

It seems to me your tank either hasn't cycled yet or if it did, you blinked and missed it Which is possible. I put in 120 lbs of pure Tonga live rock in mine then over 3 weeks threw in 2 cocktail shrimp which completely liquified and disintegrated in my tank. I never once saw any ammonia, nitrite or nitrate. Puzzled the hell out of me until someone pointed out the step by step process of cycling. If the bacteria is there in sufficient quantities, you'll never see a cycle.
But IMO, (I don't remember exactly what you put in there for LR and dead rock) I doubt you have enough LR in there to have accomplished that. Start dropping fish food or a cocktail shrimp in your tank for a week or so and see if there's any spike. If not, you may have cycled already.

Fish poop will also feed the bacteria chain. Corals eats fish poop so the more I think about it, they may actually hinder the bacteria building process by eating that food source. I know there are certain challenges with coral only tanks so starting with fish seems to be the wisest choice.

Hope that helps.