Cycling a tank

[kien]

Originally Posted by 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 ?

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

[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.