If you are using a berlin type system, your readings are quite normal. Your live rock,( if it was purchased "cured"), will have some die off of the benificial bacteria from the time it was pulled out of the water, till the time it was put in your system. This will then give you a small ammonia reading, then nitrite, and finally nitrate. Most test show no change in color untill you are above 10 ppm in nitrates. So you could have your 8 ppm of ammonia converted to nitrates with out seeing a reading. Miles is right, stock slowly. I like blue green chromis. They are cheap for saltwater, and don't hold the nasty reputation that other damsels do. They are reef safe and don't need to be pulled out before other fish are introduced.
is it cycle????
- Thread starter jhebi
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you really just need to add some fish there really isn't much of anything in your tank that will create amonia I say start off with the green chromis that is how I did it and there was no die off..
u can always just add some food into the tank that will create ammonia as it decays try a small piece of shrimp or sumthing meaty depending on the size of your tank.
i actually began my cycle with 3 uncooked shrimp and on the 4th dsay i took them out cause it was rotten and smelly.....that was the day when the amonia spiked and nitrite and nitrates also spiked, and than after that the ammonia went to 0, nitrite 0 and nitrate 5.
i used uncooked shrimp to spike the amonia....
i used uncooked shrimp to spike the amonia....
jhebi said:Just finished my readings and they are the same.....nothing changed, i m confuse if i m done with the cycling or is just weird and impossible.....
i will take a sample of water to my LFS and see what they think
any suggestions???
New marine tanks won't cycle properly on their own--meaning, there's gotta be some kind of bio-load for your filters, sand, and LR to start growing Nitrobacter. And even in the presence of a steadily increasing bio-load, Nitrobacter will only bloom to "cycled-tank" populations after a couple of weeks. A bio-load can be live fish (hardy ones like damsels) or anything that will decay and begin releasing ammonia into the water, such as some fish meat or shrimp meat. Nitrites should spike end of the first week, followed by nitrates early in the second week. When nitrites read zero, you've got yourself a cycled tank!
Alternately, it's also possible to rush the cycling by artificially "spiking" your water with an ammonium chloride solution, beginning with a weak solution and increasing the ammonia steadily over ten days. Peak ammonia concentration should approximate your expected bio-load, i.e. final number of fish livestock. You can begin by simply reading nitrites starting the second week. When nitrites hit zero, you have a cycled tank. Then, stop adding the ammonia soution and instead of the next scheduled "spiking", perform a 10% water change, and simply add all your fish at the same time. I've done it on several rush jobs, and it works fine. Just needs daily discipline and good/fresh test kits. Good luck!
