Cycle

Well, i now have my 75 gal tank up and running for 4 days now. I have about a 3" base of live sand (4 large bags) and about 40 lbs of cured live rock. I also have an inch or so of the sand in the fuge. I have a "Deep Blue" light with t5's and acnites with some moonlights in there as well. Nitrate is now at about 40ppm. Zero amonia and zero nitrite. The LFS helps at times with my questions but they are always extremely busy. So, what do i do next? LOL

 

Do a 50% water change and add your first fish. I started my tank with 40lbs of cured live rock.

 

Make sure your other parameters are in check. i.e. pH, Calcium, Alk. Maybe a water change to lower your nitrates.

 

Keep waiting and add a piece of raw shrimp,you just "light cycled"because of little or no die off,you need something to spike the ammonia to kick off a hard cycle and get you bacteria to start consuming and multiplying.Then after ammonia and nitrites drop to 0 and you nitrates drop under 20(or even 10 preferably)your cycle will be done.Usually around 4 weeks,but can take even longer.

 

+1

I would be quite shocked to see a tank fully cycled in 4 days, if all of this was purchased new. Where did you get your rock and sand from? If it was from an established tank, with little to no exposure outside of a tank, then you would be set. Just do a water change and start adding what you like. If it was new and sold as "cured" or "pre cycled" then you need to add an ammonia source, such as a piece of shrimp as mentioned, and do as said in the post above.

Best of luck.

 

Cool thanks for the advice. The rock i got from the store where i purchased all my equipment. They came to the house and helped me set up the tank and at that time they brought the rock, live sand and water. The rock was out of water for about an hour and i only see minimal die off on it now...For the shrimp, I just buy it from the grocery store? And how many should i put in?

Thanks again

 

1 average sized shrimp will be fine IME
you just need to to start rotting away and from that you will get the ammonia/ nitrite/nitrate cycle started

Steve

 

When you say a shrimp, do you mean a whole shrimp or just the tail?

 

Here is a mini essay I have written on the subject.

Tank cycling:There are some who would tell you that once "the numbers" are all good the cycle is over and you are ready to go, I am not one of those. What many beginner (even some advanced) aquarium keepers are not (fully) aware of is that the full cycle takes at least 6-8 months. The reason being, mainly, is this is the time required to fully cultivate a total beneficial bacterial base and achieve a saturation of such. Also,
allowing the tank to "season" and go through the inevitable mini-cycles and diatom blooms and get fully established is the key to a healthy and stable tank in the future. When using live rock and/or sand, the die off will start the cycle. You could have one fish after about the 6 week mark, let the tank get established by light feeding and going
through a moderate light cycle (6-8 hours) for the next 3 weeks.At the 2 month mark, A 25% water change of the "total"water volume is in order. After that, add a few clean up critters (crabs and/or snails) and allow the tank to "catch up" to the added load (you may at this time add some live bacteria to help in this process) and give it another 2 weeks doing all your tests on a regular (weekly) basis and determine if the tank is stable. Water changes of 30% should be carried out once a month to once every 5-6 weeks. Coral should not be introduced (even soft) until the tank is around 3-4 months old. Too many beginners don't exercise the proper patience and discipline at this early stage of getting their tank going only to have problems and head aches down the road. Once the tank has gone through this full cycle period and the tank is stable, then and only then, should you add more difficult coral like hard coral. I always employed a bit of advice I got when I was starting out to add bacteria after each water change for the first and subsequent next 4-5 changes. After the 4th water change then and only then add to the tank and minimally at that.
Another good tactic I learned is to add (whatever you are adding) a couple days after a water change. This gives the new creature fresh minerals and trace elements and a good 3-4 weeks (I adhere to 4-5 week intervals between changes) to adjust to the new water parameters, light, temp etc. before disrupting the tank for the next water change.
I hope this helps.

 

This I agree with this. That conditions that reflect a healthy stable systems can not always be measured by the basic parameters that we use as a guideline. While these parameters are invaluable, so are the ones that we can not test for. Tank evolutions takes along time and patience it the key. People rush into stocking their tanks to quickly, but I can sit and look into an empty tank with only water and rocks and still be facinated.