Puzzling...

So it's been roughly 4 weeks, my nirites are at 0ppm my ammonia is at 0ppm and my nirates are 0ppm... here is what's puzzleing me... There have been NO change in nitrates at all... nearly 4 weeks into this my nitrates never budged from 0ppm... I'm using the API test kit, shouldn't I have seen a nitrate increase?

Is this common, should I be concerned? Both ammonia and nitrites rose as they should in normal circumstances.

 

What are you using to cycle your tank? Have you added anything else? How high did your ammonia/nitrite rise? How long ago did your ammonia and nitrite begin to lower?

 

Ammonia never went above 2ppm, Nitrites were 5+ppm at the peak. Ammonia subsided 5 days ago Nitrites hit 0ppm today, 4 days ago the nitrite was at their peak 5+ppm.

Used 1 piece of shrimp and 10lbs of LR, 60lbs of base rock. Nothing has been added except for fresh water from auto top-off unit.

And there has been NO algea bloom at all which I figured something should have spawned by now.

I never kept the lights on more than 3hrs a day though.

 

U never had a diatom bloom either??

 

Not sure what you mean.

Edit: Ok did a little more reading... No diatom bloom as of yet, infact that was the algea I was speaking of in my OP. I want this bloom to happen as it tells me I'm close... I just don't understand why the nitrates haven't raised at all. It's confusing, when the ammonia and nitrite did what was expected of them. My nitrites literally dropped from 5ppm to .25ppm then to 0ppm in 2 days of testing. I think tomorrow I'm leaving the lights on for 6-8hrs while I'm at work. We'll see what happens over the course of a few days.

 

Ok so after not receiving a ton of responses from this thread (to those that did thank you) I set out to pick the brains of a couple LFS stores in my area which deem worth while. Both told me "Be Happy" you're one of the lucky ones that cycled with no nitrate rises, with that said I inquired about the diatom bloom which was noted in a reply in the thread, again the response was "Be Happy"

So I guess I'm done with the cycle, but one question remains If I have no algea what will my CUC eat?

 

Since your ammonia and nitrates are both at zero that means your cycle is over be happy about that lol.

You can now add your first fish if you would like.

Now as for the clean up crew did you add live rock or dead rock to start up your tank?

 

Yes I did. 10lbs of LR 50lbs of base rock. I plan on getting another 15lbs of LR this weekend during my initial first WC.

 

If your going to get more live rock I would add that in before you add any fish in and wait to see if the thank does another small mini cycle again. then after that i would add your cuc and fish in.

 

Having zero nitrates is not a surprise. If your live rock is porous it houses anaerobic bacteria deep inside. It is perfectly feasible that it was taking care of the nitrate as soon as it was produced.

Add livestock slowly. A single, small, hearty fish would be a good first step (something like a Royal Gramma).