new 75gal - cycling

so its been 4 days and i have no no2 or no3 registering in my 75gal. i have a 10gal tank that i had been messing with over the past 3 months that has ~10 hermits, ~10 snails, a condy nem, and a scooter blenny.

its time to do a water change on the 10gal because the nitrates are getting high again.

im sure taking the water itself from the 10gal wouldnt be enough to get the first 'cycle' going in the 75gal but what if i took the 20lbs of sand, 10lbs of live rock and dumped it in the 75gal? then acclimate the condy, scooter into the 75gal? i suppose i risk them not handling a cycle, but to be honest they're handling one right now... my test kit was off and so they're in the 50/ppm range right now for nitrates.

thoughts? for now im in the middle of a routine water change on the 10gal (keeping the water i siphon in a 5gal bucket in case i decide to put it into the 75)

my base rock hasnt arrived yet so right now i have ~15lbs of LR in the 75gal. figured that'd have been enough to get the cycle started. im trying to not rush, but at the same time im so damn eager to get something living in this 75gal.

 

Nitrates are much easier to handle than a full cycle with ammonia and nitrites. I would just change the water in your 10g as normal and wait out the cycle in the 75, do you have some food or a piece of shrimp or something in the 75 to kick off the cycle? Especially since you have more rock coming I would definitely wait to put any livestock in the 75.

Patience patience.

 

ammonia: 0.25/mg

yay time for cycling!

 

Sounds like your doing a lot of work for nothing, Go get yourself a couple of damsels and put them in the 75g when you get your rock. This will start the cycle properly....

 

i second this, only difference is i used my O Clowns, which i still have. i'm not a damsel fan and they are a pain to catch if you dont want them after the cycle.

 

You can also kick off the cycle for real using raw table shrimp from the grocery store, rather than putting live fish through the ammonia and nitrite spike that happens during the cycle.

 

threw in the two damsels i had in my 10gal (these were given to me from a friend after they used them to cycle their 14gal nano).

so now i have ~15lbs of LR, 60lbs of live-sand, 2 damsels, and im still around 0.25 ammonia after 24 hours. ill let it go the way it is till my marco rocks show up. then ill have 25lbs more live rock and 50 lbs of additional base rock. grand total will be ~100lbs of live rock when im done tearing the 10gal down and all the other rock comes in.

yeah im trying to take this too fast i think.... i want corals dammit!

 

If you still have more rock coming you may run into another mini-cycle when you add that too. Take your time. I guarantee that it will be worse if you try and rush things and have a bunch of stuff die on you and then having to start over.

Good luck, do it once, do it right.

 

can you throw some macro algae in there, either in the main tank or sump, that should drop your nitrates while the bacteria is setting up

 

ah really? i thought the nitrates were NEEDED for the bacterial growth setup so i purposely didnt put that in. i have chaeto i already bought. i guess ill toss it in the refuge chamber. i dont have my mud yet so that chambers currently empty.

i intend on putting 2.5" of mud and 2" of sand on top of it and planting mangroves, and putting chaeto in there. just havent had the $$$$$ to place the order for the mud.