no cycle yet, whats going on?

24 days into my new setup and i havent had any spikes yet. I have 160lbs of live sand and 140lbs of cured live rock. no fish or coral yet. lots of brown algea bloom, life in the rock (small crabs, worms, starfish). my question is why havent i had a spike yet, or will i even have a spike? i have read on other threads that the cycle will be so small that it might not get noticed because the rock and sand can handle the bio load. i test my water every other day (ammonia and nitrate, and nitrite) still the water is just fine ph at 8.2? please help and thanks!

 

Maybe you lucked out and the sand and live rock had enough surviving bacteria to skip the cycle. I went through the same thing with my tank. I would say you can start on adding livestock if your readings are at zero.

 

If you are having the brown blooms, diatoms, that means your cycle is almost over (usually). Your ammonia spike was probably so small that you didn't notice it and it passed quickly.

 

yeah its weird, i'll go in at night with a flashlight and find small crabs crawiling around. i test and track data on everything i do and everything seems to be fine. maybe start with one fish and start collecting a cuc and slowly build from there. i just dont wanna start out by killing my first fish lol

 

I would say you're probably in the clear to add one fish and see how it goes. Keep track of the water quality and everything. If everything stays fine for a couple weeks, you can add another. Just go slowly!

 

trust me i've been building this tank for almost 11 months, custom stand custom tank, sump, collecting rock... i'm not in a hurry lol i'm just loving this whole experience.

 

Hey - fellow Washingtonian!!! ;D I just noticed that.

Your diatoms will die off on their on in a few weeks, and you can wait to get fish until then if you want. I had a clown fish through my blooms and he's still goin' strong 5 months later!

 

What did you use to start the cycle?

 

i think i'm going to keep a close watch on the water prams through the next week, then make a water change, then begin my livestock collection...

 

i figured i would have enough die off between 140lbs of rock and 160lbs of sand that that would trigger it... but just in case that dident do anything,i have added a few pinches of marine flake food to hopefully inspire my tank to get the cycle rolling