Tank cycle

So my tank has been running for about a week now. I used all dry rock and dry sand. I put in about 2 cups of sand from my already exsisting aquariums and about 2 pounds of rocks from those aquariums too. I have been running my skimmer since day one. I have no algae at all in the tank and after testing the water last night everything is perfect.

0 - nitrates
0 - nitrites
0ppm - phophates
8.1 - pH

I did use Natural sea water. Should I be seeing some type of algae or something.. Or did my tank just do a mini cycle? I wonder if using water directly from the ocean had anything to do with it.

 

Did you add an ammonia source to kick start the cycle? If not you need to add a piece of raw shrimp for a few days and see what happens, the live sand and rock should speed the process up once it gets some ammonia to feed it.

 

Those live rocks may have had some die off occurring to help cycle, but 2 lbs is very little. How big is the tank? If I were you, I would add more live rock, and test the params in a few days. You could also try adding some fish flakes to the tank, and see if it changes the params. If you can watch your bacteria take care of some fish flakes(bio load), you should see some small nitrate traces (5-10ppm).

If you're convinced the cycle has occurred, then I would at least start by putting some clean up crew members or some very hard fish in the tank(damsels) and see how they react.

Good luck!

 

See thats it, I'm not convinced it has happened yet. My tank is a 72g.

 

With just a few scoops of sand in a 72 I wouldn't think that much has happened. Adding the raw shrimp as suggested will definitely get things moving.

 

So just go to the supermarket and buy raw uncooked shrimp and put it in there and leave it? or take it out?

 

you can just leave. let it totally rot out,it will end up beign consumed.

 

IMO, the nastier the cycle the better. Just leave the shrimp in there.

 

Alright, so I went to the food market and got one raw shrimp.. The guy in the seafood dept. looked at me like I was crazy and said, "are you sure just one"? lol.. anyway I put it in last night and now my skimmer seems to have stepped it up a notch. More nastyness in the collection cup and a real nice foul oder.

 

I would have added a small clean up crew on day one. The reason you saw no Ammonia or Nitrite or Nitrate is because there was nothing rotting to create an Ammonia spike. Taking rock out of a fully cycled tank and walking it across the room will not kill anything on the rock so the bacteria is still alive. You could have even added a small fish on day one. You'll have to feed it and it will miss some of the food. Fish waste and uneaten food will maintain the microbes that came with the rock and the cup of sand. In fact, you will need to put some small amount of food in there so the bacteria doesn't die on your LR if you don't add a CUC or fish. It won't harm anything since you've already done it, but I don't see the need to add a shrimp...you're rock already had the bacteria. The only time I would add a shrimp is I had 99% base rock and only added 1 cup of sand or 1 tiny piece of LR.