Tank cycled in 2 weeks and 4 days? Is this possible?

That is fine if you want to disagree, but I have seen a lot of tanks mature quicker than this with no LR, just base rock and a cup of sand from an established tank.

 

true i have seen tanks soft cycle within a couple of days with no spike with just sand

 

It sounds like your tank is cycled to me. Any specifics on your rock or anything?

 

I agree. I started with a good amount of LR and my tank cycled rather quickly. I never did (and have not since) shown the presence of nitrite. The bacteria was already there.

Does this mean the tank is ready for fish and corals? IMO, no. It may be cycled by strict definition, but it is nowhere near mature enough. I would still run one damsel for another three weeks or so, let the system truely balance and start adding fish at 10 to 14 day intervals. At three months, start with some hardy corals.

And you have to realize your tank is going to hit the wall, as I like to call it, where it is not going to be able to keep up with the waste production. That is were fuges, phosphate reactors (you will need one anyway) and denitrators come in handy. I would also consider a carbon reactor.

Your tank is going to go through phases over the next year. Once it is a year old (with no major issues present), I would consider it good to go (fully).

 

Just chiming in to agree as well. With my current setup I added in something like 75-100lbs of pre-cured rock out of another system and seeded the substrate with sand from a well established local system. After setup ammonia chloride was used to start the cycle and establish enough for Sacraficial Damsel to come in and finish it off.
All told it took under two weeks for nitrate levels to hit zero and things to stabilize nicely.

 

Started with 50lbs of base rock seeded with a chunk from LFS, 50lbs more added later on.

How long on average before the base rock starts to change? I have diatoms EVERYWHERE

 

So wait, is that 50lbs added later live rock? Or more base?

And techinically base rock doesn't become "fully" live until after about 6 months or a year. However, the bacteria will spread to it rather quickly.

 

I am skeptical myself. I am not saying it isn't possible for a tank to cycle that quickly it is just highly unlikely IMO that a 2-week old tank with six fish in it is not heading for disaster.

 

I hear you. In reality, adding 6 fish in a 2 week old tank is asking for trouble.

 

Agreed. We stocked our tank with 5 or 6 fish over the course of 2 months, not 2 weeks.