did it cycle or not?

[Reefydude360]

yea so :frustrat: I set up my tank and added some instant ocean gel brine shrimp a week before I bought my test kit then I added some live rock that had a hole bunch of hitch hikers so when I get my test kit I get ph=8.2,amonia=0.25,nitrite=0,nitrate=10 so I said yeah it has started to cycle so now a week later I test again and water conditions r exactly the same wtf:grumble: I look around I see the bristleworms,starfish,zoanthids and polyps all doing perfectly fine so I said maybe that wasnt enought to kickstart the cycle so I add a whole bunch more food to kickstart the cycle wait 2 more days and water conditions r exactly the same!!!:frustrat: so whats up test kit is evil,that food isnt good enought to start a cycle or the population of bristleworms,spinoids,and starfish r eating everything before it breaks down?

 

[Bifferwine]

It can take several weeks to cycle. You may not see a change over one week or a couple days. If you are still showing ammonia, the tank is still cycling, so you should wait until it drops down to zero. It is quite common to have ammonia test kits read .25 when it's actually zero, though, so you could be getting a false positive. Also, when you use live rock, it's possible to skip the cycle altogether.

I would wait another week and if ammonia is still at .25 and nitrite is still at zero, assume it's giving you a false positive. Then at that point, I'd say you skipped the cycle.

 

[little_fish]

But I would also check the test kit readings against another kit before you add livestock.

 

[Reefydude360]

yay I just got a 0 on the ammonia and everything else has stayed the same does this mean the tank finished cycling or not and if it has when and what can I put in I would like to put some softs or lps or maybe a feather duster. Also some of my zoas r hugging the rock sorta like a mushroom too much light or flow?

 

[little_fish]

if your ammonia and nitrite are zero, your cycle is finished!! Hurray!

If you have the lights you can add corals right away. I would stick with soft corals for the first few months because they like the dirtier water of new tanks. Then a few months down the road I would venture into the LPS. Feather duster could also be added them. I would also make sure you are purchasing a feather duster and not a coco worm. Feather dusters are easy to keep and coco worms are not.