# longest cycle ever????? Please advise!!!



## kevNnic (Apr 10, 2010)

well, im still in the process of cycling my tank i guess.... Seems to be takin light years!!

started my cycle around april 20th and began with 30lbs of dry rock and 10lbs of live. realized i wasnt going to get anywhere with 10lbs of live rock so i added 30 more pounds of live rock on MAY 10th. 

It is now june 7th and i have noticed no changed in my tank... no algee other than what was on the live rock, when i purchased it. The dry rock appears to be about the same as when i first got it. 

How long can i expect this to take? ammonia has stayed quite low the whole time as well as no nitrate or nitrite spike. 

what can i do to speed things up, and what are th proper methods in doing a cycle. should i be doing consitant water changes or just topping up the tank.

Had ignored it for the past 10 days and did a quick test and my specific gravity was 1.030, didn't bother testing anything else, did a water change and brought it back down to the normal range.

its a 65gallon tank, how often should i be changing the water and how much?

i feel i am being pretty patient but it would be nice to notice a change even if minimal! have noticed no diatom bloom, all my live rock was fully cured when purchased.

please help, 

thanks

kevin


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## wake49 (Jul 2, 2008)

Have you tested for Alkalinity and Calcium? Can you post the results?


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## bearwithfish (Sep 29, 2009)

i agree with wake please post all of your test results and other factors such as temp lights etc... just wondering if a super low temp could be slowing things down? or perhaps everything came and went already with out you seeing it as everything was already cured? if so you may be good to go and just dont know it


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## kevNnic (Apr 10, 2010)

i have kept my tempeature between 79-81 the whole time, nitrate and nitrites have all registered 0ppm. Ammonia looked like it had a very small spike for 2 day period. and my ph has been stable around 8.1. My biggest issue is keeping my salanity/specific gravity down, usually measuring around 1.025, im going to do a water change tonight.

My kit i have doesnt have a calcium tester or an alkalinty tester. 

I haven't been running my t5 light because i heard it will just create unwanted algee growth,


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## kevNnic (Apr 10, 2010)

a 65 gallon tank , 
external canister filter easy 80
a super skimmer by coralife
a submersible 200 watt heater, 
a salinity refractometer,
a digital thermomter , 
movement and circulation pump, (power head)
saltwater master test kit, 
"prime" a chlorine remover, 
bactervital, 
highoutput T5 fluorescent 4lamp lighting system, 
ocean direct caribbean live sand (60lbs) and coralife scientific grade marine salt.
30lbs dry rock
40lbs cured live rock

these is my complete setup everything running other than the light.


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## bearwithfish (Sep 29, 2009)

as for salinity are you toping off with plain water or salt? as the water evaporates the salt will not.. adding what has left the tank will help in keeping that stable.... it sounds as though you had your cycle with out realizing it... that is a good sign and with your incredible patience your tank has built a good bio-system.. i dont think i could have been so patient to be honest


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## wake49 (Jul 2, 2008)

Coraline algae also uses light to grow, but not to the effect that it uses carbonates and bicarbonates. And that is why Alkalinity and Calcium testing are important. Can you get your hands on those two test kits? I would like to see the results.


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## kevNnic (Apr 10, 2010)

I have been adding normal tap water with prime, i think maybe i added a little to much salt when i mixed my water at the start. 

trust me it has not been easy waiting, patience is a virtue, and i really wanted to do things right. Would hate to kill some fish because i was to impatient to wait. :-( plus the g/f would most likly cry. lol :roll:

anyways thanks for all the great advice, im going to do a water change tonight and test one more time tomorrow and add fish by wednesday i hope.

i will go take a look today at big als and see what i can find what kit would you recommend?


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## bearwithfish (Sep 29, 2009)

wake is right though if you can get those kits and test them it would be very helpful.. trrust me wake is a saltwater guru and really knows his stuff


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## wake49 (Jul 2, 2008)

I personally use Salifert, but API or Elos would be my second choices.


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## bearwithfish (Sep 29, 2009)

i use api and tetra as its what i have ATM but API will be the next one


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## kevNnic (Apr 10, 2010)

i will pick up those two kits today and post the results tonight guys.

Thanks again for all the great info and help. really appreciate it!

Kevin


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## bearwithfish (Sep 29, 2009)

any time, that's what its all about


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## kevNnic (Apr 10, 2010)

well took a few readings today


80 degree
specific gravity: 1.024
ph 8.2
nitrite 0 ppm
nitrate 0 pp
ammonia 0 ppm
calcium 450ish ppm is that to high?
alkalinity 2.4

how does that look?


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## bearwithfish (Sep 29, 2009)

i can not speak to the ALK (still learning myself LOL) but all others look perfect!!!!!!!! i would say go ahead and add your first fish and set up your QT after a week or two if all stays stable QT your next fish and go from there.... double check with wake and pasfur but i think you are on target and good to go....


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## wake49 (Jul 2, 2008)

kevNnic said:


> well took a few readings today
> 
> 
> 80 degree
> ...


These readings look good, except the Alkalinity. If you are posting this number in dKH it is very, very low (unless you are posting in meq/L units, but even this number is still low). You want the Alkalinity to be about 8-12 dKH or 2.86 - 4.29 meq/L. What units of measurement are you using? I would bring the temp down a degree or two if you can, also.


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## kevNnic (Apr 10, 2010)

it might be slightly higher than 2.4 maybe 2.5 meq/L, i will lower the temp a bit as well. Purchased 4 ocellaris clowns clowns last night and a cleaner crew, i wanted to pick up an anemone, but was told to wait longer. 


how can i raise the alk?

thanks for all the great help everyone, really appreciate it, pretty neat seeing these little guys swim around, i will take some pics tonight.!;-)


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## Pasfur (Mar 29, 2008)

Your tank never cycled, in my opinion, because it was already cycled. When you think about saltwater you can't get hung up on the traditional freshwater cycling process. Very often you will see tanks that never register an ammonia or nitrite reading. Why? Because the live rock and sand already contain all the necessary bacteria to process waste, and in a tank with virtually no livestock, they even contain proper bacterias to remove Nitrate. EVEN FROM day 1.

Instead of watching for the tank to "cycle", I suggest waiting for it to "mature". At this point your tank is well on its way to maturity. Have you had a diatom bloom yet? Are you seeing coraline algae growth? Do you see micro life scurrying about on the glass, such as copepods and amphipods? If these answers are yes, then your tank is ready for livestock!


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