Cycle....what to do??

[Kenny_Graham]

I've been trying to get my 24 gallon Aqua Nano to cycle for about 2 weeks now and my numbers still don't jive. I used the live rock, water, etc from my old 55 gallon which all my number were perfect.



Here are my results today from my 24 gallon test:



PH 7.8 using Kent Superbuffer DKH

Ammonia .04 using Seachem Prime

Nitrate .00

Nitrite .00

Salinity 1.21

Alkalinity, water doesn't turn yellow-gree till after 25 reagent drops.



Any thoughts??



Kenny G.

[dakar]

What test kit are you using for Alkalinity?

Although I'd consider raising the salinity up to the 1.024 - 1.026.

[lReef lKeeper]

could be a small chemical imbalance from disturbing the other tank, maybe a medium sized cycle. when you moved everything over it may have disturbed the sand bed and caused some sort of chemical reaction.

[graphixx]

you most likely got some die off from the move, and raise your salinity to 1.025, it will take some time to stabilize. Just give it some time

[Kenny_Graham]

Dakkar, The test kit is Ocean Master by Marineland. As far as salinity up to the 1.024 - 1.026 I'll think about that. How much more salt do you think I should add??

Bobby, I believe the small chemical imbalance from disturbing the other tank is 1 of the proiblems but that was 2 weeks ago?

Great White, I don't understand what you mean by "die off from the move"? Dakkar suggested raising salinity also.

Thankyou all......

Kenny G.

[lReef lKeeper]

die off is when you move the rock from one tank to another. some bacteria and other parts of the rock "die off". no matter how fast you move it. some organisms just can NoT touch air or they will die.

salinity is low but probably not a huge problem. the lower the salinity the lower your chances for parasites. one of my LFS keeps theirs at 1.019

[PurpleAardvark]

Well here is my opion in a nut shell. No matter what you do how you start it or if you use rain water (yes i have heard that one), you will always have a cycle. It is just mother natures way of trying to teach us that good things come to those who wait. If you use tank water, rock, ect.. the levels may not swing as high but later on down the road you may run into mini cycles, nit. spikes for no reason, nat. spikes for no reason, ect... to create the most stable tank I have found that if you have really wild swings and peaks in your levels at first for the first month and leave it alone everything goes great. When you play with your tank ie. doing water changes, chemical aditives things become more unstable and the "cycle" takes longer. So in short the best thing to do IMO is to jsut let things be and you will have a more stable bacteria base. Rember this just IMO everybody does things different doesn't make them right or wrong. Unless your name is Eric.:blah:

[lReef lKeeper]

Originally Posted by PurpleAardvark

Well here is my opion in a nut shell. No matter what you do how you start it or if you use rain water (yes i have heard that one), you will always have a cycle. It is just mother natures way of trying to teach us that good things come to those who wait. If you use tank water, rock, ect.. the levels may not swing as high but later on down the road you may run into mini cycles, nit. spikes for no reason, nat. spikes for no reason, ect... to create the most stable tank I have found that if you have really wild swings and peaks in your levels at first for the first month and leave it alone everything goes great. When you play with your tank ie. doing water changes, chemical aditives things become more unstable and the "cycle" takes longer. So in short the best thing to do IMO is to jsut let things be and you will have a more stable bacteria base. Rember this just IMO everybody does things different doesn't make them right or wrong. Unless your name is Eric.:blah:

100% agreed, no matter how you "start" a tank, there will ALWAYS be some sort of cycle.

[AuntKaren]

I had absolutely no spike when I cycled my LR and LS in my 24G nano. Sometimes it DOES happen that there's no spike. We tested every day after the LR and LS were added and there was no spike at any time. Our test kits were/are fine. We did wait a full 6 weeks before we added any cleanup crew etc. So it IS possible that there will be no chemical change that is detected through our tests.

Even if you don't get any spikes or parameter changes wait a few more weeks then wait a couple more. How does one wait? Get yourself a good magnifying glass and look at everything. You will be amazed at what's going on in there!