# is tank done cycling ?



## rubensilva (Feb 1, 2011)

Ive had my tank running with live sand live rock and live nitrifying bacteria from superbac for about a week now today i did a test and amonia and nitrites were at 0 does this mean my tank is cycled :S ?


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

What were your nitrates? Your tank is done cycling when you start to see nitrates, with 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite.


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## rubensilva (Feb 1, 2011)

gh is at 180 kh is at 240 ph is at 7.5 around no2 at 0 and no3 at 20


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## rubensilva (Feb 1, 2011)

test i have dosent mesure ammonia


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## Kweli (Jun 2, 2010)

Just to be safe i would wait another week and retest.. You can never be to careful in this hobby.

In a week you can bring your water to someone, or a fish store, to test for ammonia.. but it is a test kit you should invest in... its the first thing you want to measure if something goes wrong...


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

+1 on getting good test kits.


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## BettaBeats (Jan 14, 2010)

Your tank will never full be cycled until you've added all that you want into your tank. The bacteria will only establish enough to match your bio load. So when you add in your first fish or corals you will notice a mini cycle. When you add live rock, you'll notice the same.

This is why the community recommends gradually introducing species to your tank and not everything at once.

No ammonia, no nitrite, 20+ nitrates it's cycled, but that will change once you add in more bio load.


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

I would do a waterchange to lower your nitrates and or add chaeto.


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## rubensilva (Feb 1, 2011)

nitrates are good and got an amonia test yesterday and it was at 3.0 so still a bit high am i suppose to do water changes while the tank is cycling?


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## rubensilva (Feb 1, 2011)

retested today and amonia dropped to 1.0 ?


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## Kweli (Jun 2, 2010)

no water change

Things are going good..

First you get ammonia, which will drop as it gets converted to Nitrites..
Then you should have 0 ammonia after that and Nitrites (which will have to drop and get converted to Nitrates)


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## rubensilva (Feb 1, 2011)

now im starting to get brown stuff on floor and on rocks ?


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## camboy012406 (Jun 11, 2010)

reduce your lights. and do water change


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## rubensilva (Feb 1, 2011)

is it a good sign or bad?


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## Dax (Sep 29, 2010)

Brown stuff is just algae that's normal in a cycling tank. My 2 cents:
-Reduce your lighting period (should help with algae)
-wait for ammonia to go to zero
-do a water change
-Retest. Nitrates should be lower.
-Add something and wait, then test, and so on

Remember, everytime you mess with your system (i.e. stick your arm in there), you are causing some sort of mini-cycle, so all you can do is wait.


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