Cycling

R

rchan11

It is necessary to leave your lights on when cycling new tank? What about adding ammonia from grocery store to speed it up?
 
No, it is not necessary to leave lights on, but it helps the algae get a start growing. No, do not add ammonia. Nothing good in a tank happens quickly, and trying to speed it up will throw it all off balance. If you have live rock in the tank, things will go along just fine, just keep checking the water parameters.
 
I've read that adding ammonia to new tank will start up the cycle alot quicker instead of waiting for it to build up. I'm using uncured rock and sand. Thank you for your advise!
 
I've added raw shrimp bits to start my cycle and readings are:

Nitrite .5

Ammonia 1.0

Nitrate 20

Should these #s be higher? Add more shrimp bits?
 
Those sound high enough to get a cycle started. It has been a very long time since I cycled a tank and tested for ammonia, but I remember it hitting 2.0 or better when the ammonia cycle peaked.

If you don't get such a spike, it will be a smaller and longer cycle to get where you eventually want to be - I think.

Like I said, it's been a long time.
 
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