Tank Cycle Observations

[Martin McNally]

I got live rock from an established tank that had been running for about 5 years. I kept it in a separate storage tank for more than a week before beginning the cycle process officially in my main tank. I have about 100lbs of rock and approx 70g water. I got some live stand (the carb-sea stuff) and mixed it with crushed coral.

I was adding shrimp to the tank to raise the ammonia level and no matter how many I added I have not been able to raise the ammonia above 0.25 I think i added about 6 in total over 2 days. Everytime I add some they are eaten within an hour by brissle worms and some hermit crabs that came as hitch hikers from the other tank.

This morning I noticed the tank was alive with worms and small shrimp all over the sand and rock. They quickly got out of the way when the lights came on.

It has been cycling now for 16 days and the parameters have been unchanged since day one (except Nitrate):

Ammonia: 0.25 (despite adding shrimp)

Nitrite: 0.1

Nitrate: Climbed from 5 to 10

pH: Constant at 8.2 since day 12

Can I expect that my tests will eventually read 0 for Ammonia or am I always going to have this 0.25? Is that low enough?

[jvision]

Your tank is still cycling, if you're getting ammonia and nitrite readings; however, because nitrate is rising, teh cycle should almost be done.