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[newtoreefguy]

i have a 55 gallon drilled with refugium 1" 1/2 of live sand 42 pounds of live fiji rock 3 damsles a clown 6 large snails 7 blue leg hermits my tank has been running for 8 days now i bought a API Master test kit and i have been checking water since day 3 everything still reads zero no spikes in anything what so ever my question is why is my tank not cycling yet

[Lawdawg]

Well, the cycle can depend on the quality of the liverock. I wouldn't get worried yet, but I'd watch it close, that's a very large bioload for a new tank and ammonia could spike awfully quick.

[PSLive]

I would echo what Lawdawg says about your situation. The "Nothing good happens quickly in a reef tank" philosophy really is true. You will eventually see some results on your test kit, but hopefully not sudden spikes. The best advice I can add on for you, would be to always have some saltwater mixed up and running in a bucket with a power head and small heater standing by just in case. No, you really don't want to do a water change on a cycling tank, but on occasion in the past when I've set something up and have seen too big of an ammonia spike happen too rapidly, I will do a small water change just to take the edge off to help protect the fish on hand.

Typically I'll start a new tank off with rock and sand, and not add any other life to it for several weeks, but everyone has their own way of doing things.

[newtoreefguy]

thats helpful thanks monday i did do a small water change 5 gallons worth in a bucket with powerhead and heater cause some people were saying you should if you have fish but i dont want to slow the cycle process either so i dunno i guess i will just keep an eye on it

[newtoreefguy]

just worried about the brown alge right now knowone has had an awnser for me on that yet sand is looking pretty brown rock is alright snails are hitting that pretty hard

[ChrisRD]

When setting up a tank with live sand/rock, if there isn't much dieoff/bioload it's normal to see little to no increase in NH4 or NO2 levels. The idea that a tank has to "cycle" by showing spikes in these levels is a bit of a misconception left over from older filtration techniques, but the idea seems to hang-on in this hobby. The live rock/sand is already populated with the necessary bacterial colonies, so if you don't see any spikes after the first week or two that just means that dieoff/bioload has not outpaced the bacterial colonies (a good thing, actually). To be safe, give it a month - if your water parameters look good at that point you should be fine to continue adding livestock (at a sensible rate).

The brown algae (diatoms) is normal for a new tank and provided you are using pure source water and keeping nutrient levels under control it will disappear over time.

Good luck and HTH

[newtoreefguy]

thanks i think thats what it is i bought good cured rock and live sand anyway the alge is disappering now and all my paramaters are still down and good one other question if i add more live rock thats cured do i have to start the cycle all over again or will it be good yet cause i would like another 20 pounds or so ?also everything is looking better now that i updated my light i have 2 compact 55 watt 50/50 bulbs new reflector and 2 vho bulbs one atinic and one 18000k running 8 hours a day

[Saltlick]

You would probably just have two diatom blooms if youadd more rock. It will
be less disruptive than starting from scratch.

[newtoreefguy]

should i suck up the brown alge off my sand or stir it up or something its getting pretty bad?

[Lawdawg]

Removing it is helpful, but until the tank stabilizes its probably going to reoccur.