Cycle Time

[xxmurrxx]

So today i bought all my sand, 6lb of live rock and 8lb of dry base.
I threw it all into my tank and am just waiting for the sand to settle.
(15 Gal)

From what I understand my tank is going to go through a cycle.
A couple questions.

1. Do i just wait? let it do it's thing and test my levels daily?
2. Should i be running my T5 lighting during the cycle (8h a day aprox)?
3. Once algae starts to produce is this when i introduce my CUC? or can i start thinking sooner?

Thanks.

[James404]

Welcome to the addiction!

1. Yes just wait, you can test daily or every other day if you wish. You will first see ammonia rise, then you will see nitrite rise and then nitrate. When Ammonia and Nitrite have risen and fall to 0, your cycle is complete. You can then continue to add your CUC and fish/corals SLOWLY
2. You can leave them on if you wish, the longer you leave them on, the more chance for algae to grow, but your gonna get outbreaks during your cycle regardless. Usually the brown diatoms will break out first.
3. Wait for your cycle to finish before adding your CUC.

[JPMagyar]

Every stage in this hobby has its pleasures and pains. Personally I rather enjoy the "barren" look of a new system since it looks like that for such a short period of its overall life. My point here is "sit back" and enjoy the changes that will come. The slower you take it the better your success on the other end ;)


Joe

P.S. And don't forget to take some pictures as you go along to share with us folks here on RC. Nothing we like better than living vicariously!

[streak]

I would only run the lights about 2-3 hours a day.. just my opinion.. and experience with the diatoms.. I also added a raw shrimp to help cycle the tank and i didnt even test my tank for first 3 weeks other than the slinity and topping off with ro/di water. Then i tested about every 3 days when adding sumthing like extra dry rocks and right before i added my CUC.. i did the full battery.. PH,ammonia,nitrite,nitrate since i had a 10g nano i went ahead and did about 2gal water change after 8 weeks.. Extreme i know but everyone on here harps patience.. so i figured 2 month cycle was good enough...

[xxmurrxx]

Hello Hello
So i did my 1st reading yesterday: Nitrate - 0, Nitrite - 0, Ammonia - .25, PH - 8.2, Salinity 1.023

I introduced a chunk o shrimp to the tank two days ago, Starting to get a funky smell from the tank.

Is this normal? should i remove the shrimp chunk? Will the smell last?
Im going to do another reading today later on just because of the smell to see if anything changed.

(Tank has been running for aprox 1 week with live rock, sand finally settled yesterday.)

[James404]

Smells pretty normal, I would leave the shrimp in for now just to keep some ammonia going into the tank. The smell should go away eventually.

I would also raise your salinity to 1.026.

[Michael]

I like Joe's comment about the barren look, I have to agree, its exciting when its new, just take things easy and enjoy the set up experience.

[bertoni]

I'd remove the shrimp. The stench gets to me, and the tank doesn't need the nutrients. Either way will work, though. At this point, I'd just wait for a week of zero ammonia, and then stock slowly. If you want to add larger fish, you could try feeding a bit of fish food for a few days, to test whether the filtration is ready.