question about ammonia

[aquascum]

i have had my tank for up and going now for 3 weeks its a 55 gal with 55 lbs of live rock 40 lbs live sand and i still have not had the ammonia spike i keep reading about should i be worryed or do some tanks just not get it

[Ron Reefman]

If you put in good LR (and you did put in enough) and you didn't put in anything to create the ammonia spike, like some fish food, then you may not have one. Some people say to toss in a dead shrimp (I'm not a fan), I'd just put in some flake food, frozen food or even add a small amount of real ammonia (be sure it's 100% pure ammonia) and that will start the cycle. With a55g and good live rock, you should see the cycle happen pretty quickly.
Good luck.

[WetShepherd]

I had a similar experience with my 55. My rock was from a long-cycled 600g tank and because I only needed ~60lbs it was kept in water the entire time. With light feeding (no fish) of a tiny bit of frozen, but mostly flakes I still didn't see an ammonia spike, but I did get my nitrates to go up. My assumption is that the rock retained enough bacteria that it essentially transferred the old tanks cycle to my tank.

Like Ron I'm not a fan of the whole shrimp - fresh or not I wonder about what might have been added to it. The other thing about that method is that the food is concentrated in a single area and I worry that it doesn't encourage the growth of beneficial bacteria across all your LR as well as flakes, which spread around more easily and break down faster.

[dzfish17]

These guys covered everything already... you may only see slightly elevated levels. I would ghost feed for a 2/3 weeks just to be sure.

[Jocko]

Not sure what this idea of "starting" the cycle is. If you've got live rock and no ammonia then your cycle is running in balance. Or more likely the bacteria population is larger than the food source in your new tank and likely decreasing.

Adding extra food just to create ammonia makes no sense to me as the resulting bacteria population will be based on a food supply that is not representative of your system when it is running normally. Personally, I would just start to increase the bacteria's food supply naturally. In other words, maybe start to add a small cleanup crew.

[dzfish17]

Not sure what this idea of "starting" the cycle is. If you've got live rock and no ammonia then your cycle is running in balance. Or more likely the bacteria population is larger than the food source in your new tank and likely decreasing.

Adding extra food just to create ammonia makes no sense to me as the resulting bacteria population will be based on a food supply that is not representative of your system when it is running normally. Personally, I would just start to increase the bacteria's food supply naturally. In other words, maybe start to add a small cleanup crew.

I agree but if you feed the tank and the levels stay at 0 then you know for sure that it is cycled. Sometimes you will see a mini cycle similar to moving a small tank to a bigger tank. I think its better to go slow and make sure that the tank is cycled before adding a CUC.

[Ron Reefman]

Jocko, I agree with Dave. Just because you have live rock doesn't mean you have a big enough population of bacteria. By adding food or ammonia you will see how well your tank responds and can make smarter decisions from there. Assuming the LR is enough and adding a couple of fish could prove to be more bio-load then the LR can deal with effectively in the short run. Just being careful and taking it slowly step by step. Good advice for any reefer, but especially for a beginer.

[WetShepherd]

Not sure what this idea of "starting" the cycle is. If you've got live rock and no ammonia then your cycle is running in balance. Or more likely the bacteria population is larger than the food source in your new tank and likely decreasing.

Adding extra food just to create ammonia makes no sense to me as the resulting bacteria population will be based on a food supply that is not representative of your system...

Actually, zero ammonia in a system with only LR isn't representative of a balanced system with a fish in it - especially when you consider it may take some time for the new fish to start eating. No question, this isn't really about 'starting' a cycle as there is one in place - it's just about creating a bit of a buffer for when that first fish goes in.

The main reason I suppose is that although we can measure water parameters, if we haven't ghost fed the tank, we're relying on LR die-off, which is something we can't measure. That means we never really know how established the cycle is. The reason a clean-up crew won't tell us is because if there isn't much for them to eat, then they aren't producing much waste - both things which are hard to measure without feeding something.

All that being said, I think in most cases the argument is just academic as the difference in practical terms is small enough for any healthy fish to be fine. I think the only point we were making was, "you look good, but if you want to be sure, just add a bit of food to grow some buffer bacteria before the fish goes in".