normal cycling or recycling???

[negia22]

Got trouble with cycling my tank. I am cycling it for almost a month now. Just got confused with my readings for this last week. I've read that when you're cycling, ammonia goes up then down, then nitrite goes high then down then the nitrates goes up then down, that is when you know your done cycling...

My results are confusing though.

When I first started cycling both my ammonia and nitrite went to 1ppm in just one week, then I added sand to my bare bottom tank then the result for the next week was ammonia 0.8ppm then 0.6ppm for nitrite then nitrate has been going 5-10ppm respectively. These past two weeks my results are nitrite- 0 then ammonia has been stucked in 0.25 ppm and nitrate is 10ppm.

I don't get it, is my tank recyling?

[Neoburn1035]

Some tanks will do that as your bacteria colony grows. You said you put live sand in do you have any live rock? What do you have in the tank for the bacteria to grow in?

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[negia22]

Oh, i put the LR first with water then after a week I added the LS in. I have 32lbs of LR in there.

[A sea K]

Unless you have some way to remove nitrate it does not go down. Nitrate is the end result of the bio filtration process. This is one of the primary reasons for regular water changes, it keeps nitrate in check. IMO if you are still detecting levels of ammonia or nitrite then your are not done with the cycle just yet.

[dinthbrgh]

adding the ls caused a new spike, or second cycle. if you only add a little lr or ls at a time you wouldn't notice any spikes because your biofilter would quickly adjust, but when you add a lot all at once it causes noticeable spikes. same with fish. only add one or two at a time so your biofilter can adjust quickly.

[Neoburn1035]

Adding live sand after your cycle had started may have caused a mini cycle and you had some die off in the live sand which is typically. I would give it another week and retest. I only test ammonia and nitrate. Nitites usually are gone so fast there is non reason to test it. How long has your tank been cycling?

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[Neoburn1035]

Once your Amonia gets to 0 then it will be time to do your first water change. Resist doing it early. Good things in reef keeping only come slowly.

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[negia22]

Adding live sand after your cycle had started may have caused a mini cycle and you had some die off in the live sand which is typically. I would give it another week and retest. I only test ammonia and nitrate. Nitites usually are gone so fast there is non reason to test it. How long has your tank been cycling?

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it's been cycling for a month now. thanks

[stingythingy45]

Generally,live sand is mostly dead anyways,JMO.
So you may have added another organic to kick start the cycle again.
Just let it run it's coarse.It's not surprising at all to hear of a tank still cycling after a month.Especially if the LR was not so live.