5 days, has my tank cycled?

[Auston]

So I set up a new tank 5 days ago with live rock, live sand, and hermit crabs. Yesterday it was seeded with a well seasoned filter medium, sand with several spaghetti worms and general life, and plankton. My tank is testing 24 hours later with almost no ammonia and nitrates are reading 20. Thoughts?

[whosurcaddie]

If there was no die off on the rock then technically your tank would already be cycled. The bacteria population will grow over the next few months but yes you are good to go.

I would start adding things slowly though.

[Azedenkae]

Ghostfeed your tank and see how if reacts to it. If parameters don't change too much then you are sweet. What form of nitrate export/sequestration/reduction/whatever are you planning?

[jjmg]

"almost no ammonia"? Give your tank another couple weeks and if everything is running nicely think about adding things slowly. Do water changes and add a couple of snails then see how it does. Then do water changes and add a bit more and see how it does. Take your time, no need to rush things and do some water changes. No need to rush things with ghost feedings, this should be a slow hobby. Take your time and enjoy.

Test the water and take your time. It will cost less in the long run and animals will live longer.

[Azedenkae]

Actually I take that back, I misread. If you still can see some ammonia then chances are you've still go a ways to go. Ghostfeeding is always good to 'prime' your tank for the eventual bioload addition, so do that and check your parameters, but you're not good to go until your aquarium can handle the bioload.

[Remmers]

I see a few people say add snails.

I am transferring over stuff from one tank to another and when I put in some of the live rock from my tank that's been up and running into the new tank a few snails made the trip.

They are allover the tank like they were in the old tank, is this a good sign?

[thegrun]

"almost no ammonia" means there is ammonia, so no your tank is not cycled and please stop adding livestock until the cycle is complete (hermit crabs, worms, general life...). When both your ammonia and nitrites are at zero for a week you can start to SLOWLY add livestock.

[dkeller_nc]

If you had "new" live rock (and I mean truly live rock from the ocean, not man-made "fake live rock"), then 5 days is way, way too short. It often takes 6 weeks or more to fully cure fresh live rock.

If, on the other hand, all of the substrate (sand, rock, etc...) came from one of your existing tanks, then it's likely your new tank never cycled, since the trip between old tank and new tank was only a few minutes.

All that said, the advice to slowly start adding livestock, with the toughest animals added first, is spot-on. BTW - slowly means adding adding a critter or two (such as a couple of hermit crabs) and waiting a week to see how they do.

There's another advantage to the slow approach - it's very easy for a beginner to fill up his/her smallish aquarium in 2 or 3 weeks, and then lose interst because there's no room to add anything else.

[Mrramsey]

As others have said patience is key. Heck I have a 10 month old 120g and I have a couple crabs, maybe 20 snails, a reef shrimp,two clowns and a yellow tang. Started with some corals after cycling for 2 months. Then snails after the corals for a couple weeks. And fish several weeks after that. Now I ready for another fish or two.

[Auston]

Thanks for the advice everyone

[JammyBirch]

I would get some ammonia chloride, you can get it on amazon, add it until you measure 2ppm of ammonia. Then measure for ammonia , nitrate and nitrite every day until you have zero ammonia and nitrite.

[FraggledRock]

I say No.