Help with cycling new reef tank

[quadman]

Hi All, this is my 1st post. Sorry if I've posted this in the wrong forum.

I'm in the process of setting up my 2nd saltwater tank. The 1st was a few years back, a 35 gallon. This new tank is a 75 gallon. I've set it up with a four section 30g sump containing a skimmer and a refugium. I've also got a Ecotech MP10 and an MP40, along with 2 x Radeon pro's for lighting. Tank is kept at 78 deg

I added water and live sand about 12 days ago and began to cycle the tank.

I started to hunt locally for live rock but was really not impressed with anything I saw, so I started to hunt on some forums and found a hobbyist locally that was closing down his 180 gallon tank.

He was selling the live rock at the awesome price of 3.00 per pound so I took 80 lbs. We took it home in buckets with some saltwater, about an hour drive.

As soon as I got home I put the rock in the tank on the live sand and did some aquascaping. A few hours later under the lights the rock started to show signs of life, as in polyps (maybe 7-8 different types), coralline algae, and some corals (hairy mushroom, leather trees, a few others).

This is now 10 days since I added that rock, everything looks great, all thriving, even the mushroom (about 4" across) curls around any food pellets (shrimp, oyster) I present it with.

I also added two hermits 6 days ago

So here is the real question.....

I bought the rock because I liked the rock and it was a great price. I didn't expect to see this much like all over these rocks, and some so cool!!

My ammonia is only measuring .5 (was .25 four days ago), I don't think I've spiked yet.

So,

Will I spike if I've got all this life already living in the tank?

If it does spike, will I loose all, some? Will the spike be worse because of all the life that will be lost as it breaks down?

Is there anyway (water change, additives, etc...) for me to avoid a spike to try and protect the corals and polyps?

Looking for any advice....

 

[Aquarian]

Hi welcome.
Did you add any saltwater from the tank where you got the live rock or just the rock?

It sounds like you may have just had a mini cycle the bactria within the LR processed your ammonia into nitrite and then to nitrate. Causing your tank to quick cycle.
Have you checked for nitrites / nitrates?

 

[quadman]

Hi welcome.
Did you add any saltwater from the tank where you got the live rock or just the rock?

It sounds like you may have just had a mini cycle the bactria within the LR processed your ammonia into nitrite and then to nitrate. Causing your tank to quick cycle.
Have you checked for nitrites / nitrates?

No, didn't add any water really, but probably .5 of a gallon went in with the rock.

Yes, been checking both nitrites / nitrates and both levels remain at zero.

I'm going to take my water to a local reef shop that does free water testing, and I hope I've had a mini cycle (is that possible, or even likely? Anyway to confirm?), but I'm still concerned about if I will loose the corals, or how to minimize the impact.

PH by the way is 8.7, ammonia .25-.5 tonight.

 

[Aquarian]

If your ammonia continues to drop to zero and trites & trates stay at zero than it was a mini cycle

But if the ammonia starts to climb then your cycle is still going. At that point there is some additives you could use to boost the Bactria or you can go the water change rout. But there will likely be some die off

Best thing to do right now is to test daily and wait.

 

[Aquarian]

What are you testing with?

 

[emmett0122]

what test kit are you using if its api test the ammonia test some times will show a slight green but if you add crued lr for another tank more then likely you will not see a cycle as you already have the bacteria you need in your tank. just watch your nitrates that is the end results of the cycling of the tank. but 80 lbs of cured rock i would say you are not going to see a full cycle and the stuff you have in your tank should be fine