Cycling in Nano

[Reefer Madness]

I just set up my first nano about a week ago. Ive had experience with larger tanks that take sometimes over a month to cycle, but all my lvls are reading extremely low, even from 2 days ago when i tested last. My ph is 8.2, all other lvls are 0 except nitrate which is under 10. Does this mean my tank is cycled or do nanos cycle differently?

[Sugar Magnolia]

nope, nano's cycle just like a big tank. it all depends on how cured the LR is that you use. I've had a nano cycle in about ten days, but I used completely cured LR that was transported home in water to ensure no die off.

[Reefer Madness]

Im not exactly sure how cured my LR was but i requested it be put in with water when i bought it. The stuff from the LFS i go to is pretty good ive been adding lr slowly to my 40 gallon and it never spikes it. I usually ad about 10 lbs each time so i dont pollute too much.

[Sugar Magnolia]

next time you're there ask them how quickly they go through LR. If it's been in there tanks for a while it may very well be completely cured. The small LFS near me has rocks for months at a time till they run out and then stock up again. The reef store brings in fresh shipments of Tonga and Fiji every tow weeks and it completely uncured. (P.U.)

Just to be on the safe side though, you really ought to watch the levels for an additional week to ten days. If you try to rush things in a nano, bad things happen very quickly. There's much less room for error in a nano as opposed to a larger tank with more water volume.

[Reefer Madness]

Ya im not even gonna think of adding corals for a month at least. I was tihnking of adding a cleaning crew though just to make things a little interesting.

Mine only took a week or so and was hardly noticable, but then all of the live rock I added was cured and the sand was live sand and about half the water came from an existing tank so I "cheated" a lot on that project.

I would wait a few more days and if the levels hold out that low, I would then think it would be pretty safe to add the clean up crew. Just my opinion though.

[gman0526]

I'm with Sugar Magnolia, here first time I set a nano I waited 2wks after everything read 0. Can't be 2 careful when is a new system.

Now i do as Imaexpat2, does and I cheat :D , but it was an already established sytem.