Week Old 155 Gallon Bowfront. cycling?

So i'm usually lurking around in the shadows of unregistered people.. perusing others questions.. but I've broken down and registerd to ask one of my own.. I've got a 155 AGA Bowfront that a friend sold to me.. He was running it with a few large chunks of live rock and sand up till the day before i showed up to haul it off... I setup the tank a day later from then.. he put the sand he had in a bucket filled with water. This was last weekend, I finished getting water in the tank, and bought about 60lbs of live sand as he didn't have very much. About tuesday or wed he brought in about 80lbs of dried out rock for me he had been storing in his garage. I proceeded to buy another 20lbs of live cured rock from my LFS which is usually very clean with very little die off. ( I've had a 12g nano for about 7 months now, started with their rock as well) oh.. also picked up another 20lbs of sand to dump over all the rock that he had given to me when the placement was completed...

so down to my questions. I was expecting to see some nitrite or even nitrate's this week.. but nothing.. I just started testing it yesterday after all the rock had been placed and settled.. no ammonia levels at all either. All the sponges in the sump have been in his mature tank so I'm wondering what this cycle is going to be like? I realize whenever I add sand or rock I should receive a small cycle.. But should I not see a drastic spike in any levels due to the nature of this setup? I'm testing with API fyi..


Thanks everyone in advance for the replies! I love the forum and believe its one of the friendliest and informative places I've found on the googles..

 

Welcome aboard BloodyShirt, good to see you here with us. The cycling process doesnt happen over night nor does it take a week. Its still too early to see a spike of any kind. Your cycle period may be smaller b/c of the LR and LS that you acquired. Tank looks good, keep the pics coming.;D Luna

 

Thanks for the tips Luna.. I wasn't expecting to be done with the cycle at this point.. just expecting to see something register in the tests. *shrugs*

 

Welcome to 3reef!
As for the cycling process, with what you stated that you have in your tank combined with the size of the tank, you don't really have much to get the tank cycling. I would add some shrimp found in your local supermarkets seafood department, or add some hardy fish to the equasion to get the process going quicker!
Best of luck!

 

I would add two damsels to your set up to get the cycle going. Normally I am a one damsel dude, but 155g is pretty big........and BTW, nice tank. I like it.

Also, I wouldn't buy any more LR. Buy base rock. You will save bucu bucks. And it will seed and color up on it's own.

 

Thanks!, only reason I bought any live rock was to get a few good pieces and a few hitch hikers to seed the rest of the base rock.. It's got about 120lbs of live sand in at this point as well...

sooo.. the consesus seems to be I need damsels or shrimp.. i wasn't too keen on the idea of either honestly.. I was under the impression that the LR and LS along with few sponges out of the mature tank before breaking it down would be sufficient for a cycle..

any idea on what kind of timeline I should be looking at with shrimp o damsels and without? the peanut gallery wants fish to look at (my border collie loves watching fish)

 

One yellowtail damsel will entertain your border collie more than a rotting piece of shrimp.
Next, get ready to purchase your cleanup crew - snails and hermit crabs to help clean up the diatoms you'll get after your cylce comes to an end.

 

One Damsel it is.. be back in a few hours.. but for now.. pictures of the empty tank.. halides blazing

 

Be aware of the yellow tail damsel though, they do get territorial. Mine was in my 110g by itself for some time and it was very aggressive with the other fish when I added them later. He thought he owned the place and had to get his butt kicked a few times by my coral beauty before he settled down. Nothing too major and nobody got hurt, just something to be aware of. The yellow tail is a good looking fish.

 

Good looking tank, love the rock!