cycling a fish tank

[Don Harris]

I have had 60 gallon tank running for about 1.5 months now with nothing living in it except for twenty or so pounds of livesand. Do you think the tank has cycled in this time enough to add clown fish?

[Mikeaveli21]

what are you water parameters? That will give you more insight on the cycling of the tank rather the time in months.

[BigFish]

I assume you dont have a test kit.. You should really buy one they are a good investment it should be the next purchase you make.

That being said did you use ro/di water? Or tap water?

I would personally not add anything fish until I tested the water, If you cannot buy a test kit most lfs will test water for you. If your specific gravity is 1.023 or around that then you can probably have a fish. Specific gravity is the amount of salt kind of..... really salinity is but.....
anyway If you really want to try just get a damsel or something.

Are you planning on adding lr? If you are do not get fish yet the lr will cause your tank to recycle while it is curing (you can buy cured lr but it will still have die off in your tank) . If you are getting a FO tank you should still get a few rocks or something for fish to hide in and stuff.

[Don Harris]

I’m sorry. Did I make it sound like I was a beginner? I have been in the hobby for say around 15-20 years or so (but new to live sand).

I know how important it is to test water parameters and how important water quality is. All I asked is if anyone had thought my tank was cycled. I wanted to know just how ‘live’ my sand really is. If live sand actually contains ‘live’ organisms, my tank should be cycled for fish in a month and a half.

I only use RO water for mixes and only RO water for top-offs. I do not like to use real sea water because I cannot control what sea water has in it.

Does anyone think my tank cycled in this time frame with only live sand?

[aimeovaldi]

Is the 20 lbs of LS the only substrate in the tank, or is there a mixture of sand and LS? Is there any Live Rock in the tank (just curious) as long as the parameters are good, a fish could be added. Just start with a hardy species. Best of luck.

[Don Harris]

Live-sand only. I have had the lights on daily for 10 hours. Remarkably I have had very little brown algae, but I expect to get more as my tank matures a bit with a higher bio load.

I will be adding 50 or so pounds of pre-cured live rock in the near future. My LFS is curing a killer box of Martial Island. At this point I will be adding no fish. I will let the tank sit another month before testing the parameters.

[lroo67]

hey don is your lfs jans?[/quote]

[Don Harris]

hey don is your lfs jans?[/quote]


yes! jans and ptf. been dealing with jans and ptf for years now.