Mini-cycle Or Whole New Cycle?

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eschaton

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So, I got my 55 gallon off the ground last night. I used the following steps

1. Got the temperature and salinity identical to my old 20 gallon.
2. Went to the LFS and bought some new LR. This LFS only stocks cured rock that they leave in the back for months to mature. I picked four bits, two of which had clearly gone through all of the algae cycles (were covered in coraline), and two others which had some hair algae on them, but had good shapes I didn't want to miss out on. In the past their rock has fully cycled in only four days.
3. Ride home took less than an hour, immediately put the new rocks into the water.
4. Over the course of the evening, I moved everything from my 20 gallon to the new tank, starting first with rubble, then frags, then large rocks with frags on them, and finally the sand. Everything I have at the moment is pretty hardy (polyps, mushrooms, Xenia, and some CUC guys). Moving the sand made a huge mess, and a bunch of things mucused up in the tank.

I came home today, and everything looked great - polyps are extended, nothing much died, CUC moving around and eating, etc. I figured I'd do a test to see what was going on though, and my ammonia is at 1.0, and my nitrite at around 0.25!

Obviously I'm a bit concerned now. I'm hoping this is just an ammonia spike caused by the death of whatever was crushed during the moving process, but obviously I can't be sure. I am heartened that I have nitrite though, as it means the bacteria are at least beginning the first step.

I have an RO system, and can mix up a good deal of salt water, but my RO comes out quite cold this time of year, so I'd be worried about the shock to the livestock. I'm thinking I'll do readings again in the morning, and see if ammonia and nitrite are continuing to rise, and if need be do a water change. Does this sound like the right course of action to people?
 
Yeah, get that water going with a heater in it in case you need to change. Worst comes to worst you have plenty of RO water for the future.
 
Well, I tested around midnight, and the ammonia dropped to 0.25, and the nitrite was undetectable. This morning I tested again, and there is no ammonia and only a very small amount of nitrite (0.10 perhaps, wouldn't even have noticed it if I hadn't compared it to the color of last night's test).

I think it's safe to say it was a minor spike caused by moving, and the tank is "cycled" again. Not that I'm going to add anything extra besides some CUC dudes any time soon though.
 

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