Am I ready?????

[jpocock]

well I have been cycling my tank for two weeks now. I did a water check after one week. my ammonia where up. so I did not check anything else.. I just did a water test and my results are ammonia 0, Ph 8, Nitrite 0 Nitrate 0. I was thinking about putting a clean up crew in this weekend. I was wondering if i should weight longer or go ahead. I know that people keep saying not to take things to fast.

thanks

[sail33]

Two weeks is not long enough. You don't have anything for a clean up crew to clean up. They will starve and ...well then there will be something to clean up.

You didn't say if you started with live rock or live sand. If not, you can seed it with some from your LFS.

May I suggest that you search threads for "tank cycling" ? You'll find lots of info to help you determine if you've passed all of the stages of cycling, how to accelerate the process and what to do step by step. Check out the "stickies". They often have answers to commonly asked questions.

Best of luck.

[Dustin1300]

When you say ammonia was up, how high? Also answer those friendly questions from sail

Tank cycles are a funny thing and I'm anal and test ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate daily and would be my best advice next time so you keep a close eye and have no question of whether the cycle is complete. The hobbies all about patience, give yourself the next week to read for hours about cycling and your first additions (Fish/Coral). Enjoy but don't rush it or you'll be out of the hobby as fast as you were in.

[jpocock]

I started my tank with both live rock and live sand. I put 40lbs of sand and 40lbs of rock. My tank is a 55 gal. The first time I tested my tank my ammonia was 2ppm.

[jpocock]

I have been doing a lot of reading and I was surprised when my water test came back as they did! thats why I posted this Post.

[MinnFish]

Patience grasshopper. It's a waiting game. Almost like my first wife. If only I had waited to find out how crazy nutty she was. Lol. But, seriously have patience or u will pay in the end. Geez, like my first wife again.

[jpocock]

LOL thank

[thegrun]

I would give it another week to be safe, but if your ammonia went from 2ppm to zero it is very likely your cycle is complete. Your live rock was most likely partially cycled already. Wait that extra week and test daily for ammonia and nitrites. If they don't reappear, add your clean up crew, easy to care for corals.

[dzfish17]

I would ghost feed the tank (very small pinch of flakes) every other day for a week or so and test for ammonia and nitrite... if still at 0 you can add a very small cuc.

[disc1]

Originally Posted by dzfish17

I would ghost feed the tank (very small pinch of flakes) every other day for a week or so and test for ammonia and nitrite... if still at 0 you can add a very small cuc.

This +1.

If you used really good cured live rock, the cycle may establish itself really fast. If it can handle the ghost feeding, you can think about starting to add critters.

[jpocock]

thank you I will give it another week and test water daily.

[Dustin1300]

Remember that you need some source of ammonia (food, shrimp, pure ammonia, etc) that will continually feed the bacteria and help build up the appropriate colonies. Once the tank is able to convert ammonia -> nitrite -> nitrate in a 24 hour period then your ready for your first additions. Again, slow on the additions. You might like to add 5 fish initially but you'll just make them die in their own waste! Look to add less aggressive fish first and the more aggressive ones lastly. Good luck and welcome to the addiction. 6 years ago I started the hobby with a 55 and currently in process of building a 1000+ gallon system!