Cycling tank question

[jpt100]

Good morning. I have a 65 gallon tank cycling with about 100-110 lbs of live rock and 60lbs of live sand. I have a 25 gal sump with a skimmer. It's been cycling since feb 22 and I'm using an API test kit.
My parameters are:
Ammonia - hardly any, just slightly above 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 180
Salinity - 1.024
Temp - 80
Do you think the tank is cycled? If so, what should I do next? Will the nitrates being that high affect anything?

 

[Reefing Madness]

Might be cycled, if your using API, possible your Ammonia is 0.
YOu want to do a 50% water change to knock those high Nitrates in half, they are really to high to be adding live stock yet. And then you still want to do another water change a day later to get the rest of the Nitrates under control, you really want them 40 or under to add live stock.

 

[jpt100]

Got it thank u for ur quick response. I was just worried I would kill the new bacteria by doing a big water change. Ill do the water changes like you said. Thanks for your help!

 

[Reefing Madness]

The water only contains so much of the bacteria, the majority of it is in the rock and sand.

 

[jpt100]

Got it! Thx

 

[jpt100]

Once I get the nitrates leveled can I add fish or should I start with a clean up crew?

 

[jpt100]

I also have some zoas I wanted to transfer from a smaller tank. Should I wait to add those?

 

[Reefing Madness]

I'd start with the CUC, and one fish. Zoas are pretty hardy, do you have your Alk, Cal and Mag inline? Might want to bring your SG up to 1.025-1.026 for corals also.

 

[jpt100]

I have the zoas in a small 10 gal tank I've had since last June. The zoas were hitch hikers that grew on some dead coral I had in there. I had a couple clownfish but died a few weeks ago. All that's in there now is a feather duster, 2 starfish, a couple hermits and the zoas. I never adjusted or tested the calcium or anything in that tank I just kept up with the water changes and tested for the basic stuff and they seemed to survive lol.

 

[jpt100]

I Did the water changes got the nitrates down to 40. How often can I do a water change? I did one today in the morning (about 5hrs ago). Can I do another one? Or do I have to wait at least 24 hrs to do another one