My cycle

[USMA36]

started to cycle with a frozen shrimp and Colony bacteria. 90 gallon dt with dry rock and live sand It's been about a week. Yesterday my Ammonia was .4 Nitrites were .5 Nitrates were 5 Ph was 8.2 and salt was 35. Today my Ammonia is 0 Nitrite is 1, Nitrates are 5 salt 35 and Ph 8.0 how am I doing.

 

[PJS]

Almost there, looking good!
I'm sure you are excited!

 

[sbash]

The colony bacteria really speeds things up.

Have you removed the shrimp? If not, it might be a good idea to; they go foul quickly...

Your numbers imply you are in good shape. Once your Ammonia and Nitrites are 0 for a day or two, do a large water change and feed your tank food daily for the next week and make sure they stay at 0. I assume you are testing daily?

What is your action plan once the initial cycle is completed?

 

[USMA36]

I'm planning on picking up two ocellaris clowns. They'll go into qt tank when it's ready. The qt is just starting its cycle today. I'd like to get some life in the tank. Maybe some inverts?

 

[wkscott]

I'm planning on picking up two ocellaris clowns. They'll go into qt tank when it's ready. The qt is just starting its cycle today. I'd like to get some life in the tank. Maybe some inverts?

You may want to consider a clean up crew. Once the ammonia has passed, you'll start to get various algae outbreaks. Here is the vendor I use. Excellent service, good prices, and a R2R sponsor. Buying a package for your 90g is the easiest way. You'll get lots of critters and you won't have to try and figure out just what you need.

https://www.reefcleaners.org/cleaner-packages-with-free-shipping

 

[USMA36]

My Ammonia never went above .4 using a dead shrimp and Colony. Is this normal? Here are my tests from each day thru yesterday.

 

[sbash]

That is probably fine. As long as you saw the spike in Ammonia, then Nitrite, then they drop to zero you have completed the basic initial cycle. Add things slowly, like the clean up crew and the clowns after a couple weeks, then progress from there.

Your PH is moving a lot, is your skimmer running or an air supply of some sort?

 

[USMA36]

My ph according to the Red Sea kit is usually around 8.0 it dropped one day to 7.6 I believe because I had a loose hose with real bad salt creep that dropped my salinity. I fixed that and added an apex ph probe. Since then I've been average 8.0 with the Red Sea kit and the probe reads an average of 7.79. I do have a skimmer running and it's just getting broken/dialed in now. Air supply as in wavemakers? I have an icecap gyre 3000 gph set to about 70% on gyre for 14 hours a day and 40% pulse at night any higher on gyre mode causes a sand storm. Is this considered a normal ph fluctuation?

 

[USMA36]

I never had a big ammonia spike, is that ok? Highest it got was .4 using the Red Sea kit. Now 2 weeks after using a rather large shrimp and colony ATM I am still at 0 ammonia, 1 nitrite and 10 nitrates. I haven't moved off those numbers in about 7 days. Started tank with live sand from BRS and dry rock.