New Tank Setup Questions

[Bear_]

Hell everyone,

Here is my new tank setup was officially flowing water on New Years Eve. Here are the current levels I am measuring.

2020-01-01
DAY1
Ammonia 2.0 ppm
Phosphate 0.25 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Nitrate Under 5.0 ppm
2020-01-02
DAY2
Ammonia 1.0-2.0 ppm
Phosphate 0.25 ppm
Nitrite 0.25 ppm
Nitrate 20 ppm
Salinity Between 1.023-1.024
(Added a bit of saltwater after test)

I used Fritzzyme9 for the beneficial bacteria. My current questions are..

When should I turn on my Protein Skimmer?

I understand its only Day 2 this is going to be a while but is 20ppm pretty high for the beginning cycle?
(I added a half teaspoon of ammonia chloride on the 31st when I turned the tank on).

When should I add some Chaeto to the refugium?

Edit: Another side note the lights aren't actually on, just to show off the new setup for the pictures, the lighting will eventually be on proper timers.

 

[krbnsol]

Looks real nice! I think you'd leave the skimmer off until the cycle is completed and after your first water change.

I'd leave the chaeto out as well until you have cycled. Maybe others have different experiences and can offer some insight.

 

[RocketEngineer]

I would leave the lights off for now, the bacteria don’t need it, the uglies will use it so keep it off for now. I wouldn’t turn the skimmer in until you have at least a few fish. Right now it won’t do anything as it has nothing of significance to remove. Same for the cheato, just leave that out until you get fish.

 

[DanH86]

My experience from cycling back in the summer:
- leave lights off
- don’t bother testing for nitrate, the presence of nitrite is throwing off the results
- I ran the skimmer purely to break it in. Leave the drain pipe open and pointed into the sump
- no need to keep dosing ammonia, the bacteria can survive without continual dosing.
- the final stage, 0 ammonia and sky high nitrite, can take forever to see a nitrite drop and is the most frustrating part, but it will drop and when it does it’ll be fast.

 

[Fishy212]

Looking good!!!
Don’t need to run that skimmer just yet. You don’t have a significant bio load. There are plenty of people who run reef tanks with and without skimmers. The beautiful thing is there are always others personal experiences and opinions backed up with trial and error results.

looks like you did a good amount of research and know what you are doing. Good luck to you

 

[Bear_]

Thanks everyone, appreciate the info. I haven't looked at this post in a while. I ended up running the skimmer and it actually has been pulling alot of smelly green crap out cause I dumped it was was green and smelt bad. I did use some old dry rock along with new stuff could be from that even though I cleaned it well. I was running byhe refugium light on the chaeto two days in a row and it already started growing red cyano on the chaeto so I rinsed it off put it back and keeping all lights off for now until the cycle is finished. Also waiting for some GFO to come in so I can toss it in with my Carbon reactor. Let me know your thoughts on all this.