Newbie cycling

[SirKevinD]

Hey everyone! First off, thanks for putting up with people like me haha. Ok, so day one of cycling my new reef tank I put in a shrimp in some panty hose and hung it in my tank. It disintegrated in about 3 days. Checked my water chemistry today and I'm at 1ppm ammonia, 5 ppm nitrites and 20 ppm nitrates. Does it look like my cycle is going good? How much long would you think it may take? And lastly, should I turn my skimmer on now?

 

[Mr tooheys]

Your on the right track,you can pretty much say when ammonia 0 nitrites 0 and nitrates 20 then do a 25% water change your right to go then..oh yeah turn then skimmer on now it needs to go through a break in period