One week Aquarium Update

[jercompton94]

Hi All -

New to the saltwater community and currently is in the process of setting up my aquarium.
It has been been a whole week already and live rock / sand has been in there since day one.
if you can see the image below , these are the current test of my tank. It looks like I have 0.25 ppm for Ammonia and 0.25 ppm Nitrite and <10 ppm Nitrate.

Curious if this is still in the nitrogen cycle/phase and if I should be doing a water change already.

Hope this information helps!!

 

[lapin]

Have you been feeding ammonia to the bacteria in the live rock?

 

[lil sumpin]

What kind of sand and rock are you using?

 

[jercompton94]

What kind of sand and rock are you using?

Bought live rock from the aquarium store. And Caribsea for the sand

 

[jercompton94]

Have you been feeding ammonia to the bacteria in the live rock?

We have a fish (clownfish) in the tank and have been feeding it fish food. But not adding any ammonia.
Did add turbo ( nitrifying bacteria ) into the tank at the beginning to go through the cycle

 

[TX_REEF]

I wouldn't do any water changes until your ammonia reads a clear zero. Then, you can do water changes as needed to bring down nitrate.

 

[Uncle99]

We have a fish (clownfish) in the tank and have been feeding it fish food. But not adding any ammonia.
Did add turbo ( nitrifying bacteria ) into the tank at the beginning to go through the cycle

The fish will add ammonia.
The initial cycle would have been completed a week ago using LR, if not, the clown would have been dead.
Ready.

API test are at best, ballpark.

Change water only when nitrate is consistently rising.

 

[jercompton94]

I wouldn't do any water changes until your ammonia reads a clear zero. Then, you can do water changes as needed to bring down nitrate.

But still have alittle ammonia and nitrite, is the cycle not done then?

 

[TX_REEF]

But still have alittle ammonia and nitrite, is the cycle not done then?

correct, I wouldn't consider it done until your system can process 2ppm of ammonia into nitrate (with zero ammonia or nitrite remaining) in 24 hours.

 

[lapin]

Its close. Give it a week. Change 50% of the water and your done.