I’m excited to get some live stock. Tanks been set up two weeks now and did the first water change! Any suggestions or tips for me?
I generally like to run what is called a digestion test for a new and just cycled tank. I'll take a known concentration of ammonium chloride and put it in to the tank. Depending on how much ammonium chloride is consumed in 24 hours, really tells me how much I can stock immediately.
A new tank that can easily consume 4 ppm ammonia in one day, can stock bigger fish/coral or more of them at once than a tank that can only consume 0.25 ppm ammonia a day. However, if your not confident yet,
always stock slowly. Just cause folks see me do crazy things and it works, doesn't mean it's because it's easy. lol. I just have a better grasp of the science behind the hobby so I can bend the traditional rules a bit.
Your tank is cycled either way but the tank with 4 ppm ammonia consumption has far many more times of bacteria.
If your not sure how to interpret the numbers, just make sure that ammonia and nitrite read zero. If you have organisms to consume nitrate which is the end product of the cycle, you may see very little or none at all. However, in newer tanks, it's more likely you'll see some. I prefer to keep about 5-10 ppm nitrate at the beginning. If there is a bit more than that, I'll do an appropriate water change to bring it there.
Also the guys at WUW are pretty good too. Their tanks are a good testament of their skills/knowledge in the hobby.
