Am I on the right track ?

[broomer5]

I am new to saltwater tanks, and just recently set up a 55 gallon about 2 weeks ago. I've read a fair amount before undertaking this new hobby, and talked to several people at local stores. Sure seems to be a lot of various "opinions" on best way to cycle your new tank. Currently I have added about 25 pounds of live rock, a handfull ( 5 ) damsels and about 10 small blue-legged hermits, on the advise from a very well run coral/reef/fish store owner. I was told that this would be more than enough to start the cycling process. My question is .... have I placed too much in the tank so far ? I monitor all the water quality parameters, and they are holding stable;
pH 8.2 SG=1.021 Temp 77F but .. and here is my other question ... So far no reading of ammonia nitrites or nitrates at all. I've been watching for an ammonia level increase but to date .. nada ! Am I on the right track here ? Should I just be patient ? Any replys would be greatly appreciated.

 

[donut]

You should be alright. Though most seem to suggest using no more than 2 or 3 fish during the cycling process, Damsels are just about bulletproof! They seem to be able to take some pretty rough water conditions without breaking a sweat.
I don't know too many people whose Damsels died of well.... just about anything!
Concerning the lack of change in your ammonia levels... Idunno. My best guess is that the live rock has something to do with it. I've got a metric buttload of live rock in my tank and I never saw an increase in ammonia or nitrites during the conditioning process either. What's even stranger is the fact that at that point, the only real filtration I had was a skimmer.
Maybe we're just lucky!

Good luck!

 

[dennish]

broomer,
you sound like your in a similar situation to me. You might want to look through the thread I started, "Did my tank cycle and I missed it?", on this board.
You have a little bigger tank, a lot more fish/inverts, and a little more live rock, though I am about to pick up some more live rock tomorrow.
I need to do a water check today, but I have yet to see any ammonia or nitrites yet.-been almost 3 weeks now.
[This message has been edited by DennisH (edited 04-28-2000).]