Confused about specs.

[howdycst]

O.K. here they are:
Tank Sep-Up date 02/16/04
02/18/04 Ammonia .25 mg/l
02/20/04 Ammonia 1.25 mg/l I added 3 shrimp tails, they really started smelling bad.
02/22/04 Ammonia .25 mg/l
Nitrite <0.3 mg/l
PH 8.6
KH 11
02/23/04 Removed shrimp tails.
02/24/04 Ammonia 0mg/l
Nitrite <0.3 mg/l
PH 8.0
Salinity 1.025
02/26/04 Ammonia 0mg/l
Nitrite <0.3 mg/l
PH 8.0
Salinity 1.024
02/28/04 Ammonia 0mg/l
Nitrite <0.3 mg/l
PH 8.6 added 1 1/2 teaspoon of buffer after test.
Salinity 1.025
02/29/04 Added 1 yellow damsel, it was a friends that was attaching his other damsels.
03/01/04 Stopped skimmer and power filter, heater and power heads still running.
03/02/04 Ammonia 0mg/l
Nitrite <0.3 mg/l
PH 8.3
Salinity 1.025
Temp 79.5
So my question is whebn will the spike start? I keep a chart and track the process and haven't seen anything really happen.
55 gallon tank: 40# live sand, 15# Agralite and 58 pounds L/R. Thanks a bunch.

 

[maverick005]

looks like your amonia already spiked, you should have also been checking your nitrates. check them now and if they are at 0 then i would say the cylce is over.
HTH
-brandon

 

[howdycst]

That quick? I thought that it took something like 6 weeks. Should I turn the skimmer back on? do yah think the L/R and L/S helped with the cycle? I have all kinds of stuff in tanks from the above items: Snails, little shrimp things, aiptasia, little tube feather dusters, bristle worm, pods, worm things in sand bed you can see the ones on front glass.

 

[howdycst]

bump, I figured why my post wern't posting where I thought they should I accidentally changed the date on computer and it was filling them to that date. Sorry

 

[howdycst]

I'm not sure if the L/R was cured when I purchased it not. The LFS guy said that holding goes threw a cycle once every 20 days. Maybe from anew shipment that comes in. So is it safe to start adding fish and corals (slowly, real slow)? I'm worried about the influx on the bio load and the tank going threw another ammonia spike. Any suggestions?

 

[maverick005]

first thing i would do is get some 'joes juice' to kill that aptasia. i got some from the LFS for 10.99 and it works like a charm. i would add a few corals slowly. and make sure you have a good clean up crew also. your snails and crabs should total the number of gallons in your tank. so 55 total crabs and snails.
HTH
-brandon

 

[beaslbob]

If you nitrItes are still above 0.0, I would top feeding your fish. The nitrItes should go to 0.0 in a few days. then feed lightly and the nitrItes will stay at 0.0.