Cycled or not?

[hubbchappy]

I am new to the marine aquaria. I started my tank about 3 weeks ago. Right from the start my ph and alk have been high.( Well water?) .I have been adding lemon juice to the mix to try and bring it down with a little success. My Nitrates and Nitrites have been reading zero right from the start, but my ammonia levels have been constant at .25ppm, which I am understanding to be dangerous. I added live rock to my tank and a small live rock w/ callerpa(sp) to my refugium, in the hopes of raising my nitrates and nitrites to jumpstart the cycle. I have also been adding Biozyme to the tank as prescribed. After 4 days no change.I have two snails that came on the rock, and they seem to be thriving. Still NO3 and NO2 @zero, ammonia @ .25ppm. Should I add a couple pre-cooked shrimp into the tank to start getting some decay going to jump the cycle or should I just leave it alone?
 
My Setup:
40 gal tank above
10 gal refugium below, with protien skimmer built in
about 15 lbs of live rock
callerpa for the refugium
live sand above, about 1" thick
miracle mud below about 1" thick
Heater
good bright t5 lighting above and below on opposing lighting timer
powerhead above for good water flow
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[krishj39]

Welcome to the hobby! In a few months I look forward to hearing about how you have upgraded to a 125 gallon. Yeah, it's that addictive.
Here's my advice, feed the aquarium as if you had it stocked with the fish you will be putting in it. In the future, it is ultimately this food you add that will be consumed and then go through the nitrogen cycle or be mechanically removed from you system. Therefore, if you just start doing now exactly what your system will need to be able to deal with in the future then you should be in good shape. I would recommend using a pH buffer instead of lemon juice. The live rock you added will make sure have seeded the necessary bacteria. However, will you be adding more live rock? You may as well add that now, adding a lot of cured live rock and feeding the tank as I described is the fastest way to get your tank to cycle, in my opinion. The macro algae you have added may slow down the cycle as it will consume the same things as the bacteria you are trying to foster, but again, I wouldn't take it out at this point. Make the tank as close to the way it will function once it is fully up and running and you can't go wrong. If you have problems with it before the fish are in there, then you know you will have trouble after they are added.

 

[flower]

Welcome to the site..Well water..NO, use RO (Reverse Osmoses) water only. You shouldn't need any kind of buffers the new salt mix should be perfectly balanced.
If you don't have your own RO unit, purchase water from Wal-mart for .37 cents a gallon. In a 40g tank you need at least another 5 to 10 pounds of live rock.
Callerpa has a tendancy to go asexual and cloud up the tank..replace that wth some Cheato. (after the tank is done cycling) I see you have a refugium but what about a sump or other form of filtration?
Use RAW shrimp to jump start the cycle.
To be honest I would go get new water from wal-mart and dump what you have, swap out as much as you possibly can with the better quaity water. Stop worrying about trying to keep things on track..let the tank cycle.
Well water has all kinds of nasty stuff in it, including trace metals. You are looking at a future of hair algae and other water related problems using that water.

 

[bang guy]

A constant ammona reading of 0.25ppm is pretty good for cycling a tank. Any lower and you can starve bacteria, higher than 1.0ppm and you begin to kill off beneficial organisms in your live rock and slow down the growth of Nitrobacter bacteria. If the ammonia level is actually 0.25 I would not change anything but perhaps begin to feed your tank a small daily dose of fish food.
I would recommend not adding lemon juice to your mix. Ignore your PH until your tank stabilizes.
Are you using the Aquarium Pharaceutical Ammonia test kit? They are notorious for reading a false positive.
+1 to Flower's suggestion of using purified water instead of well water.
Krish has also given some very good advice on cycling a saltwater tank.
I'm not a fan of the shrimp cycling method but it will work. Sometimes with shrimp the ammonia level can spike high and this is damaging to the system in the long run.