Is my cycle almost done?

[prince26]

Hello, i have a 55gal saltwater tank that i had to hard cycle. its 3 days away from being 6 weeks that it has been going thru the cycle, both nitrates, no2,no3 are at 0 sense the 4th week of the cycle, but my PH it steady at 8.0 and the Ammoina 0.25, both been like that for past 2, weeks.i have been keeping a detail track of it. I have a app on my ipad that keeps it in a chart. there is no algee growth at all either,havent done a water chance at all, lights off,filters off,heater off, nothing at all is on.
My question is, is it safe to put a clean up crew in there now?
also is there something im missing that the ph and ammoina has been the same for past 2 weeks?
Will a water change get rid of the ammoina level and put PH up to 8.4?
thank you.

 

[pezenfuego]

I would wait. What test kit are you using? You may check it against another's. You can do a water change. It will lower the ammonia and help balance the pH. The problem is that doing a water change will not add bacteria to the system. You need your bacteria populations to flourish at this point.

 

[flower]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Prince26 http:///t/393119/is-my-cycle-almost-done#post_3494842
Hello, i have a 55gal saltwater tank that i had to hard cycle. its 3 days away from being 6 weeks that it has been going thru the cycle, both nitrates, no2,no3 are at 0 sense the 4th week of the cycle, but my PH it steady at 8.0 and the Ammoina 0.25, both been like that for past 2, weeks.i have been keeping a detail track of it. I have a app on my ipad that keeps it in a chart. there is no algee growth at all either,havent done a water chance at all, lights off,filters off,heater off, nothing at all is on.
My question is, is it safe to put a clean up crew in there now?
also is there something im missing that the ph and ammoina has been the same for past 2 weeks?
Will a water change get rid of the ammoina level and put PH up to 8.4?
thank you.
Hello and welcome to the site,
If there is nothing in the tank...how can you get an ammonia reading at all? At any rate the ammonia must be 0, as well as nitrites since both are deadly to sea life. No on the CUC...you still have to wait, with no algae growth at all, they have nothing to claen up...which means the CUC will starve.
Tell us about your system:

• 
  Filtration
• 
  Power heads
• 
  How much live rock
  What kind of substrate
  What kind of lighting
  What brand of test kits...lab type, not strip

If you have ammonia, no NO2 or NO3...then you have not cycled the tank. The small amount of ammonia could be from live rock, but not enough to really get the cycle going. You need to toss in a piece of raw shrimp, pure ammonia, or ghost feed the tank to kick start the cycle.

 

[prince26]

hi and thanks..
only thing i have in the tank is
55lb of Fiji sand
60lb of live rock (Carib Sea aquascaping reef rock)
filtration--Penn Plax Cascade 700 GPH
one digital thermometer and one regular one
lighting--Aquasun t5 HO 48 two light bulbs, one ocean and 2ND coral.
got a protein skimmer
power head--Aqueon Circulation Pump
test kit--API Saltwater marine test kit(test nitrates,ammonia, and PH)
the salt i use for water--reef crystal.
and i used fish food to start the cycle.
hope this helps u understand my situation alittle bit more, thanks again.

 

[pezenfuego]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Prince26 http:///t/393119/is-my-cycle-almost-done#post_3494848
hi and thanks..
only thing i have in the tank is
55lb of Fiji sand
60lb of live rock (Carib Sea aquascaping reef rock)
filtration--Penn Plax Cascade 700 GPH
one digital thermometer and one regular one
lighting--Aquasun t5 HO 48 two light bulbs, one ocean and 2ND coral.
got a protein skimmer
power head--Aqueon Circulation Pump
test kit--API Saltwater marine test kit(test nitrates,ammonia, and PH)
the salt i use for water--reef crystal.
and i used fish food to start the cycle.
hope this helps u understand my situation alittle bit more, thank
The best thing to do is ghost feed as if you actually have fish. Yeah, it's wasteful, but it will help balance your system. The idea is to mimic your behaviors as if you have fish. If your system can't tell the difference between having fish and not having fish, then you are doing a good job (does that make sense?) In any case, the bacteria will eventually build up and you'll be good to get started.
You should look into more test kits. If you want coral, then you should be able to test for phosphates, kH, and calcium as a miminum. Magnesium is also good and nitrites is a good idea as well. Granted, once your nitrates spike, it is reasonable to assume that the nitrites are gone. I don't have the faith to do that and would recommend getting the test anyhow.

 

[prince26]

OK so basically put fish food in once a day till the levels and such get to zero? and i do plan on getting coral in the future, but I'm gonna wait at least 6 months before i even think bout that you know.

 

[siptang]

I would make sure that ammonia goes to zero and yes water change will definitely take care of that. Run your lights, heaters, filter as normal and ghost feed for a little bit (bit of flake) and watch ammonia spike a bit then reduce back to 0 then you are good to go. (in a nut shell)

 

[florida joe]

So you are saying you read ammonia and not reading nitrites