Newbie - Mid Cycle ?'s

[superwade2]

Hi, this is my first post here and I've very new to SW Aquariums. I have done a lot of reading on here and other Aquarium Forum sites as well as a couple books.
I have a 46 Gal Bowfront, AquaC Remora Pro Skimmer with Mag3 Pump, (2) MaxiJet1200 Powerheads, 150w Heater, Emperor 280 Bio Filter, 36" Coralife Lunar Aqualight. My H20 (RO/DI) is sitting at a SG of right at 1.025 at 78-79 degrees.
It's now been 14 days since I added 75-80 lbs of LR into my 46 Gal Bowfront Tank. The LR was 45 lbs of Select Fiji Premium Rock and 35 lbs Fiji Foundation Rock. I also had about 20 lbs of LS and 30ish lbs of Non LS. I did a Shrimpless/Fishless Cycle, hopeing that the die-off from my LR would be enough to start the cycle, but did add some SeaChem Stability for the first week (sold by LFS before doing much reading on this fourm). Have also been adding a pinch of flake fish food daily.
I have been testing the water every 2-3 days and my reading from last night were;
Free Ammonia (NH3) = 0
Total Ammonia (NH3 & NH4+) = 0
Nitrite (NO2) = 0
Nitrate (NO3) = 20
Now I never really saw a HUGE spike in the Ammonia... it did go up, but never much past the .1-.2 Range... Nitrites never went real high either, maybe not much past 1 on my SeaChem Kit.
I never really liked the SeaChem test kit, so I am getting some Salifert Ammonia/Nirtrate/Nitrite test kits this week, so I will confirm all of these things in a couple of days. I also considered taking a sample to the LFS to see if they can run thier tests as well.
I have noticed more color growth on my LR over the past few days as well.
I guess I don't know if this means my cycle is over, or never really started... I am looking at a cleanup crew and to start thinking about stocking, but not 100% sure where I'm at.
Any tips or words of wisdom?
Thanks,
SW2

 

[jerth6932]

Originally Posted by SuperWade2
Hi, this is my first post here and I've very new to SW Aquariums. I have done a lot of reading on here and other Aquarium Forum sites as well as a couple books.
I have a 46 Gal Bowfront, AquaC Remora Pro Skimmer with Mag3 Pump, (2) MaxiJet1200 Powerheads, 150w Heater, Emperor 280 Bio Filter, 36" Coralife Lunar Aqualight. My H20 (RO/DI) is sitting at a SG of right at 1.025 at 78-79 degrees.
It's now been 14 days since I added 75-80 lbs of LR into my 46 Gal Bowfront Tank. The LR was 45 lbs of Select Fiji Premium Rock and 35 lbs Fiji Foundation Rock. I also had about 20 lbs of LS and 30ish lbs of Non LS. I did a Shrimpless/Fishless Cycle, hopeing that the die-off from my LR would be enough to start the cycle, but did add some SeaChem Stability for the first week (sold by LFS before doing much reading on this fourm). Have also been adding a pinch of flake fish food daily.
I have been testing the water every 2-3 days and my reading from last night were;
Free Ammonia (NH3) = 0
Total Ammonia (NH3 & NH4+) = 0
Nitrite (NO2) = 0
Nitrate (NO3) = 20
Now I never really saw a HUGE spike in the Ammonia... it did go up, but never much past the .1-.2 Range... Nitrites never went real high either, maybe not much past 1 on my SeaChem Kit.
I never really liked the SeaChem test kit, so I am getting some Ammonia/Nirtrate/Nitrite test kits this week, so I will confirm all of these things in a couple of days. I also considered taking a sample to the LFS to see if they can run thier tests as well.
I have noticed more color growth on my LR over the past few days as well.
I guess I don't know if this means my cycle is over, or never really started... I am looking at a cleanup crew and to start thinking about stocking, but not 100% sure where I'm at.
Any tips or words of wisdom?
Thanks,
SW2
Well the fact that you almost have 2LBS worth of LR in there will help your cycle out alot.... I have noticed the people who cycle with alot of LR have a very short, and unintense cycle..... meaning no huge spike! So IMO I think that you went through the SPIKE that you were looking for. But to be safe either take it to the LFS for testing or get the Salifert tests to confirm that you are actually at 0's!
Welcome to the board BTW!! Have fun on here!

 

[mikeyjer]

Another thing I want to add is by having LS helps too!!! It definatelly helps shorten the cycling time. I would probably wait another week and test the water again and if everything is still fine, I would do a 20-25% water change to lower that nitrate then it would be time to add in some cleanup crews. Then you can add a few starter fish like a Green Chromis or a Clown fish. :happyfish

 

[superwade2]

Thanks for the Advice...
My New Test Kits should arrive today I think... I will see how things look, give it the weekend, then maybe have LFS test the Water, and if things still look good, go ahead and start with a small Clean Up Crew... (and 25% Water Change as recommneded)
I'll keep everyone posted on what I find out...
SW2