What Am I Doing Wrong, if Anything?

bugsman

bugsman

Member
I have a 29gallon tank with about 15 lbs. of live rock, 5 snails and 4 hermits that has been set up for about 2 weeks. I keep waiting for the cycling but everytime I do my water testing, everything is at 0. My salinity stays about 1.022 to 1.024 but nitrites, nitrates and amonia are all 0 and the ph is about 8.0. The temperature in the tank varies between 75 & 78. I realize I need to add about another 15 lbs. of live rock to the tank (could that be the problem?), I'm just trying to save my money to do that by next weekend. What am I missing here? From what I have read, my understanding is that nitrates and amonia should have spiked up and then come down.
I've ordered a couple of books hoping to figure out what else I need to do before I start adding something to the tank. I have not checked calcium levels nor do I have a skimmer on this tank yet. Do I need something like at this point?
I keep reading information here in the forum and I'm just getting a little confused. Any advice or information is appreciated.
Thanks.
 
btldreef

btldreef

Moderator
Try ghost feeding your tank. There may not have been enough decay to spike anything. I used live rock and live sand in my biocube and never got an ammonia reading at all, it can happen, but it's unusual.
To save some money, you can add dry/macro rock to your tank. The live rock you already have will seed it. Dry/macro rock is rock that was once live, but has been thoroughly dried out. Sometimes, it's safer than live rock because there is no risk of hitchhikers.
 
bugsman

bugsman

Member
I understand the dry/macro rock but what is ghost feeding? MY LFS has the dry rock in stock. Thanks.
 
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