I've been cycling my tank for the past month (I don't have the exact date with me at the moment but started a spreadsheet at home to track water parameters and take notes)
I used frozen shrimp to get things going, leaving them there in a cheese cloth for about 2 weeks, then took them out and have been ghost feeding flakes daily since. About a week and a half ago I tested my water parameters and still got 0 amonia, but did get a reading for nitrates (around 9). Yesterday morning I did another test and had a very small reading of amonia, as best a possible with red sea colour tests, and 5 for nitrates. I should mention that last week I added some purigen phosphate and nitrate control to the sump. I went ahead and did a 30% water change yesterday, planning on checking parameters on thursday/Friday this week.
Also, i've had some really low alkalinity levels since I started testing (half of what it should be, 2.6meq/l) using red sea coral pro, anyone else have similar issues. I will dose if necessay, but could low co2 levels in the room affect alk as it does pH (heard opening a window can affect ph.
Could my tank have cycled, I only used dry rock and sand, and find it odd that it would happen this fast. No algae bloom yet, but I don't have lights on the tank, so that help reduce algea.
Would I be good to go adding a couple of fish next week? The plan is to start with fish only then add some softies after 3 months or so, maybe a paly.
Very confused, much different results from my freshwater tank cycling time.
I used frozen shrimp to get things going, leaving them there in a cheese cloth for about 2 weeks, then took them out and have been ghost feeding flakes daily since. About a week and a half ago I tested my water parameters and still got 0 amonia, but did get a reading for nitrates (around 9). Yesterday morning I did another test and had a very small reading of amonia, as best a possible with red sea colour tests, and 5 for nitrates. I should mention that last week I added some purigen phosphate and nitrate control to the sump. I went ahead and did a 30% water change yesterday, planning on checking parameters on thursday/Friday this week.
Also, i've had some really low alkalinity levels since I started testing (half of what it should be, 2.6meq/l) using red sea coral pro, anyone else have similar issues. I will dose if necessay, but could low co2 levels in the room affect alk as it does pH (heard opening a window can affect ph.
Could my tank have cycled, I only used dry rock and sand, and find it odd that it would happen this fast. No algae bloom yet, but I don't have lights on the tank, so that help reduce algea.
Would I be good to go adding a couple of fish next week? The plan is to start with fish only then add some softies after 3 months or so, maybe a paly.
Very confused, much different results from my freshwater tank cycling time.
