Finally the time has come

[sh0tyme83]

Well it's about time but after 3 1/2 weeks, my first saltwater tank has gone through it's cycle. I show 0 ammonia, <.1 nitrite, <.5 nitrate. I am doing a 10 gallon water change on a 37 gallon tank so hopefully that will help lower these. So my question is what should I start with? I got a few hermits today and a few turbo snails, all from petco. They seem to be doing good, they are all climbing around on the glass. I was going to start off with corals and then start to get some fish. What should I start with? Mushrooms, Xenia?

 

[jski711]

first off you can start by not buying anything else from petco!!! second, how did you cycle your tank?? what type of lighting do you have? i would start by adding a fish, maybe a pair of clowns. you don't want to jump into anything right now, take it slow or you will regret it.

 

[sh0tyme83]

I cycled the tank by adding the live rock and live sand and just letting it go. I have like an outer orbit setup. It has a 150 Metal Halide, 2 - 65 watt PC's <- atinic, or however you spell it, (the blue bulbs) and lunar lights in one set up.

 

[sh0tyme83]

Sorry I forgot to add the the metal Halide is 10K

 

[SlowCobra]

If you are showing ANY nitrite the tank is not cycled.

 

[mcliffy2]

It is probably not fully cycled, but I think you could probably start adding some clean up crew, Id do that before corals or fish. I personally like etropicals.com, because they have free shipping over $60 and are a liveaquaria company (which means great customer support and healthy livestock).

 

[kawicivic]

2nd etropicals... just got an order from the a week or two ago. the free shipping is on the build your own reef package. I also think cleanup crew would be fine to add and maybe even some corals... look for some cheap frags... the ones you mentioned would probably to fine.

 

[sh0tyme83]

Ok after I did the water change last night, I retested and everything looks great. I did like a 35 % water change.

0 ammonia
0 nitrite
<.1 nitrate

 

[SlowCobra]

Everything tested as it did because you did a huge water change in turn effecting the actual cycle process. It is your tank and your money but it is my opinion that the tank is not ready for livestock. Now that you interrupted the cycle I would wait a few weeks and monitor parameters to see if ammonia or nitrite are present. If they show up the tank is NOT cycled. A new tank is typically fully cycled when ammonia and nitrite no longer are present.

 

[spider86]

Was your live rock cured before you put it in?

 

[jski711]

are you planning on adding any clownfish to your tank??? if so i would add them now. thats what i used to cycle my tank from the begining. You are already "partially" cycled and IMO would be fine to add a pair of clowns. then after that wait about a month and continue testing and im sure you will see a smaller cycle again as your tank builds up good bacteria. HTH. any other questions feel free to shoot me a pm.

Jake