Is this enough for cycling?

[Shobu]

Hey guys!

23 year old Russian girl living in Japan. New to the hobby, first time cycling.

I have:
Cube 25c tank (15 litres)
Regular reef sand from the aquarium store
2 pieces of live rock (not sure if cured or not cured - what's the best way to tell? I forgot to ask the shop I got it from)
HOB AT-50 filter
Thermometer
Hydrometer

Is this enough? Due to some sudden bills that came in, I'm a bit broke so buying protein skimmers, etc is a bit tough.

2.5ish weeks since I started cycling. Salinity and pH are as they should be, buying the API master test kit next week for the other tests.

Attached an AXY FINE Mini LED light that can do blue or white light (does it matter for accelerating cycling?)



Progress for those curious:
1st few days of cycling:
Purple algae forms on patches of the live rock, the good kind I believe
A few short thick-ish purple tentacles formed on the highest point of the live rock
2 aiptasia, popped up one day and havent grown at all since

2nd week:
Live rock turning white on many parts
Lots of purple algae on other parts
Many short very thin hairs on the live rock in many places
Some green thin grass too
Hair algae in places - white and green
HEAPS more white patches on live rock, some green algae over some of the white patches on one of the rocks and no change on the other

Pics attached!
Pic 1 you can see a huge part with white all over
Pic 2 you can see growth
Pic 3 white and growth

(I blocked a lot of light to the aquarium today to see what would happen and when I came home the aiptasia was completely gone. One left no traces of ever existing, the other stuck its tentacles out after a few hours of having light on it but is super tiny and brown instead of the clean colour it originally was.)

 

[GilliganReef]

Hey guys!

23 year old Russian girl living in Japan. New to the hobby, first time cycling.

I have:
Cube 25c tank (15 litres)
Regular reef sand from the aquarium store
2 pieces of live rock (not sure if cured or not cured - what's the best way to tell? I forgot to ask the shop I got it from)
HOB AT-50 filter
Thermometer
Hydrometer

Is this enough? Due to some sudden bills that came in, I'm a bit broke so buying protein skimmers, etc is a bit tough.

2.5ish weeks since I started cycling. Salinity and pH are as they should be, buying the API master test kit next week for the other tests.

Attached an AXY FINE Mini LED light that can do blue or white light (does it matter for accelerating cycling?)



Progress for those curious:
1st few days of cycling:
Purple algae forms on patches of the live rock, the good kind I believe
A few short thick-ish purple tentacles formed on the highest point of the live rock
2 aiptasia, popped up one day and havent grown at all since

2nd week:
Live rock turning white on many parts
Lots of purple algae on other parts
Many short very thin hairs on the live rock in many places
Some green thin grass too
Hair algae in places - white and green
HEAPS more white patches on live rock, some green algae over some of the white patches on one of the rocks and no change on the other

Pics attached!
Pic 1 you can see a huge part with white all over
Pic 2 you can see growth
Pic 3 white and growth

(I blocked a lot of light to the aquarium today to see what would happen and when I came home the aiptasia was completely gone. One left no traces of ever existing, the other stuck its tentacles out after a few hours of having light on it but is super tiny and brown instead of the clean colour it originally was.)

To truly tell if your cycle is complete is to test yrou Amm, nit, and Nat. If they show all zeros then add either food or pure Ammonia up to 2 ppt and see if its gone in 24hr. If so your cycle is complete. If you dont know if your rock is cured or not, leaving it for another 2 weeks should be fine. Plus you will have a full cycle. Aiptasia can hide in rock crevice, I have had it before when I hit them with lemon juice. Must not have filled it like I thought. Thinking they were gone showed back up 2 weeks later. Only way to truly get rid of them is: injecting with boiling water, lemon juice, Aiptasia X, pulling rock out and burning them, or removing the rock. You can buy peppermint shrimp, but they are a hit or miss. I had three take care of my DT of Aiptasia in a few weeks. I was lucky, but I killed all the large ones with lemon juice. Good Luck!

 

[Shobu]

To truly tell if your cycle is complete is to test yrou Amm, nit, and Nat. If they show all zeros then add either food or pure Ammonia up to 2 ppt and see if its gone in 24hr. If so your cycle is complete. If you dont know if your rock is cured or not, leaving it for another 2 weeks should be fine. Plus you will have a full cycle. Aiptasia can hide in rock crevice, I have had it before when I hit them with lemon juice. Must not have filled it like I thought. Thinking they were gone showed back up 2 weeks later. Only way to truly get rid of them is: injecting with boiling water, lemon juice, Aiptasia X, pulling rock out and burning them, or removing the rock. You can buy peppermint shrimp, but they are a hit or miss. I had three take care of my DT of Aiptasia in a few weeks. I was lucky, but I killed all the large ones with lemon juice. Good Luck!

Thanks for the response! Yeah, I'll be getting the test kit after my pay comes in next week. Insurance and tax bills in Japan are a nightmare as an independent contractor, sadly.
Should I put in the food early to move things along? I've read of people doing that but I'm not sure if it's okay or not.

Regarding the live rock - I want to add some more a bit later. If I'm not sure whether it's cured or not, will curing it myself be bad for it if it turns out it was already cured? Putting it straight in the tank is a bad idea from what I've read.

Yeah, was looking at peppermint shrimp but my future puffer may eat them...
Ordered a syringe in eBay yesterday for injecting lemon juice just in case.

 

[GilliganReef]

Always ask the LFS if it is cured rock or not, but get in the habit of having a another tank for QT. Tank with heater, powerhead/air bubbler, and HOB filter. You want to QT anything wet before you place in your DT. For rocks I usually take a 5 gallon bucket/20g tote and throw a powerhead and heater in and check on it over a few months.

Feeding or ghost feeding is what I did to cycle/cure my LR for my current tank. You will need a testing kit to keep track of the progress. I had a calender I would write down every other day what my parameters were. Good Luck!