need help with cycle

[forman]

I am a little confused with my tank, I set up my 10g close to 2 months ago with 10lbs live sand, 12lbs live uncured rock, hob filter, skimmer, and powerhead. I began testing the water about a week into it. I have never had ammonia spike above .25, trites and trates are also very low the entire time, ph is 8.2, water temp is 78, Last week I put a uncooked cocktail shrimp in the tank to try to raise the ammonia but no luck the shrimp is basically completely gone now(kind started flaking off into the water as it decomped) Is it possible I missed the cycle the fisrt week? I have been using seachem ammonia alert as well as a test kit and niether have shown anything really. I have had algea blooms as well as red slime for a little while(which has for the most part cleared up) algea is still growing thou. So should I continue to wait to see something or is it possible I missed it? I have no live creatures in the tank unless they came in on the rock and I have not seen them. Should I start to slowly add a small clean up crew to the tank? Thank You to everyone for any help on this topic as well as all the info I have picked up from this site.

Current Water Parameters:
PH 8.2
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 10ppm
S.G. 1.022
Temp 78

 

[rodgod20]

an algea bloom means usually that the cycle is done, and if its been 2 months you are probably safe to put some clean crew in the tank and go from there.

what I am doing is putting a cleaner crew and then about 2-3 weeks later start to add the coral and fish.

 

[Daytymer]

Because you have nitrates.. you've had ammonia, thus going through a cycle. It's possible that you missed the ammonia, although it's more likely that it didn't get high enough to register. At this point, I would say up your salinity to 1.025 and start adding a few creatures. I don't need to tell you to go slow, you are one of the few of us who has that figure out. Way to go!

Good luck!

 

[BaskingSpot]

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