Should I be concerned??

[nubomb]

I've been cycling my 55G tank for about 3 weeks now with 30 lbs of live rock. My amonia levels = 0, Nitrite=0, Nitrate=10. It's actually been this way for about 1.5 weeks now with know change.

Parts of my live rock have turned white, I'm asumming this is normal die off and I plan to scrub it with a toothbrush once I do a water change (scrub it out of my main tank).

My concern is it doesn't look like my tank had much of a cycle. I also have no brown algea problems so far. I was expecting an outbreak due to new tank syndrome?? Am I paranoid?

Other tank specifics... I don't have a protein skimmer yet. Will be getting one this week. It will be a FOWLR. Water temp consistant 80, SG=1.021 and a pH = 8.0-8.2. I also don't keep the lights on in the tank for long periods of time. I have normal output lighting only.

 

[Bandsaw]

Your salt is a little low.

Some cycles happen pretty quickly. In my 75g, although I was testing for NH3 once a week, I missed the it all together and went directly to having NO2.

Did you test or see any traces of NH3 or NO2 during the cycle? If you did, then I would say the cycle is done.

As for algae outbreaks, that will come. Maybe not for a few weeks or a few months, but most tanks do go through an outbreak while maturing.

How long do the lights stay on for? Coralline Algae require carbonates to sustain themselves. Perhaps now is a good time to test your alkalinity and Calcium levels.

 

[raddogz]

You may experience an algae outbreak in the sixth week. When I initially set up my minibow, I checked for three weeks and all the water parameters were fine. At the sixth week after I started adding corals and fish I had an algae bloom.

 

[Bandsaw]

For me, it was going into my forth month. Big Diatom Outbreak.

I am just at the end of a Hair Algae Outbreak.

 

[nubomb]

In the beggining I kept the lights on for 4-8 hours. Then I kept reading about algea breakouts with new tanks and that it may be better to do without alot of light. For the last 10 days I have had them pretty much off. I plan to have them running for about 8-12 hours once I'm setup with some fish.

I had a small spike in Amonia and Nitrite for about a week. Nothing significant. I assumed I just got some good live rock and had very little die off. The LFS is only 10 minutes from me.

I've been doing kH tests. About 10 days ago it was at 12 and recently it is around 9-10. I just started to add liquid calcium and kent marine super buffer dKH.

I didn't plan to test for calcium. I heard the tests were inaacurate and not absolutly necessary for a FOWLR.

 

[Fast Fred]

Sounds to me like you're cycled! The live rock you purchased was probalby already cured, or close to it. This would explain the rapid cycle. As far as scrubbing the LR, that's your option. Probably not nessisary though. If you decide to scrub it anyway, do it in conjunction with a water change, and use the old water that you removed from the tank to scrub and rise the LR in. Time to start SLOWLY adding fish...Right after you buy a good test kit!

 

[fakename]

If your tank is going to be FOWLR, you really don't need to dose calcium. Your fish won't really care what your calcium level is, so unless you REALLY love the look of coralline, it's a bit of a waste IMHO.
That being said......if you are going to dose it, you need to test for it. Don't add anything you are not going to check levels on, it will cause you trouble in the long run.....
Cheers,
Aaron