Is my tank ready?

by **joeyt9628** on 08 Nov 2011 14:46

Got 4 new salifert test kits today, 1 each for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph.
Found these tests a little difficult to read.
The tank is cycling 6 weeks now, to start i will use as fowlr then upgrade to a reef in a few months time.

Here are my results -
Ammonia - Less than 0.25 (was a little cloudy but could not see any colour i.e creamy to yellow)
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 10 to 25ppm
Ph - 8.0 or a little higher

What do ye think? Is my tank ready for some fish? Wanted to get a few chromis to start with.

by **brady1** on 08 Nov 2011 14:49

your ammonia should be 0 and your nitrate is still a litle high. how long has your tank been cycling.

by **billy ocean** on 08 Nov 2011 14:56

Get that Ammonia right down first.

by **joeyt9628** on 08 Nov 2011 15:15

its only been cycling 6 weeks now but thats from the first day i started, i have had to add the lr slowly over the course and still need a bit more. Have really only had roughly 20kg lr in for maybe 2-3 weeks and was just adding a few kg's at a time till now. Also i only added the powerheads last week so the water has only been moving round since then too.
Just grew a little impatient and got ahead of myself this morning, chilled a bit now.
Was reading up somewhere that i should start with a good clean up crew, adding snails and such slowly over a month and feeding them with whatever they need. Recommended?
I also added 4 hermit crabs and one turbo snail over the past 3-4 weeks, 2 of the crabs have vanished in the last few days, the turbo snail doesnt do much and the other 2 crabs seem to be happy enough.

by **brady1** on 08 Nov 2011 15:35

slowly slowly. you need to let it fully cycle. any signs of ammonia shows it has still not fully cycled. and ammonia will kill life stock

by **Anthony** on 09 Nov 2011 13:50

Adding Live rock is like adding a new fish. It will increase the bio load until it has cycled.
Its better to add it all together.

by **joeyt9628** on 09 Nov 2011 20:04

yeah thanks for the advice, i added another 9kg today, got it from a guy on here, thanks tommy. Have about 30 kgs in there now and think this is enough? 30kg/275ltr?
Ill keep testing for now, and just wait till the ammonia is at zero, thanks again.

by **robbiesreef** on 10 Nov 2011 00:03

Do you have your skimmer running? And powerheads?

by **gerr** on 10 Nov 2011 00:11

joeyt9628 wrote:yeah thanks for the advice, i added another 9kg today, got it from a guy on here, thanks tommy. Have about 30 kgs in there now and think this is enough? 30kg/275ltr?
Ill keep testing for now, and just wait till the ammonia is at zero, thanks again.

once the ammonia reaches zero you then have to keep an eye for a rise in nitrites and they will usually peak at around 15ppm and then will start to drop off and will have to also read zero before your tank is fully cycled

by **joeyt9628** on 10 Nov 2011 11:01

robbiesreef wrote:Do you have your skimmer running? And powerheads?

Yep, the skimmer has been on since day 1, the powerheads have been on the last week.

gerr wrote:
joeyt9628 wrote:yeah thanks for the advice, i added another 9kg today, got it from a guy on here, thanks tommy. Have about 30 kgs in there now and think this is enough? 30kg/275ltr?
Ill keep testing for now, and just wait till the ammonia is at zero, thanks again.

once the ammonia reaches zero you then have to keep an eye for a rise in nitrites and they will usually peak at around 15ppm and then will start to drop off and will have to also read zero before your tank is fully cycled

That makes sense. Ill keep me eye on em.

Thanks all for help and advice.