I have cycled my tank with 200 lbs of live rock and 320 lbs of live sand only took 2 weeks :D All reading are back to 0 except ammonia which looks to be between 0 and .12 not sure if that is terrible. Just placed 60lbs of miracle mud in fuge recommendation for 300 gallon tank and in 2 days or so will start to grow some chaeto algae. So my question is after I let the algae grow in the tank for about a week or so can I start placing fish or corals? Is there anything else of note that I have to let happen? Also I figured it would be a good Idea to not run a skimmer for the first two months to allow the different organisms develop freely any pro's and cons to this idea? I also do not plan on running lights until get the fish and corals.
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- Thread starter M3AN ONE
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Greenman
Reefing newb
good god how big is your tank?
Are you sure your cycle finished or is it just starting? Because you shouldn't have any ammonia, it's toxic to the fish and corals. Ammonia should be the first one to go back down to 0 during the cycle. Is there a possibility that you read it wrong? Maybe your test kit isn't completely accurate. I know the API test kits aren't that great for ammonia.
ErinCahir
Sausage Wrangler
+1 reefnoob.
Keep monitoring for a couple weeks.
Keep monitoring for a couple weeks.
FishyReef
Broke Reefer!
What do you mean by "there is die off that wasn't not there before"?
Oh, and if you have fully cycled, then you should have seen your nitrates rise. They will not return to zero on their own, you need to do a water change once the cycle is complete to get them to come down. If you are seeing zero nitrates then I would guess your cycle may just be getting started.
