Things I should have NOT done (and should have known better!):
I shouldn't have used the ammonium chloride BECAUSE I had live rock. In retrospect that was a dumb move as it I think it stressed and burnt my live rock defeating much of the purpose of getting live rock.
Live rock is still good and it is still beneficial for my needs but I should have just used some dead shrimo, bio spira and water changes in the beginning to keep as much life on the rock alive as possible instead of adding in additional ammonia. I believe the die off from tshrimp, and decaying shrimp was sufficient to cycle the tank in the first place.
Usually on builds I use at least 80% live rock to dry. This time it was more like 60-70% dry rock to live so thought I needed the ammonium chloride to cycle it faster. I would not do so again if I redid this build. Oh well live and learn!
Yesterday I added 2 bottles of bio spira in the tank to lower the nitrites. It did its job well and today reads 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites and 25 nitrates.
I plan on doing a huge water change (about 90%), a day or 2 before getting livestock, and adding in more bio spira the day before livestock arrives. This should happen next week.
I shouldn't have used the ammonium chloride BECAUSE I had live rock. In retrospect that was a dumb move as it I think it stressed and burnt my live rock defeating much of the purpose of getting live rock.
Live rock is still good and it is still beneficial for my needs but I should have just used some dead shrimo, bio spira and water changes in the beginning to keep as much life on the rock alive as possible instead of adding in additional ammonia. I believe the die off from tshrimp, and decaying shrimp was sufficient to cycle the tank in the first place.
Usually on builds I use at least 80% live rock to dry. This time it was more like 60-70% dry rock to live so thought I needed the ammonium chloride to cycle it faster. I would not do so again if I redid this build. Oh well live and learn!
Yesterday I added 2 bottles of bio spira in the tank to lower the nitrites. It did its job well and today reads 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites and 25 nitrates.
I plan on doing a huge water change (about 90%), a day or 2 before getting livestock, and adding in more bio spira the day before livestock arrives. This should happen next week.