Hi guys. I am new to this forum. My name is Steven and i am from just outside Glasgow.
I am not new to aquariums by any means what so ever but i am new to Marine setups. I have just converted my existing tank to a marine setup. The total volume including sump is 308 Litres. I am a bit weird in the sense that i drew my full tank and stand on AutoCAD and worked everything out from there. It may or may not be the way that you guys do it but the sump seems to be working correctly.
Anyway i am struggling with the cycling. I have 60lb of live sand. Arka rock in my display tank and 1kg of live rock in the sump ( i got this from my local marine stockist ). I originally started with the prawn cycling although i think this is where i went wrong, i used a frozen prawn. I have all test readings recorded almost every day. I then switch to feeding the tank with flake food. I started cycling on 4th of this month. My ammonia has never went above 1ppm and nitrite 1ppm but my nitrate is currently sitting at 20ppm. I am royally confused.
Any help that anyone could give me would be greatly appreciated and i am fully open to criticism as that's how we all learn.
I have attached a picture of my tank, not the best of pictures but i can take any pictures that anyone may want to see if it helps.
I am not new to aquariums by any means what so ever but i am new to Marine setups. I have just converted my existing tank to a marine setup. The total volume including sump is 308 Litres. I am a bit weird in the sense that i drew my full tank and stand on AutoCAD and worked everything out from there. It may or may not be the way that you guys do it but the sump seems to be working correctly.
Anyway i am struggling with the cycling. I have 60lb of live sand. Arka rock in my display tank and 1kg of live rock in the sump ( i got this from my local marine stockist ). I originally started with the prawn cycling although i think this is where i went wrong, i used a frozen prawn. I have all test readings recorded almost every day. I then switch to feeding the tank with flake food. I started cycling on 4th of this month. My ammonia has never went above 1ppm and nitrite 1ppm but my nitrate is currently sitting at 20ppm. I am royally confused.
Any help that anyone could give me would be greatly appreciated and i am fully open to criticism as that's how we all learn.
I have attached a picture of my tank, not the best of pictures but i can take any pictures that anyone may want to see if it helps.