New tank cycling question

[LSReef]

I'm brand new to reef keeping and am currently in the process of setting up my first tank

To start my cycle I've been adding 1/2 cube of frozen Mysis shrimp every 2nd day and dosing with Continuum Bacter genM bacteria for about a week. I've been testing with the Red Sea marine care kit, however the ammonia readings have not moved from 0 (nitrites & nitrates also at 0).

My question is - Is this normal? Should I be expecting to see some ammonia by now or does it usually take a few weeks for the shrimp to breakdown and release ammonia to start the cycle off?

My tank is: 244L including sump, skimmer is not on, temp at 25C, pH 8.3, SG 1.025, DKH 6 (which I think is a bit low but the pH hasn't changed and as its to soon for fish/coral so my LFS said not to worry about it yet)

 

[brandon429]

We need to know if your rocks were dry or wet when you brought them into the tank, that matters 100% because wet rocks are already done cycling and sometimes lfs sell bottle bac anyway as if they aren’t

for dry rock setups you’re on the right track simply do this trick: let this all stew for fourteen days, change the water for new fresh saltwater, and it’s all cycled by the rule of wait time. The param measures don’t matter it’ll be done by then

 

[LSReef]

We need to know if your rocks were dry or wet when you brought them into the tank, that matters 100% because wet rocks are already done cycling and sometimes lfs sell bottle bac anyway as if they aren’t

for dry rock setups you’re on the right track simply do this trick: let this all stew for fourteen days, change the water for new fresh saltwater, and it’s all cycled by the rule of wait time. The param measures don’t matter it’ll be done by then

Sorry - I forgot to say that I'm using dry rock (the caribsea life rock) and just normal dry sand. Thanks for replying - I'll stay on track for another week or so and try not worry so much about the test results!

 

[dk2nt9]

There is more predictable way, with dosing household ammonia or Dr. Tim's ammonium. Procedure and ammonia calculator are here, the same for fresh and salt water.

Ammonia is added to the certain concentration, then give a time for nitrifying bacteria to reproduce to the population, able to handle planned bioload (amount of ammonia). It could take 4-6 weeks.

 

[brandon429]

what you need to be doing in the next two weeks wait time is reading the fish disease forum before adding fish, today's loss rates in eight mos after skipping preps are astronomically high and likely

disease prep, that'll take weeks to research and implement as quarantine or by you locating pre quarantined fish to input to the ready tank.