Hi, I started my saltwater/reef journey on May 1st (one month ago).
I did some reading prior to my trips to our LFS and I know I still have a lot to learn before purchasing all my stuff on my first day.
I started my 50g tank with a piece of dry rock (around 6lbs), and dry gravel and turned on the filter the 2nd day.
As i've read more about cycling, I found out that live rock was a lot better so I went and grabbed 50+lbs of live rock and added them the same day.
I started testing my water using API Saltwater test kit after adding my rocks and didn't get ammonia until the day after I added a table shrimp (on a media bag).
But I didn't get to more than .5ppm of ammonia. I added FritzZyme Nitrifying Bacteria on the 9th day as i'm barely seeing nitrites and nitrates. (LFS asked me to buy it on my first day so figured i'd use it)
I added 10 Hermit and 5 Snail on my 2nd week when my ammonia turned yellowish somewhere around 0-0.25.
On Day 16 I added my first clownfish.
On 27th day I added my blue tang and another clown.
I've been getting 0-0.25 Ammonia, 0 Nitrites and 20-40 Nitrates.
4 snails are still there (I can't find any traces of the 5th even the shell), hermits gone down to 8.
I don't see any algae either. Some of the live rocks used to have a very few green hair algae but they seemed to be cleaned up already.
I'm not sure if my cycling has stalled or is it complete? I barely see any movements on my water testing.
Here's a complete calendar of my tests:
I did some reading prior to my trips to our LFS and I know I still have a lot to learn before purchasing all my stuff on my first day.
I started my 50g tank with a piece of dry rock (around 6lbs), and dry gravel and turned on the filter the 2nd day.
As i've read more about cycling, I found out that live rock was a lot better so I went and grabbed 50+lbs of live rock and added them the same day.
I started testing my water using API Saltwater test kit after adding my rocks and didn't get ammonia until the day after I added a table shrimp (on a media bag).
But I didn't get to more than .5ppm of ammonia. I added FritzZyme Nitrifying Bacteria on the 9th day as i'm barely seeing nitrites and nitrates. (LFS asked me to buy it on my first day so figured i'd use it)
I added 10 Hermit and 5 Snail on my 2nd week when my ammonia turned yellowish somewhere around 0-0.25.
On Day 16 I added my first clownfish.
On 27th day I added my blue tang and another clown.
I've been getting 0-0.25 Ammonia, 0 Nitrites and 20-40 Nitrates.
4 snails are still there (I can't find any traces of the 5th even the shell), hermits gone down to 8.
I don't see any algae either. Some of the live rocks used to have a very few green hair algae but they seemed to be cleaned up already.
I'm not sure if my cycling has stalled or is it complete? I barely see any movements on my water testing.
Here's a complete calendar of my tests: