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- Sep 21, 2019
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Well done. If I may suggest, use the calibration solution for calibrating your refractometer not the RO/DI water. You are trying to calibrate at what it should read not zero. The difference between 0 and 35 allows for too much of a margin of error.
Also, I just read that you think that you are possibly cycled at the moment. I would be suspicious that that would be possible in two weeks. I would, If I were you, let it run another week at the very least and add a small bit of flake/pellet food. If you have been running your protein skimmer during the cycling process this would starve your bacteria colonies that you are trying to establish by stripping nutrients. To give you perspective, I let my rock cure in vats for just under 4 months. After 6 weeks I added my CUC and did a water change of 50%. Every couple of days I would add the smallest pinch of food to keep the bacteria going and every two weeks 590% water changes. I did not do the bacteria in a bottle route and I know that this is a viable option to kick-start the cycling but nothing beats taking this slow. I have not had a single issue with nuisance algae, dyno or cyano outbreaks, ever. I did have a small turf algae patch after 8 months introduced by myself accidentally but used Vibrante and that kicked it no problem. I would make sure that the skimmer is off, feed the tank for a week or two and keep the lights off and add a CUC before adding fish or corals. Test often with high-quality test kits and move forward slower than you think you need to. Love the aquascape BTW!
I'm at 7 weeks now and getting ready to add fish. I see you found my comments in the algae forum. That'll explain the rest. thx.