Do these parameters sound right?

[NURSE33.4]

So my new tank is right around the end of the second week and beginning of the third week of its cycle. The tank is a 34 gallon with 10 gallon sump with around 30 pounds or dry rock from Marco Rocks, and about 10 pounds of crushed coral.

 

To get the cycle going I added a single uncooked cocktail shrimp and let it do its thing and added a tiny bit of mysis shrimp (leftover at the bottom of the glass after feeding sun coral in another tank), which was last night.

 

I checked my parameters this morning and got the following results:

 

pH: 8.0

Ammonia: 0 ppm

Nitrite: 5.0 ppm

Nitrate: 5.0 ppm

 

Does this sound right to you? It seemed odd to me that the nitrites were that high, but maybe that's normal since I'm using all dry rock? This is my first tank to cycle without the help of established live rock or live sand, so maybe that's why I'm questioning it.

 

Thanks for the input!

[lakshwadeep]

Is the shrimp still present? Using dead shrimp is a messy way of cycling since it must rot first; try using pure ammonia (or ammonium chloride). You really should add a small piece of live rock or sand. You don't need a lot; even rubble would be fine. Otherwise, the only bacteria and organisms that are in the tank can only come from the air. The benefits of live rock/sand are not just the nitrifying/denitrifying bacteria but the many other bacteria, algae, and higher organisms (sponges, microcrustaceans, etc.) that help create a more complete ecosystem. IMO, this is the real reason people spend so much getting live rock.

[NURSE33.4]

I added a small piece of established live rock the other day from my other setup's sump, and the parameters today are as follows:

 

pH - 8.1

Ammonia - 0 ppm (was .50 yesterday...)

Nitrite - 1.0 ppm

Nitrate - 10 ppm