Is my cycle done?

[sadley77]

So I set up my IM Fusion 10 two weeks and a half weeks ago and it has been sitting fishless since.  Tested my water parameters today and ammonia and nitrite are at 0.  Nitrate is at about 10 and PH is 7.8.  Am I okay to add my first fish and corals now after a water change?

[specore]

Live or dry rock?  Did your ammonia spike at any point?

[Daniel91]

Ammonia source?

[sadley77]

About 8lbs of dry rock and I added one live rock that is about 2 lbs.  Also am using live sand.  I have been ghost feeding every three days.  I havent invested in a test kit yet so I haven't been able to test for an amonia spike.  I took some water to the LFS and they tested it for me today for the first time.  

[specore]

I'm thinking yes; however, if it were me I would give it a few more days.  The issue with ghost feeding is the food breaks down more slowly than if it were being digested by a fish so who knows if it has actually started producing a significant amount of ammonia yet.   Without testing throughout the cycle it is more difficult to gauge what is happening.  Likely with live sand and 20% of your rock being live you are ok.  

[Clown79]

Hard to say without testing ammonia from start up. 

 

At this point ammonia may have spiked and processed.

 

2lbs liverock isn't much, it will seed the dry rock but definitely when it's time to add livestock, I would go slow.

 

Livesand really doesn't do much for a cycle.

 

 

[LongBeachReefer]

Maybe a cuc first and see how that goes.