Is my tank done cycling?

[LifeOfAquatics]

Hello, so I have a 5 gallon saltwater tank. This is my first tank and I will upgrade to a 10 gallon in about a month or so. Anyway, below is a picture of my tank parameters for the past 2 and a half days. I set this tank up, well, two and a half days ago. I dosed with dr tims one and only and I used live rock and sand. I ghost fed for those two and a half days as well. In another one of my posts similar to this, someone commented saying that my tank was done cycling and that I could add fish. Is this right? My ammonia has been at 0.25 the past two days and i assume this is because of the ghost feedings. I have no nitrites and I have 20 nitrates. This part is a bit confusing for me but I looked online and found that the bacteria that turns nitrites to nitrates is extremely fast so i probably did have nitrites, just they turned to nitrates by the time i started testing in the mornings. if my tank is done cycling, should i perform a 25% water change to reduce the ammonia and nitrates as they might be a bit too high for fish right now. Thanks! Also, i removed the carbon part from my hob filter when i added the dr tims just in case, can i add it back now?
 

[banasophia]

Ghost feeding is so hard to go by for fishless cycling because you really don’t know how much ammonia you added. Since you still have 0.25 ammonia though, you know you aren’t done yet, that needs to go to zero. The fact that your nitrate is 20 seems unlikely to me to have come from ghost feeding one or two times... maybe from the liquid in the live sand. 
 

If you want to do fishless cycling with dr Tim’s one and only bacteria, I would recommend getting the ammonia drops as well so you can follow the directions and be more certain your tank has fully cycled. 

[banasophia]

Here’s a good resource about fishless cycling:

https://www.drtimsaquatics.com/resources/fishless-cycling/

 

[Clown79]

Did you use wet established liverock or dry rock?

There is a huge difference.

 

 

In 2 days with your method of cycling, its doubtful your tank is cycled.with 0.25 ammonia still present and only 20 nitrates, i'd say no.

 

You need ammonia to rise to 1.5-2ppm and be able to process that within 24hrs.

 

Ghost feeding is the most unpredictable method of cycling as you cannot control the ammonia levels produced.

 

Its best with dry rock to dose actual ammonia and bacteria supplement like biospira.

[rough eye]

not cycled. 

 

if wet live rock don't even check if it's cycled for 3 weeks to a month. if dry rock, i guess that could be considerably longer. others might say differently.

 

i don't know if adding ammonia is a safe way to cycle wet live rock. what kind of ghost feeding? using frozen fish food or dropping a piece of shrimp in there?