Do these readings seem ok? Cycling

[Bigals-nano-1]

Hi all, I am setting up my first saltwater tank and currently cycling it. The tank is a Fluval evo sea 52l with a protein skimmer. I have mainly got dry rock in the tank and one piece of rock that came from another tank but was quite dry when I got it along with the sand that is in the tank. I am using the Red Sea reef mature starter kit and following all the instructions. Do these readings seem to be ok and normal for the 9 day cycling period. The instructions for the Red Sea instructions say that I could add some cuc on day 10 which is tomorrow but I feel that my readings are still a bit away for that to happen. Is it better to add the cuc before any fish or fish first? Thanks in advance for any help and I’m looking forward to learning what I can as I go forward. 

[jservedio]

Looks like a cycle to me. Don't add anything until your tank is able to process 2ppm of ammonia in 24 hours. Once it's doing that, do a big water change to knock your nitrates back down to like 5ppm and you are good to go for adding a CuC, your first corals, and then slowly add fish.

 

The API ammonia kit may never actually read zero, so if you are consistently going from 2ppm down to the 2nd lightest box (the one right above zero) within 24 hours, you are good to go.

[Bigals-nano-1]

1 hour ago, jservedio said:

Looks like a cycle to me. Don't add anything until your tank is able to process 2ppm of ammonia in 24 hours. Once it's doing that, do a big water change to knock your nitrates back down to like 5ppm and you are good to go for adding a CuC, your first corals, and then slowly add fish.

 

The API ammonia kit may never actually read zero, so if you are consistently going from 2ppm down to the 2nd lightest box (the one right above zero) within 24 hours, you are good to go.

Thanks and that’s what I thought. I am using the API master test kit and it can sometimes be hard to see exactly which colour is the best match. I’m looking forward to getting the tank cycled and being able to start building on the corals. I will probably just be starting with soft corals and  and a couple of clown fish. Every day is a learning day. 

[Clown79]

1 hour ago, Bigals-nano-1 said:

Thanks and that’s what I thought. I am using the API master test kit and it can sometimes be hard to see exactly which colour is the best match. I’m looking forward to getting the tank cycled and being able to start building on the corals. I will probably just be starting with soft corals and  and a couple of clown fish. Every day is a learning day. 

Best way to read results is in natural light with the bottle up against tge white part of the card.

 

I never had false positives with Api.

[Murphs_Reef]

Also go to the app store and download a aquarium parameter tracker.. will save you writing down and gives you a clear view if the dataset.. 

[PeterU]

27 minutes ago, Murphych said:

go to the app store and download a aquarium parameter tracker

Any particular one you would recommend?

[Murphs_Reef]

I'm on an Android device so use AquariumNote which is really useful and customisable, but the mainstream choice seems to be AquaticLog. 

 

Not sure about iPhones as I never had one. 

[PeterU]

I'm on an Android device so will give AquariumNote a go. It has 10 times the downloads as AquaticLog.

[Murphs_Reef]

17 minutes ago, PeterU said:

I'm on an Android device so will give AquariumNote a go. It has 10 times the downloads as AquaticLog.

It's a good choice and the developer is due to release the second version in a couple of weeks (the version in my screenshot above)

[Bigals-nano-1]

51 minutes ago, Murphych said:

I'm on an Android device so use AquariumNote which is really useful and customisable, but the mainstream choice seems to be AquaticLog. 

 

Not sure about iPhones as I never had one. 

I have also downloaded aquarium manager for iPhone and seems to be a bit easier to use than AquaticLog so will most likely use to his one. 

[rough eye]

personally i would wait a few weeks before adding anything. as for CUC maybe jsut add a couple things at a time, as the need arises.