changing sand

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ok so i got it done. let the sand rinse for 2 hours once done with about 5 inchs of sand at the bottom and about 12 inchs of water u coulds see right to the bottom. pulling the old gravel out is what made my tank cloudy i just finished putting the sand in here are a few pics of before and after

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i hated the black gravel and it had a hole bunch of white pieces of sand in it
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i love the sand look soooooo much and its even still all cloudy

thanks for all the info everybody
 
ok so the tank is almost all clear front the sand change i did a water test and the results of the test were
ph- 8.2
ammonia- .25ppm
nitrite- 0ppm
nitrate- 20ppm

is this normal and did the change set back the cycle or make it better???
 
I am a little confused as to why u have ammonia an nitrates but not nitrites...what test kit are you using? I recently just finished my cycle. What u should look for is a spike in ammonia, 0 nitrites , 0 nitrates. Then a decrease in ammonia while nitrites slowly rise. After ammonia turns zero and nitrites start to fall you will see nitrates. When nitrites fall you should have nitrates around 20ppm - 80 ppm.
 
i was almost done i think. i had a ammonia spike of 2.0 witch dropped and started seeing nitrites around 1.0 ppm witct now read 0 and the nitrate of 20-40 ppm witch the nitrates droped after my 20% pwc. and im using mature media cured live rock and the substrate was mature till i changed it out today
 
changing out the substrate you probably caused a mini cycle try doing a water change to bring down the ammonia
 
Your ammonia will always read between 0 and .25 it's really hard to get a 0 reading with the API test kit. Yeah you prob did have a mini cycle. Give the tank like 3 days and u will be ready to go.
 
is there a better test i should get the will give me a better ammonia reading?
my levels are-
ph = 8.2
ammonia = under .25
nitrite = .00
nitrate = between 10 and 20

are my levels good am i done my cycle

i feel like the cycle has completed i still plan on giving it till friday before i get my clowns in there and a cuc

i got my ro/di unit iin the mail already set it up and have it making my first batch for a pwc i plan on doing tomorrow.

is there any other things i should look out for before i fill it with life should i try and do a few 25% pwc's to get as much ro/di water in there before i go adding livestock ?

TIA
 
i would do a large water change first then check the levels to be sure ammonia and nitrite are both 0
 
will my api master test show 0 ammonia? tomchong stated the its really hard for the api test to show 0 ammonia

what test kit are u using hacktech?

i just wanna make sure im getting a accurate test result.
 
yea thats fine try that and see what your levels are afterwards
 
will my api master test show 0 ammonia? tomchong stated the its really hard for the api test to show 0 ammonia

what test kit are u using hacktech?

i just wanna make sure im getting a accurate test result.

I'm using the api test kit and yea mine shows 0 its really light barely even green thats how you know atleast on mine
 
I use the API test kit. I know it is reading zero when it is very light light green. There is always going to be ammonia in your tank. But it is so minute that we consider it to be zero. The way I tell is if nitrites are zero and nitrates are spot on... You can primarily guess that your ammonia is going to be zero. Like stated above. Do a pretty good size water change wait 24hours and you are set to go.
 
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