Chem readings

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ff.rice

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Feb 1, 2013
Messages
252
Location
Bluffton, South Carolina
Ok folks, here we go again... I've had my tank (29g w/10g sump) set up for about 4 weeks now...... I have been adding little bits at a time as I can. 3-4 weeks ago I added 10lbs of live sand and 3lbs of live rock in the sump..... 1week ago I added 40lbs of live sand.... Yesterday I added about 3lbs of live rock and 15lbs of base/dry rock in the DT and a clump of cheato algae in the sump tank....... Tonight I did a chem check and had the following results.....
Salt 1.023
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0.25
Nitrate 20
I'm new to salt, so what does this mean?!?! Am I on the down slope of my cycle or is this normal levels? I have somebody that needs to regime some fish, but I don't want to move them just to out them in bad water...... How soon can this be done?!?! TIA..... You folks have helped me a lot this whole process and its nice to have every bodies knowledge and experiences to help!
 
You should be finishing up your cycle soon but every time you add more uncured rock to the tank you are extending your cycle. New live rock will have a lot of die off from organisms in the rock that dried out and died. Dry rock surprisingly has a ton of stored ammonia as well.

It is safe to add fish when you are no longer getting readings for ammonia / nitrite as well as low levels of nitrates (as close to 0 as is reasonable) although I would only do them 1 at a time every week or so to give BB the time to adjust.
 
Ok.... So basically every time I add either dry or live rock I'm going to get a little spike in my chems?!?! And as soon as that all levels out I should be good?
 
To cure rock just put it in a separate container of salt water with some sort of water flow, either a powerhead or filter, and let it sit until you get 0 readings on both ammonia and nitrite. I would do it with both live rock and dry rock. The only type of rock this isn't necessarily needed is fully cured live rock although it would still be a good idea to put it through a short curing process.
 
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