End of Week 4 Cycling -advice

[Thomsona]

Hello Guys

well i have ended my 4th complete week of cycling and testing and below are the results from today's Test

Nitrate 0ppm
Ammonia 0 - .1 (in the middle on color chart)
Nitrite 0ppm
Ph 8.0
Hydrometer 1.021 - 1.022

now my ammonia never peaked above .10, after speaking with my lfs where i bought the LR from they said it was in there tank system for a couple weeks and this is probably normal as it would have been closed to fully cycled in there tanks

i put in 2 astraea snails in today (on the advice of Mr X thank you ) they seem to be moving around although only been in there and hour now,

i'm just wondering if these readings are good for this stage, and suggestions of how i should proceed next, i am still waiting for my protein skimmer to arrive (this week hopefully) and ill set that straight up, and also my t5 ho lighting as well,

so until they arrive ,im not sure how i should proceed

again look forward to your advice,

this forum rocks for advice and i thank you all for your help so far,

Regards

Andrew

 

[mr_X]

i would take a sample of that water to the LFS and see if they are getting an ammonia reading. if not, then i would add livestock slowly. the trouble with "cured" rock from the lfs is, they usually only have a single live rock tank. sure they have rock in there for weeks, but that rock ends up sitting in the same water with the brand new uncured shipment they just got in, so that live rock tank goes through constant spikes.
i wonder how often they change the water in one of those too.

 

[Thomsona]

Forgot to add

Temp 27.5 degrees

 

[Thomsona]

Going to take water sample this afternoon

 

[Thomsona]

Lfs tested water and it was 0 on there test kit

 

[PrettyFishies]

.1 is a low reading to get a cycle going. I'd do a test to see if your tank us reAlly cycled. Take pure ammonia, no additives and dose enough to get .25-.5 ppm. If that can drop to zero in < 24 hrs, I'd say your good to start slowly stocking. If not, you'll need a but more time.

 

[Thomsona]

I seem to have another diatom bloom on glass and crushed coral

Snails doing ok one very active the other moves around but doesn't go far

 

[austinsdad]

Diatoms are very normal in new tanks. I'm surprised there are zero nitrates. Have you changed the water since you began the cycle?

 

[Thomsona]

25% pwc two days ago

 

[Thomsona]

After testing today these are figures

Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Ph 8.2
Ammonia .2
Hydro. 1.022

 

[austinsdad]

You've still got ammonia. The snails might not make it since I think you've gotta get that ammonia higher. Consider the raw shrimp method and cycle the tank again I'm thinking.

 

[mr_X]

i'd also raise my salinity up to about .025.

 

[Thomsona]

Cheers thanks for the advice

Also got this purple stuff growing on my base rock

Would a dead snail help the cycle

One Is alive and healthy the other died