help with cycling my 90 gal

[djsebbaseb]

This is my first time with saltwater so bare with me please. I recently started my 90 gal tank. Please tell me if i did anything wrong. I started by rinsing the sand, then i used a r/o filter to fill the tank and mixed the correct amount of salt, salt level is good now. After aprox 5 days i added some live rock about 20lbs of it. it has now been about 2 weeks but when i test the tank for anything everything still shows up as 0 ppm? is this normal? how long does the nitrate take to start building up? to my understanding its supose to slowly go up then when it goes back down its fully cycled but..... how long does it take for me to notice this. and one other question what is a decent temp for my tank thank you in advance. please respond!

 

[tecwzrd]

Welcome to AA

Research is key to successful SW fish keeping and reading all the saltwater articles on this site and the articles on liveaquaria.com is an excellent way to get acquainted with all that’s required for this expensive hobby.

Is particular regarding your question about cycling your tank the fishless cycling article covers what’s needed to get your tank going. About 2 cocktail sized shrimp should be adequate for your 90 gal.

If you had more lr then the lr alone would be enough to get your cycle going but 20 lbs cured or uncured is not going to give you enough die-off to get it started.

I’d get another 100-160 lbs of lr when you can or get 50% base rock if you want to reduce costs.

 

[malkore]

AS tecwzrd says, you're lacking a significant source of ammonia, so the tank really isn't cycling yet. Sounds liek your live rock was already fairly cured, so not enough die off to see ammonia levels rise.

And you need more rock. 1-1.5 lbs of rock per gallon of tank size is the norm...up to 2lbs per gallon. Base rock can help lessen the expense of live rock.

 

[djsebbaseb]

thank you guys for the quick reply very helpful guys at the fish store said nothing about the shrip. any shrimp will do? like frosen ones you buy from the supermarket or fresh ones?

 

[hackteck]

any shrimp i used the ones from the grocery store