done cycling in only 2 weeks?!?!

[zacheyp]

so 3 weeks ago i put water and sand in my 20 long tank and ran the filter for a week
then i bought 30 pounds of live rock and a dead shrimp
i toom the shrimp out after 4 days due to the horrid smell and being told that my cured live rock would be enough to cycle the tank

friday, my api kit arrived and my readings were
ammonia 0
ph 8.3
nitrite 4
nitrate 10

today my readings were
amo 0
ph 8.3
nitrite 0
nitrate 10

ps i have alage growth and diatomsd

tonight im gonna do a 20% pwc

if all levels hold i will add my 2 clownfish on wendsday

does all sound right to you

if the clowns do fine next week i will order 8 frags and a lobster

[zacheyp]

is that to soon to add the clowns

[zacheyp]

are 10 frags 2 many

[zacheyp]

please

[carey]

I don't think you are cycled in my opinion. I commented in your other thread.

[Patrick93]

I would wait as hard as it can be I wait about 1-2 months before adding stuff I heard some people swear by a 6 month cycle but I could never do that

[kurtyboh]

i asked in your other thread with no response, how long ago did you remove the shrimp? if its been 2 weeks some of your bb died, it was then converted to ammonia, that was used by the survivors, some more starved and the ammonia seems to drop, but so did your culture of bacteria... My suggestion drop in some source of ammonia esp if its been more than a week without your shrimp in there.

[Hinds04]

If live rock was good stuff its very possible. Its just like someone upgrading to a bigger tank if it was 100% cured LR. Think about it, when people upgrade to bigger tanks they rarely experience a cycle because the lr is already cured in the previous tank.

That said, you did put the shrimp in so you prob did experience a cycle but with good lr it could have went very quickly.

[AquaRick]

I agree with Kurty. Add in an ammonia source (Ace's Ammonia works wonders) and dose up to 4ppm. If in 24 hours your ammonia and nitrite are 0, then your'e good to go. If it's taking a lot longer to get back to 0; you're not.

If you can't get ahold of liquid ammonia; then dump in another shrimp and test daily to see how things go.

[zacheyp]

is this ammonia ok to use?
Ammonium Chloride Solution

[AquaRick]

Yes, that looks good. Pretty pricey. Think the quart of ammonia from Ace is about $2

[zacheyp]

how many of theese should i get?

[kurtyboh]

ammonia has a pretty long shelf life so its not that big of a deal, but unless you clean with it you're going to have ammonia forever, you get a quart for 2 bucks but only use 2 tablespoons after an entire month of dosing if even that... or use the dr tims stuff premeasured(which is what youre paying for) to get you to 2ppm for each drop/gal. it'll make it through your cycle.

[zacheyp]

im getting the dr tims, how many would u get, not great at math but my tank is 20 long and i want to dose to 4- 5ppm

[kurtyboh]

i would probably get one, if you call them they'll steer you in the right direction. but im pretty sure a bottle should set up a 20gal easily. a little bit goes a long way.

[zacheyp]

ill buy 2, can hurt

[AquaRick]

yeah, just 1 of those bottles will work. 4 capfuls of the ace stuff doses my 125G to 4ppm. I think on the directions it mentions dose size by volume of water etc.

[kurtyboh]

yeah the dr tims stuff is either 1 or 2( i dont remember) drops/gal for 2ppm double that get your 4 and still

[zacheyp]

ok i have 30 pounds of live rock and the water line is about an inch below the top of the tank so is it safe to say i probably have about 15 gallons of water?

[zacheyp]

do u think i have more or less?