Natterjak
Aquarium Advice Regular
Our 70 gallon has been up and running for almost two weeks now, and I'm not sure how well it's doing at this point.
I know we've made a few mistakes already (didn't find this board sooner!), so forgive me.
I filled the tank with tap water, added some AmQuel Plus, and we've been slowly adding live rock to where we're now at 50 pounds. The live rock was pre-cured and purchased from our LFS, straight from their tank to ours. Our filtration consists of a wet/dry filter, and we currently have two powerheads in there (have two more on order). We have CC for substrate (would like to change to sand). I also added a block of trace elements.
I had read that bacterial starters could be added to speed up the cycle, so I purchased some RightNow and added that about a week ago. After that, we purchased two clownfish.
To get to the point, I've been testing our levels every other day or so since I set everything up. (Using Tetra test kits, what our LFS sold us). The levels have been pretty consistent. Nitrites: 0.3, Ammonia: 0.25, Nitrates: 25 (I think). pH seems a bit high, around 8.6, even though I've been adding a pH buffer. The Nitrates went up a bit from 12 to 25, but otherwise the levels haven't changed much. Is our tank cycled? Or should we still expect Nitrite/Ammonia spikes? I know Nitrites and Ammonia should be 0, but the levels haven't seemed to move at all. The clownfish seem to be doing fine almost a week later. I am planning to do a small water change today.
I know we've made a few mistakes already (didn't find this board sooner!), so forgive me.
I filled the tank with tap water, added some AmQuel Plus, and we've been slowly adding live rock to where we're now at 50 pounds. The live rock was pre-cured and purchased from our LFS, straight from their tank to ours. Our filtration consists of a wet/dry filter, and we currently have two powerheads in there (have two more on order). We have CC for substrate (would like to change to sand). I also added a block of trace elements.
I had read that bacterial starters could be added to speed up the cycle, so I purchased some RightNow and added that about a week ago. After that, we purchased two clownfish.
To get to the point, I've been testing our levels every other day or so since I set everything up. (Using Tetra test kits, what our LFS sold us). The levels have been pretty consistent. Nitrites: 0.3, Ammonia: 0.25, Nitrates: 25 (I think). pH seems a bit high, around 8.6, even though I've been adding a pH buffer. The Nitrates went up a bit from 12 to 25, but otherwise the levels haven't changed much. Is our tank cycled? Or should we still expect Nitrite/Ammonia spikes? I know Nitrites and Ammonia should be 0, but the levels haven't seemed to move at all. The clownfish seem to be doing fine almost a week later. I am planning to do a small water change today.