when we cycled it, we did it with 4 ppm of ammonia and we used Start Smart to get things going. we kept dosing with 4 ppm until we knew it had cycled. it took about 3 weeks for the whole thing to go through. we then bought a maroon clown and three hermit crabs. drip acclimated the clown for 45 minutes and put him in. we let the hermit crabs float for about 15-20 minutes then put them in. the maroon stayed alive all of 2 nights (we woke up that morning to find him stuck to the filter) and the hermit crabs just stopped moving around day 3. all the parameters before and after he died were still the same (ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 15, pH 8.4).