Status Check....HELP

[Bushman]

I started an 80 gal reef tank. My 1st. Here is its status:

first 32lbs live rock seven days ago
2nd 30 lbs live rock six days ago
last 18 lbs three days ago.

I have a fluval 404 and a rena canister running. Lights on 10 hours a day. Temp currently at 81.3 deg. Salinity at 26.5. Only thing in tank is live rock and two crabs that rode along.

here's the thing. Ive checked water every day looking to see amonia rise. Every time amonia at .25-.5 and Nitrite .5. Today both are ZERO. The only thing different in my tank is the ugly brown algae(not hairy) covering the live sand in the corner and on parts of the live rock.

I am confused and lost. Does anything I am saying make any sense? I could use help.

 

[Sparky]

Well, you may not see an ammonia rise too much without much "live" critters in the tank. The live rock would have some die-off that would cause a slight rise in ammonia, but I think to really get it going you might think about doing a fishlees cycle. You may want to check out this article here at AA.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/showquestion.php?faq=2&fldAuto=15

By the way, Welcome to Aquarium Advice

Mike

 

[darb2]

The brown is probably diatoms. Normal in a new setup. They should go away in a week or so.
Are you feeding anything in the tank? If not there may not be enough nutrients for the cycle to complete. Add a small pc of shrimp, like in the article and check levels out after a few days. If ammonia and nitrite are still 0, change 20% of the water and start stocking
What are you going to put in the tank?

 

[Bushman]

what is a pc of shrimp? OH! a piece of shrimp. I get it. I have nothing to feed in the tank. It is siting there with 80lbs of lr and running. I was told by an experienced guy that i should see a cycle from the lr. Thus far I have only seen a max of .5 on either amonia or nitrite. Yesterday, both were ZERO.

I am going to create my own world with a few fish (yellow tang, clowns, etc) along with a few appropriate corals and inverts. Nothing too extreme. I am just a beginner.

 

[quarryshark]

Don't forget to qt the fish first.
Also, you may want to first put in a few snails to see how they do.

 

[jaiden]

LR cycling

I'm a newbie so I'm not sure of any of this... but I've heard that LR will cycle by itself due to things dying on it... if you haven't had much die, you won't have much of a cycle.

Even though there is "nothing to feed" you can put some food in to see if that will cycle the tank. many people here use a raw dead shrimp apparently, but personally I'd be nervous about overloading my LR with too much of it... maybe use a half a shrimp and see what happens to the cycle?