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Jason McKenzie · 02-14-2005, 10:15 AM

Hey Reef Guy,
It's all a matter of waiting and testing at this stage. The 13LBs of Live rock will have some die off and that is going to produce ammonia the this will increase the population of ammonia eating organisms in your LR and they will populate the base rock aswell. once your see the ammonia drop off you will have a Nitrite spike and again the Nitrite eating organisms will increase in population. Once you see both ammonia and nitrites are 0 your tank has cycled.
I would stop the carbon filter and only run it occasionally after your tank is established.
I would have a skimmer running now and your lights on a regular schedule.
adding new lighting will usually cause an algae bloom and you might as well get that over with now rather than later.
Right now and maybe for the next month or so your tank is a toxic soup with elevated Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate. Having even a $4 fish in there is like sending a human into a gas chamber. There are more effective ways to cycle a tank, like by using raw cocktail shrimp.

Good luck and keep us up to date. We all love reading about new tanks.
And remember Matt's fav saying "Go slow, let it grow"