Am I there yet ? (Question on Curing Live Rock)

[aseidman00]

I set up my tank just 2 and a half weeks ago. Its a 30 Gallon Extra-high with 50 pounds of Tonga Live rock from Dr. Mac or Pacific East Coast. The rock came in real nice and clean as it was in his curing vats for "a while" before he shipped it to me.

Since I have a fish only salt water tank for years now and have experienced long cycle times, I decided not to rush and test for ammonia too soon. Yesterday I ran my firsts tests with salifert test kits. The results were as follows.

0 PPM Ammonia
.1 PPM Nitrite

The presence of Nitrite tells me that I DID have amonia at one time and that it has already been converted to nitrite.

I do understand that .1 PPM Nitire is still too much and that I am not yet finished with the curing of the rock.

Still, the way that I interpret the data is that I am alomost there in just 2.5 weeks. Please tell me if I am interpreting the data correctly. If I am.... wow, that's pretty fast ! when can I start to add inverts ?

[Matt Rogers]

I'd say you're almost there!
Check it in a few days or a week or so.
Also check nitrates.

[aseidman00]

How low do my nitrates need to be for me to add some snails, crabs, etc...

[Matt Rogers]

They can handle it. Any thing less than 40 I would think. Did you already test for it?

I always aclimate my inverts like crabs and snails just to be safe. Some don't.