Cycling my 26 Bow

I need some help. this is my first fish tank ever and my first salt water ever. I just put my tank together last week and got cured fiji Live rock and natures ocean bio active sand and placed it in the tank

My readings currently are

Temp 80 degrees (temp has been 79-81 so far, been hot on LI)
PH 8.3
Ammonia .25 PPM
Nitrite .5 ppm
nitrate 100ppm( this actually what it says on the high side, i think it says 20 on the low? Red sea test kit)

alkalinity 1.7-2.8
salinity 1.025

My question is should i be doing anything else to kick off the cycle or is it under going a cycle right now? should i buy damsels to start it? also should i be aerating the tank or is that only when you mix the salt and water?

My tank is a 26 bow with jbj reaction canister filter, and red sea prizm skimmer.


Thanks for any help you can provide.

 

it's already cycling, just wait it out, give it a couple weeks, test again, keep it away from natural light and keep the tank's lights off or you'll get some really nasty algae blooms

as far as aeration the skimmer really does all most people need, i usually point a powerhead towards the surface just to keep some agitation on it as well to help with gas exchange

 

Thanks for the fast reply Iraf, So i shouldt do any water changes till then? when should i expect to see coraline algea start coming back to the rock?​

 

you need to make sure your calcium and kh are up to par for coraline to grow quickly, if there isnt any in the tank you may want to seed it when the cycle is over but before you stock it

 

Are you using the strips for your testing?

 

Cycling 26 Bow

no, im not using strips its the red sea marine lab kit.

 

Cycling 26 Bow

i used DD ocean salt it says its(see below), should that be enough? what kind of salt do you recomend. I went to my local pet store and they said that tropic marin was what was the best? also they gave me a little botle from instant ocean that is filled with bacteria, they said it would speed the cycle up?



dKH9.38.7-9.8 Calcium (Ca2+)440430-460mg/l

 

Cycling my tank

after adding the spyri gyra stuff the nitrites are now 0 nitrates are still 20ppm and amonia is still .25 not sure if this will go down in a few days, i had a slight hicup in my set up the jbj canister is a piece of crap. it leaked all over my wood floor. i am returning it and getting an eheim 2026. would not filtering the water harm my live rock at all? since this is a new tank i think not filtering or skimming for a few days is good? is red sea a good test kit? what is the best and most accurate one?

thanks for the help

 

lol do you mean Biro Spyra(sp)? i dont know much about the test kits, havnt used one in a really long time but i think as long as you have the powerheads running it couldnt hurt, maybe prolong the cycle a bit but maybe others with better knowledge can chime in

 

Latest on the 26 Bow

I posted this on another thread but jus wanted to see if someone had some advice for me.

"So i topped off the water on saturday with RO/DI water. I noticed that the ph was low so i added seachem buffer for the last 3 days, my readings are

temp 75
nitrites still 0
amonia still .25
nitrates went back to 20 from 0
PH is now 8.2
Alk is high

Yesterday i added carbon to the media basket in my prizm skimmer and this morning i noticed the black and white damsel was very jitery(shimmying?) and hidding, also swimming sideways a little, while the yellow tip damsel was normal. Could something i added be causing this? I did notice that the black and white one's fins were a little niped when i got him but it was acting fine until recently. I got both of them from petco so maybe the balck and white one is more sensetive to changes? or he was week to begin with? Just hope hes not dead when i get home. "