Cycling

My 65 gallon with a 20 gallon sump is now going on week 7 with no detectable ammonia, nitrite or nitrates. There are a pair of clowns, 60 pounds of reef saver dry rock from BSR and 70 pounds of special grade sand. Feeding the clowns flake food every day. How much longer can I expect this tank to cycle?

 

Week seven with no traces of anything ??

Did you ever see a spike in Ammonia? How about a diatom bloom?

 

No spike or bloom. Water temp is 78.salinity 1.021

 

Salt is really low IMO... My reefs all run 1.027. But that shouldn't effect this..

I am curious as to why you wouldn't have had a diatom bloom after seven weeks. How long have the clowns been in there? And what kind of light is on the system

 

+1 on what Viz said

 

Clowns been in there since day one. Lighting is a Mazspect razor. Running 10 hours a day with 40% on channel A and 60% on B for 4 hours. I'm testing on Sunday and Wednesday. Any chance that I could have missed the spike? But then the diatom bloom should have happened by now. I know the salinity is low but I don't want to do a water change until it cycles.

 

Honestly, you are WAY ahead of most people trying to start a reef. Great mentality, you obviously did your research in the right places !!

I think it is very possible you could have missed the ammonia spike. Clowns can handle ammonia to a certain degree, so it's possible they may not have shown any signs of excess ammonia....

And as far as the diatoms go, I would guess that's because you don't have any excess nutrients really. The rock you bought didn't have much life to die off, you are only feeding flake food, and there are only a few fish in the aquarium.

My guess is maybe you have a decent skimmer on this system?

Can we get the whole breakdown?

Size, Light (again to make it look like and ordered), clean up crew, pumps/heads, skimmer, reactors, filters, heater, chiller, UV sterilizer, ETC?

 

I would think after 7 weeks you should be safe to do a water change. Do you use any bacteria additives? My last tank I set up with live rock and sand with additives never had a spike with a maroon clown in the tank from day one. I did have a very small diatom bloom that happened on week 4 and lasted 4 days.

 

Oh, and I THINK it's safe to say you are cycled

But really all "cycled" means is your mechanical and biological filtration have gotten to a point where they can handle 100% of the excess nutrients being produced.

I wouldn't even bother with a water change until you start showing 10-15ppm nitrate, and even then make them small. Just good top offs with clean RO/DI for now, with a special blend of pH buffer, trace elements, and a two part Cal / Alk system when needed !!

If you start and add to a reef slowly and carefully, you can get away with maybe 8-10 water changes a year !!! Trust me I do it to very reef I have ever been apart of

 

Here's the break down.
Marine land 65 gallon with corner overflow.1 inch drain, 3/4 return.
Trigger system sump crystal 30 single filter sock
SWC 120 skimmer currently not running
Tunze 1073.05 return pump
Tunze ATO
1ecotech marine mp10
Razor160watt, 16K

Tank is going to be mainly LPS with some softies.

Should I start to run my skimmer?

I plan on taking it very slow with the addition of fish and coral.
Should I start adding my clean up crew? I plan on snails only?