First post...soft cycling help....

[southernfried]

I am not necessarily "new to the hobby" but this is my first time soft cycling so I figured the amateur sounding questions belonged here.

Anyways, I posted this verbatim "elsewhere" but I have honestly grown tired of the pedantic banter between people who know each other and I need help immediately. Anyways, hello to everyone, and here goes...

I added 16 lbs of Sea Life Inc. uncured rock to my tank today at about 1 pm. It is now almost 10 pm where I am and my ammonia is currently just below 0.50 ppm (mg/L). It is a 29 gallon tank that prior had about 6 lbs of cured live rock, 20-25 lbs of base rock and a 2 inch live sand bed. The params were zero across the board before I added the rock, and the pH was a little over 8.3.
Anyways, I was wondering what I can expect to happen tomorrow as far as an ammonia spike goes and how much water I should get for the upcoming water change. I have 5 gallons of replacement water on hand in case of an emergency spike tonight, but I am having difficulty making myself pull the trigger and do a change with the ammonia relatively low for new uncured rock addition at this point, and would like to do a change once it eclipses the 0.50 ppm mark.

Thoughts?

I should add:

The rock was priority overnighted to me, so it was only out of the ocean for a little over 24 hrs. I did go over it and pick off anything that appeared it wasn't going to make it.

The skimmer is an octo reef bh 100.

I am also running sea gel in a hob power filter for now b/c a deceased worm i found on one of the rocks felt it necessary to slime the tank shortly before dying.

The tank was running for 3 weeks before the addition of the uncured rock to atleast jump start the seeding process of my base rock.

Oh, and the rock and absolutely stunning.

[kraze3]

[welcome]


Are there any fish or corals in this tank?

.5 isnt bad if there arent any inhabitants in the tank. I would make up some more water for a water change tomorrow. Maybe do 10 gallons tomorrow to drop the ammonia down.

If there are fish in the tank then the rock should have been cured in a seperate container until ready to add to your tank.

[southernfried]

No fish or coral in the tank (except for one hitch-hiking encrusting brown coral from the uncured rock). There is a modest clean up crew of 2 astria, 2 mexican turbos, and 4 scarlet hermits b/c a small algae outbreak that occured after the first installment of rock cycled. Turned out to be bryopsis, and by the grace of God the Turbos are actually eating it.


I am soft cycling so I am hopingtrying to keep the ammonia down and keep all thye hitchers and macros that came on the uncured rock. Here is where is came from: sealifeinc.net

I already caught a glimpse of a tiny crab, and from the brief view I got it appears to be a grazer - very tiny pinchers and whitish, almost looked like a pom pom crab.