Am I cycled?

[tomreefer]

Ok the tank has been running a week with 50lbs of dry rock. I added Ammonia to get to 4ppm, Yesterday Ammonia was at 0.5 ppm and no Nitrites shown so I added ammonia again to get to 3ppm and now Ammonia is 0.25 ppm and still no Nitrites shown. My Nitrate has gone up since yesterday from 20 to 40.. Whats going on here? I added more ammonia to get to 3ppm today

[pyithar]

well. your ammonia is converted to Nitrite by Nitrosomonas bacteria. Nitrite is then converted to Nitrate by Nitrobacter bacteria. the presence of Nitrate means your tank definitely had Nitrite.

[tomreefer]

ok I will wait a week or so. By adding sand make another cycle?

[tomreefer]

whats next? Fish? Corals? I have no algae, etc to clean up so maybe run lights now? Add chaeto?

[pyithar]

if the sand you're using have dead stuffs in it, then you'll have a mini cycle. since you don't have anything in your tank yet, you have nothing to worry about. be patient on stocking the tank. research first before you buy anything. i would not put the chaeto in the display. if you have a sump, chaeto can go in there. you can run the lights but you'll have algae. one week is too soon for fish and corals. i would wait a couple more weeks, then test ammonia/nitrite/nitrate, do a water change because the nitrate will be high, and finally try some clean up crews. in the mean time, set up a quarantine tank and quarantine fish/corals. btw, you need to have some type of filtration system set up to export nitrate, phosphate, etc. i'm talking about skimmers, algae scrubber, gfo, refugium, etc. good luck!

[tomreefer]

I have a skimmer, should I be running that now? Ok I will setup the QT tank now. There is nothing for the cleanup crews to eat. Its all dry rock so that what I am afraid of getting a clean up crew now.

[pyithar]

you can run your skimmer now. a lot of people do that. it also needs time to "break in". like i said above, be patient with stockings. if you add fast, your tank won't be able to handle the bioloads.

[tomreefer]

add fish or cuc? I have nothing for snails to eat so maybe I should add fish first?

[acabgd]

add fish or cuc? I have nothing for snails to eat so maybe I should add fish first?
You should really add sand first, wait a week and test again. If ok, then add snails. As soon as you start running the lights they will have plenty of food.