Where to go from here? (1st tank!)

[Paliya]

Hi All,

My tank is 50 gallons, and will eventually be a reef tank.
Yesterday I put in 30 lbs of live sand from the LFS, and today I added about 40lbs of live rock (~8 of which was cured). Oh, and the LFS dude gave me ~3 gallons of water from one of his established tanks. The rest I filled with RO + some salt.

My water readings are as follows:
Ammonia - 0 ppm
PH - 8.2
Nitrite - 0 ppm
nitrate - 5.0 ppm
Specific gravity - 1.022
temp - 75 f (probably going to get a heater soon...)

I'm wondering where I should go from here... do I wait for the ammonia levels to rise by themselves, or add a dead shrimp? Will the nitrates eventually rise to a better level alone? Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

p.s. already have 3 hitch hikers... 1 tiny starfish, 1 crab of some sort (who seems to be stuck in a rock), and 1 tiny little snail who crawled under some rocks and vanished!

[BCreefmaker]

dosent really matter... adding dead shrimp dosent really make the cycle any better... it just kick starts it by adding extra ammonia... if anything the water you got from that established tank is the only thing that would possibly make it cycle faster...

[mg426]

If you put uncured rock in your tank, this will most likely cause your tank cycle to begin. I would think your ammonia levels will begin to rise followed by nitrite and nitrate. patience is a good thing to have right about now.

[Acroholic]

Hmmm...I'm not sure if there ever is a "better" nitrate level..lol
Not sure why you have nitrates without going thru an amonia spike folowed by nitrites..then your nitrates, I'm sure they are on the way...just chill, let the rocks do the work till the cycle pases...you cycle might be quicker since some of your LR is cured.

I'm sure youll discover many more hitchhikers in the months to follow....
Good Luck...

[Paliya]

Thank you all for your replies. I hadn't considered that ammonia will spike due to the uncured rocks (I assume it's because of the dead bio matter on them?). The guy at the LFS suggested getting damsels for ammonia... but I respectfully declined :)

Thanks again,
-P

[kau_cinta_ku]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7963066#post7963066 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by p-deezy
The guy at the LFS suggested getting damsels for ammonia... but I respectfully declined :)

Thanks again,
-P
great choice no need to punish them