5.5 Weeks into Cycle?

Now that your amonia has dropped you can start to add fish...slowly, maybe one or two.

Yeah we srill have snow up to our cahoots.

Spongebob, did you just use a shrimp? I was just curious. And you people want snow, come to Minnesota.

Just curious. That's how I'm cycling. 4 weeks is bad enough for a wait, but if yours is taking 5 and half. Man...

Your cycle should be finishing up any day now. As soon as you see 0 NO2 its done.

As you didnt see a large NH4/NH3 spike, you will need to stock the tank relativily slowly.

Im assuming your measuring alk in meq/L. In which case the target is over 3. If its measured in dKH you want it to be from 7-12.

Calcium levels should be maintained from 350-450 ppm. Yours is on the lower side of that, try to boost it up to around 400.

Once your coralline starts growing well, measure your calcium levels, then measure 24 hours after that. That will give you a pretty reasonable estimate on how much calcium is being used in your system.


For now, you might want to consider adding a teaspoon of kalk to every gallon of top-off water you add. That should keep both the Ca and Alk levels pretty high. Not to mention kalk is pretty cheap.

If your going to be having a larger amount of coral or other calcium sucking organisms you might want to spend the money upfront and get a decent Ca Reactor. A good Ca reactor and all neccessary items would be under $500.. It would likely pay for itself in a year or two. Not to mention all the time you save not having to play with your dosing settings.