How do I know when my cycling is done

[joshkamay]

Ammonia and nitrite are 0 and nitrate are about 5 just getting ready to do a 10 - 15 gal water change I have a 65gal with a 20 gal sump
So I'm just wondering what the next sign is in cycling or if its done cycling it has algae growing and everything
It looks like this currently
From what I've read its since cycling but I just wanna make sure

[Bblinks]

You will need to test your water and find out if it's done or not. google it and you will see what kind of test kits you need to get and what is consist of a cycle for your tank.

[joshkamay]

That is incredibly vague I got the ph ammonia nitrite and nitrate kit

[WarDog]

If you recorded a rise in ammonia, then nitrite, then nitrate, and a drop in those parameters respectively, then your cycle could be done. I say could because it might not. Best to log all your params daily for the first few weeks.

[joshkamay]

Ok thank you the first couple weeks ammonia was at.6 and the dropped the nitrite was 0 and nitrate 0 another week later it was .1 and nitrite 0 and nitrate was like 0
Following couple days ammonia was 0 nitrite 0 and nitrate 5

[AquaAddict]

Sounds like it has finished cycling but a couple more NH4 and NO3 readings probably would be a good idea to make sure. When my tank read "0" in NH4, NO2, NO3, PO4, I added the rest of my live rock,snails and corals. This took 2 weeks because I used some of my old live rock from my previous tank to cycle my new tank that didn't have corals attached.

The tank is now approx. six weeks old. There is algae on the glass (probably increase in NO4 and PO4)) but everything is looking pretty good considering I still have to stabilize my Alk levels. I still have to add some fish but I am waiting for some of the more timid fish to come available at the LFS.

AquaAddict

[hfp75]

You need a source of ammonia..... What did you use to cycle the tank ?

Let's just say a shrimp..... As it floats around in the tank breaking down, every day it's releasing ammonia. So you see you ammonia rise. As bacteria grow and convert ammonia to nitrites your ammonia drops. As bacteria mature and flourish nitrites become nitrates. Every day that shrimp is still rotting and breaking down releasing more ammonia. It is a cycle or chain of events. To have nitrates today, last week there needed to be ammonia in the tank. If you remove the ammonia source you will disrupt the cycle or more specifically, disrupt the chain of the nitrogen cycle.

Long and short when you have a daily source of ammonia (livestock or a rotting shrimp) and your ammonia drops your 1/3 of the way there. When you finally see nitrates rise your good to go. Add a very light bioload (livestock) and remove the rotting shrimp. Give the tank another week to adjust before adding anything else. Then add more, gradually, until your happy with your livestock.

Ammonia - very toxic for everything in the aquarium, if you can measure ammonia it's bad news for anything living in the tank.
Nitrites - moderately toxic, most livestock can handle it. Keep the levels low.
Nitrates - slightly bothersome to livestock. Keep you levels as low as you can. I ran a great lps/softy tank with nitrates at 40.

Long and short, ammonia is bad & the other two are workable.

This is why some people like to start a tank with live rock & not base rock. The cycle is running and your spikes are very muted. It's a quick way through the cycle. Just be sure the live rock is safe or you basically just gave your tank an std.

[Myka]

If ammonia is zero and nitrate is present the cycle is over in the sense that it is now safe to add a small clean up crew if you have diatoms (brown algae) starting, a fish, maybe even a cheap tester frag. There's no reason to complicate it any more than that.

Your tank has a crap ton of brown algae already though, so I'd be adding a significant clean up crew and cut back lighting to just a few hours a day. I prefer to leave the lights off during cycling to prevent the large amount of algae that has cropped up in your tank. What lighting schedule are you using now? What lights do you have?

I'd suggest 4 Mexican Turbo snails, 6 Banded Trochus snails to start. In a couple weeks if they haven't cleaned up the algae I'd add 10 ring Cowries and 10 Scarlet hermits (yes the Scarlets cost more).

Try to scrub off and suck out as much of that algae as you can when you do the waterchange.

[joshkamay]

I've had a clean up crew for bout a week just a small one 5 snails the neterite ones and 3 Scarlett and 2 of the swirl shell snail they look like white poop emoji lol they've been doing a nice job so should I say get 2 or 3 chrommis and maybe a couple turbos? I was think8ng of getting an established torch that Some one else is selling in my area should I hold off or go ahead? As well I have a 6 light tek light 3 10k 2 blue and a purple and have them on at about 4-6hrs a day and just upgraded my power head from a wp25 to a wp 40 from jabeo

[Myka]

What would you buy Chromis for? You want to keep them in your tank forever?

Could you get a better/closer picture of that algae? I'm concerned it may be dinoflagellates, but I can't tell for sure in your pictures.