cycling done?

[bearpaw]

Hello folks!

Question on cycling... my tank is 2 weeks old, 20 gal, stocked with 40 lbs live sand and 25 lbs cured rock. Skimmer's been running, light on 4 hrs/d. Put a coctail shrimp, but never saw a huge ammonia spike. I saw some die off in the rocks, but it's looked pretty stable in the past week. I was checking every other day, and the highest the ammonia went up to was 0.5. Today, pH went up from 8.2 to 8.4 for some reason. Other parameters today: temp 78 nitrite 0 nitrate 20.

Should I force a cycle?
Should I do a water change?
I was going to let it go and wait another 2 weeks to see what happens before putting in the clean-up crew.

Any suggestions?



Thanks!

[Jimmer]

Trates are kinda high. I suggest a water change. Did your Nitrites ever spike up?

[bearpaw]

Nope... nitrites never did go up.

[Jimmer]

Provided you hae nothing in there I'd give it a bit of time to see if the Trates drop. I'm by no means an expert just offering my opinion. If they don't go down do a change and re-evaluate from there.

High trates will stress and possible kill your clean up crew.

[bearpaw]

Thanks! I plan on checking daily the next few days.

[Geoff]

i would wait the two weeks you suggested. just keep monitoring the water like you are doing. if you want to boost it along a little then put a raw shrimp in the tank for a day or two. this will give it a little boost.

i personally would not do a water change until a week before you are thinking about adding the clean up crew. this will give the bacteria as much "food" as there is. after the water change keep monitoring the water. you should see a marked improvement afterwards. the parameters should be consistent for that week. if they are not then wait another week.

testing ph is a little tricky. if you test in the morning the ph will be low. if you test in the evening than the ph will be high. i have swings everyday of over .2 ph points. this looks fine.

G~