[Pinner]

New to the board, I previously started with a reef tank that as given to me, "so never had to deal with a tank cycling" after being sold cause of a move I have started a new setup. I'll give ya the specs and such to help my answer.

Tank specs
90 Gallon Tank "drilled with overflow and return
25 Gallon sump
Euro Reef Skimmer
GenX 1000 gph
75 Lbs Live rock
2 X 54Watt Actinic T5HO
2 X 54Watt 10,000 T5HO

Water parameters
Temp 77-78
Ammonia 0.00
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Calcium 400 B-Ionic 2 part
kh 12
ph 8.2
Salinity 24 "refractometer" reading

I use R/O DI water, over the last few days readings have dropped to 0 as for showing the end of cycling, when can I start adding inverts, snails, soft corals and the odd fish etc. thanks for all your replys.

[prow]

you can start adding the snails and other cleaners, not to many at a time. as far as the fish and inverts it depends on which ones you want. couple hardy fish should not be a problem. but do research each fish/invert before adding anything. some fish/inverts you should not add to a tank until it is a least one year old. others no worries. i would be wise to get a fish list togather and research each fish so you avoid compatibility issues and feeding compition between them. one thing to remember is one fish that out competes others for food or is too aggresstive or active for his tank mates can really have a negitive effect on the whole tank. best advice is to use your patients. also just an F.Y.I. cycling just means the water is able to support higher forums of life, does not mean the tank is established and most of the things we want to put in the tank needs a more established tank.

[forestal]

when i set up my big system, i let it sit with sand/rocks and snails for 6 months, then i got out a couple razors and scraped all the coralline off, then started adding coral and fish, doing this helped it stabilize before affecting life...my algae blooms were gone when i started adding stuff, and the pods and life on/in the rocks and the sand were unbelievable... tough to be patient tho

[SurfStone]

your tank may also cylce again when you add more animals inverts usually not but fish yes.cycling simply means also that your tanks can support a slightly higher bioload. to be established which is important means pretty much means in lamens terms when you add an animal you should not see any nh3 or no2 spikes, you have lots of microfauna, pods, etc. good coralline growth. that is more important that being cycled.

[Reefland]

Originally Posted by SurfStone

that is more important that being cycled.

I would disagree; the single most important part of setting up a new tank is the cycling. Ammonia and high levels of nitrite are fatal to fish, invertebrates and corals. The cycle is the timeperiod where bacteria colonies initially develop, enough to sustain the ammonia and nitrite levels at a safe level. When new livestock is added, an additional strain is placed on the current bacteria colonies as they have developed to a level where they can sustain the levels at the current bioload. Additions to the tank increase the bioload (i.e. waste production) and require a slightly larger bacteria colony to sustain safe levels.

[SurfStone]

I sorry if I got misunderstood. the Initial cycling process is the most important thing inorder for you to get fish. I meant that your tank cycling will not be complete until it becomes established. there will be a few more periods just like scott said when you add higher bioload the tank will go through another short cylce inorder to be able to process the higher amount of waste that is being generated by the high bioload. But when the tank is established it should have almost no more periods of ups and downs in the nitrogen cylce unless you have something die and cannot find it or you feed to much, etc. I hope this clarifies my earlier post.

Thanks,
matt