tank cycling

[Venaman]

ok. .
i have my tank setup for like 4 months more or less. what i mean is that it was up for like 6 months, but i got an algae bloom and had to do alot of stuff, same water, but redid everything. .
i have had the sandbed for only about 1-2months, and have about 50 poudnds of LR and plan on getting a lot more, as much as i can pack in there without taking up too much space. .
I have my refugium and it will be setup as soon as i find the time, it will have LR, DSB, caulerpa and mangroves. . . is that good, any suggestions on what else i should put in the 20 gallon refugium.
i have 2 banggai cardinals in there now, and two hardy corals that are doing great, i might sell them back to the LFS, at least the soft coral that i have because when i get my lighting i want to concentrate on SPS, and few LPS.
any way, all my tests for ammonia and nitrite are 0 and nitrate is about 5ppm
i havent tested Ca because i dont have a test kit for it just yet, but before i do anything i will get the kit.
i use RO water and soon i will start with DI
basically when do i know when my tank is ready, when its been cycled and ready to go

[Rin]

It sounds like you've finished with the initial cycle. Every time you add bioload, your tank will adjust. If you add a lot at one time or too much to quickly, you'll see a cycle. If the cycle is big enough, your tank may crash and you'll loose a lot.

It sounds like you've got a good plan. Go slow, let your tank adjust to the new conditions as you add things. I added a refugium 3 months ago to solve a severe algae problem and my tank is still adjusting from the sudden die off of algae in the display tank. I get huge cyano blooms every few days. But I'm confident that I'll be OK eventually.

[Venaman]

thanks a lot for the reply. .

also, if i had coral, does that count as the bio load?
and how much is too fast,
after i ass a fish how long should i wait to add another?

thanks

[Rin]

How fast to go is really a judgement call. It's more a guage of the percentage of the bioload and the size of the tank.

What size tank is it? How deep is your sandbed?

Corals add to the bioload but not nearly as much as fish do.

Assuming you have a 55 or larger tank, you could probably get away with adding 2 more fish or adding 3 or 4 more med corals (not both). Then wait a month before adding anything else. Monitor your parameters. Watch for the dreaded spike--which may not happen if you're doing everything right.

For example, on my 75, I added 2 clowns to a 3 month-old tank with a 3" DSB and 90# live rock (nothing else in the tank). My ammonia stayed at zero, but my nitrites hit 10 ppm (my nitrates got up to 40 or so) and stayed there for a couple of weeks. The clowns survived the experience. (They would later die in the ick scourge of 05/01.)