New Tank & Cycling Questions

[worstist]

Yah my question before was anyone experience the big nitrate drop like I did. It's weird because I tested it multiple times and it slowly built up 20, 40, 80, 160 than 20.

Last night i dosed 1 PPM of ammonia again to see if it would convert it.
I double checked the readings again today.

PH:8.2
Ammo:0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate:20

Should I keep dosing ammonia every few days to keep my bacteria up?

I rather not add a piece of live rock if its not necessary, the reason I chose all macro rock was to not get any pests, or anything I'm not aware of.

I think I'm going to add 5-7 Chromis to the tank and leave it for a month to make sure my bacteria levels are good.

Should I do a big water change to get my nitrate levels down? They are at 20 now.

[tang daddy]

You shouldn't have to add any more ammonia, that is only when you start the cycle to get bacteria going. As I suggested before brightwells mb7 will keep the nitrification bacteria alive, along with the fish!

[tang daddy]

20 ppm nitrates is not bad if you're keeping fish only, if you're keeping soft corals and most lps that will be fine aswell. An exceptable level of nitrates for Lps and softies is 10-20ppm. Sps 0-2ppm, you should also consider a clean up crew like a few snails and hermits once you see hair algae grow.

Be carefull when Introducing inverts, be sure to slowly acclimate as they are far more sensitive than fish, and the reason why I said abit of liverock was to add some diversity of bacteria, pods and bristle worms and sponges and featherdusters, those will help eat unfinished food aswell as filter the water. Just make sure the liverock doesn't have any aptaisia and your good to go!

[worstist]

It was a steady increase in nitrate over a few weeks.
I have a 1.5-2" sandbed in my tank.
The tank didn't have light until last week-ghl mitras.

So I tested it once more and again 0 Ammo Nitrite 20 Nitrate.

I think I'm going to get 5-7 Blue-Green Chromis when I can go to my LFS.

I'm still waiting on my skimmer Vertex Alpha 200.

I have bought a BRS dual media reactor Carbon/GFO, it hasn't been setup yet. I'm not sure when would be a good time to set it up.

I plan to run Brightwells MB7 and BioFuel on my tank. Again, not sure when is a good time to start it. But definitely after I get my skimmer broken in and running good.

[KrazyKuch]

I would suggest holding off adding fish untill you get your skimmer running....