Ok got my bio cube 29 setup with salt water and 25 lbs of live sand yesterday.Today I put in 25 lbs of live rock took my bio balls out put a small piece of live rock in the bottom of the back middle section and put some bio balls back in.I tested the water for salt it is 1.024 I believe that is correct the 024 is I know. Then I purchased a reef master test kit from aquarium pharmaceuticals. It test calcium,caronate hardness,phosphate and nitrate levels.I tested all of them my Nitrate is at zero the phosphate is 0.0ppm the calcium is 300 mg/L ppm and the caronate hardness is 1 dKH or 17.9 what do you think of these levels? This kit didn’t have a ammonia test what do you think of that? Tank is running about 77-78 degrees. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. What should I do next?
So if I get a ammonia test it spikes and then it should drop with the nitrates and then I know the tank has cycled? Then I do a small water change and can ad 1 fish?
After the tank cycles ideally I would want my numbers at what?

I have a 72g with a 20 gallon sump setup as a saltwater coral reef tank. I grow plants above my sump and ended up knocking a small plant pot over and about 1/2 cup of Miracle grow fell into my sump. I tried to get as much out before it circulated through my tank but some still made it to the display. How is this stuff going to affect my tank?

The ingredients of the soil are as follows:
Total Nitrogen - 0.21%(0.12% ammoniacal nitrogen & 0.09% nitrate nitrogen) Available Phosphate - 0.07% Soluable Potash - 0.14%.

I tested my Nitrates Amonia and PH about 20 minutes after I cleaned it all out of the sump. Nitrate 20ppm, Ammonia 0, PH 8.2. Not sure if the 20ppm nitrate is from the soil or not as I have been putting off doing a water change for over 2 weeks. I have chaeto/macroalgae in the sump and it’s supposed to help remove the nitrates. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am going to do a 20% water change tonight once I pick up some salt.

I have 2 small chromis, 2 small clowns, lawnmower blenny, cleaner shrimp, 2 peppermint shrimp, and a pistol shrimp that resides in the sump. 80lbs of sand, 75lbs of LR. All sand and rock was cured for at least 3 years before it made it to my tank. My tank is currently six months old. I have about 30 different corals, mostly softies and couple pieces of LPS and SPS. Please Help.
I have a bag of chemi pure (which is a high grad carbon) in my sump and its about a month old. Supposed to last 6 months. I will pick up a fresh bag to add to it.

ok, i have a 55gal reef tank, and it has been setup for about a month, and has 60lbs of fully cured liverock…my ammonia, nitrites are at 0 and my nitrates are at 5 or less…i was just wonding if you all think its fully cycled and ready for a fully cleanup crew

for that past 3 weeks i have had 5 snails and 5 crabs in the tank, everything is good but one hermit crab died somehow….he was unactive since the day i got him anyways….but no excuse….also i have 2 blue damels in the tank for over a week now and they seem very active and eat a lot…..advice? thanks.

Ok i just picked up all the live rock i need…here is my tank setup

55 gallon
30lbs agronite sand
20lbs live sand
1lbs live sand from an established tank
60lbs (or more) of FULLY CURED liverock/that i bought from a established tank (/lb)

Fluval 305 filter (new filter media)(no access to used media)
Coral life Super Skimmer (65gallon)
Coral life Actinic light 260watts/10k

now thats out of the way, i was told by someone to do a FISHLESS cycle, and to add pure amonia (about 3-4ml a day) for 5 days….its day 3…i have gotten the PPM up to 1.5 or so….

nitrites and nitrates still read 0, pH is 8.2, salinity is 1.022

CONSIDERING i have 1lb of livesand from an established tank AND 60lbs or CURED live rock, should i even have to cycle the tank? or should it not already by cycled? kind like a clone tank…

i was assuming i should stop adding ammonia and check the nitrites every day until they spike? or will that not happen since i have so much from an old tank?

My somewhat new reef tank (about 2 months) is starting to get a slight cyanobacteria outbreak. While Ammonia, Nitrites are at 0 and Nitrates close to, I think this problem was due to using tap water in the initial setup and old PC bulbs.

I’ve replaced the bulbs and have done a number of water changes and the red slime algae seems to be lessening, I would like to get some snails to finish it off and to take care of some of the other algae in the tank.

I’m probably going to stay away from any hermits as I would like to build this into a reef tank and people have noted their hermit crabs messing with some of their corals. So for now I want to go with Astaea Turbos, but I don’t know how many I should get for a 55 gallon.
I’ve had snails in the past with no problems with them over-reproducing.

I’ve noticed a lot of the "janitor packages" included a sea star or two - would you recommend these? I’ve had a lot of problems in the past with algae in the sand. (Do the hermits do a good job of sifting?)