When do you know for sure when a tank is cycled?

I need to know when it is safe for me to put some more expensive fish ino my tank. It is a 40 gal saltwater tank that has 6 damsels in it to help cycle it. I used fake plants, but live sand and some gravel.

Hydrometer read 1.023

PH 7.8

Alkalinity ideal

Nitrate .5 (caution)

Nitrate below 20 (OK)



Also how do you change the pH level if it were too high? Or any of the other readings for that matter. This is my first tank and I really don't want to kill any fish, expecially since they cost so much once you really get some nice ones. We plan on getting a pair of clown fish as soon as the tank is stable. What else would go well with clown fish and damsels? What is the best kind if cleaner fish to put in there to keep the tank clean? I like how the cleaner shrimp looks, but do they clean the tank or just the fish?When do you know for sure when a tank is cycled?
I go with Magicman on the cycling. Your tank's looking good since your ammonia is already at zero, but you want to get rid of the nitrite (I think this is what you meant was the .5). Once you get this and it stays for a week, you can move on to other fish.



If you're only keeping fish, your salinity is fine. If you want to get invertebrates, you need to bump it up just a little - 1.024 - 1.026. This is closer to seawater.



The pH will rarely go too high for salt. most folks have trouble getting it high enough! For instance, yours right now is 7.8. That's LOW for saltwater. It should be above 8, preferably around 8.3-8.4. I have that problem, too. Only thing that's worked for me is kalkwasser. Since you don't have a big tank, you don't need to get a reactor for this. Get a clean soda bottle and put some tap water in. Add about a teaspoon of Kalkwasser powder (be careful with this, it's caustic) to the water, cap, and mix. It will be very cloudy, but will settle. I use an eyedropper/ baby medicine dropper to add a dropperful at a time. It's going to take a bit to get your tank's pH up to where it should be, though. And you don't want to adjust the pH too quickly. Once it's too hard to get any kalk out of the bottle, just add more water. As long as there's powder in the bottom, it's dissolving in the tapwater. Add more powder as needed, and don't mix more than a 16oz bottle at a time.



Your pH may not be where it should if you used gravel as in ';aquarium gravel'; - the stuff put in freshwater tanks. It's better to use the small shell substrate or crushed coral. These will help with the pH by dissolving when the pH gets low.



Are you planning to keep the damsels you cycled with? If so, you may have quite a few problems down the road when you want to add new fish. Damsels, other than chromis, are aggressive. They are used to having the tank to themselves and have established a ';pecking order'; and territories. Any new fish will become the ';intruder'; and harrassed, often to the point of being killed. Moreso, since it will be six against the new fish. Your best bet would be to exchange the damsels for other fish, if possible.



Without knowing the types of damsels you have, your tank may be close to stocking capacity already. Because of aggression and territoriality in marine fish, plus a general intolerance of changes in water quality, the stocking should be much lower than it is for freshwater aquaria. To cut down on aggression, you should avoid any fish within the same family, or having similar color or body shape as the fish you already have.



Some fish I'd suggest if you want to go with the clowns, rather than the damsels are green chromis (these and damsels are both in the same family, but generally tolerant of each other), longnose hawkfish, any of the peaceful cardinalfish, firefish, clown gobies, canary blenny, purple pseudochromis (dottyback), a dwarf angel, or, a yellow tang (be careful of disease with these - they're nice fish but are sometimes marine ich magnets) - use a quarantine tank for at least 3 weeks before adding a new fish to your main tank. It will save you a lot of grief from having a new fish wipe out everything already in your tank. I'll post a website where you can find photos and info on these and others.



The cleaner shrimp will clean the fish, but a little of the tank as well - they'll dig things out of the rocks and gravel with their claws that the fish can't reach. But to get more cleaning power, you'll want to get some other inverts. Snails are a good cleaner - nassarius will burrow into the gravel and get food buried deep, Astrea, Nerite, Turbo, and other will clean the surfaces (but will need the pH corrected before you add them). I usually keep an emerald crab or two in my tanks, plus several blue-leg and scarlet hermit crabs. I also like peppermint shrimp - not as colorful as some others, but when I buy live rock, I can count on them to destroy any nuisance anemones (Aiptaisia). In a 40 gallon, you could probably also beep a brittle star, but don't add until your tanks been cycled for about 6 months.



Thanks for the reference MM!

- CWhen do you know for sure when a tank is cycled?
Be careful with clown fish. Only have one species - for example only tomato clowns or nemos... they tend to fight and attack each other otherwise.

Put lots and lots of snails and snail crabs for cleaning. And urchins.

Diamond goby http://www.techdef.org/fishpages/Images/ will clean your sand and they seem to have great personality as far as fishes go.

Blue tangs

http://www.pnwwebdesign.com/graphics/Tub are beautiful but can be a bit aggressive.

Cardinal fish

http://www.onchat.com/users/M002/malesur

is a very peaceful and graceful fish. Lovely to look at.

Same goes for psychedelic fish.

http://www.scubagrl.net/Psychedelic%20Fi and butterfly fish

http://www.harphampix.com/v2/files/0476/



Ask people at the store where you're buying fish or better yet, go to this website. They supply fish, and everything connected to it with valuable advice.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/?ref=4184%26amp;



As far as the cycling of the tank and pH, you need to talk to an expert, and the above site might help you find the answers you're looking for.
Usually it takes a week or so for a freshwater tank to cycle. I'm not really sure about saltwater. You can ask at the shop where yu purchased your set-up and your fish. Wen you go to purchase the clown fish ask the person working there. i have found that actual pet stores know much more about fish than stores like walmart. Petsmart %26amp; petco are both very good with info and advice. Good Luck!
I tank is completely cycled when after several days to a week of no water changes both ammonia and nitrites read 0 and you know there is a source of ammonia in the tank.



As far as altering pH in a salt tank I would refer you to SeaChems line of marine products. They seem to do a very good job of handling the situation.



I haven't kept a marine tank in some years so I'll refer you to someone else as far as fish compatability is concerned. Hopefully someone like Copperhead, 8 in the corner or DanielleZ will pick that up for you.



MM