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Cycling my new tank - I find the waiting the hardest. Nitrites are 0,5ppm and Nitrates are 5ppm.

I still need to get my lights and I’m having a hard time deciding.

Day one and fish added after cycling.. Hoping for the best! 🤞🏻🤞🏻

Can't figure out why my water is soo cloudy! It doesn't clear up after a water change also. Any advice?

Week 5 and 6! I have definitely learned a lot the last 2 weeks with the help of some amazing experts in the field. They were hard to find as not a lot of people that are sellers take marine husbandry serious. My parameters were stalling and the advice to add more of the RIGHT bio media and some more bacteria saw my nitrites drop within 24 hours finishing my cycle. Some more water changes to come before fish but my first corals are in deviating from the original two planned to allow some learning. Mushrooms allowed me to learn corals opening and closing, rocks and frag plugs and what glue works and doesn’t; which corals can be glued to frags and which can’t and a whole lot of trial and error before getting things right.

Hey guys I stared this tank on march 23 not gonna lie I've only check the water one time since it's been up how does it look everyone's opinion I've did three water changes since it's been running haven't lost one fish or coral

What do we recon for a 42 day old tank?

Hey guys, im a month in with my first nano (80l) and hitting a bit of trouble which id love some advice on.

Currently no fish, but added 4 trochus snails 10 days ago to start getting some life in there once cycle was complete.

My LFS recommended adding 2 bags of copepods and 2ml of phytoplankton once a week whilst we don't have fish to (i think) speed up algae growth.

For the last 5/6 days the water has looked a bit cloudy and nitrates have dropped from 18 to around 2 or 3. Chat GPT is saying it could be a bacterial bloom.

Continued in comments...

The tank has finally cycled after 5 weeks did a 25% water change to drop nitrate both ammonia and nitrite 0

Week 3 and 4! Diatoms everywhere! Massive KH drop forcing a mid cycle water change. Understanding KH and the role of KH/PH in cycling was a massive learning curve for me! Hopefully nitrites continue to drop to 0! Ammonia at 0! Should be cycled in a week or so!

My first set up newbie…. Currently finishing up the cycling process

pH: 8.0–8.2

Ammonia: 0 ppm

Nitrite: 0–0.25 ppm

Nitrate: 0–5 ppm

A good mantra for everyone who got their first tank for Christmas. Rushing to get too many fish doesn't allow your bacteria time to establish. Rushing to get corals before you've learned how to manage your water quality will cause coral problems. Rushing to buy loads of equipment means you might spend money you didn't need to or on gear that isn't right for you. Go slow, be patient, research, research research.

Day #7 🐠🔥

Unexpected update… the Flowerhorn is arriving EARLIER than expected tomorrow 😅📦🐟

The tank is still in the middle of the nitrogen cycle, but we’re seeing solid progress every day 👨🏻‍🔬

Current parameters:

• Ammonia: ~0.25 ppm

• Nitrite: ~1.0–2.0 ppm

• Nitrate: 5–10+ ppm

• pH: 7.6

✅ Crystal clear water

✅ Nitrites processing

✅ Nitrates increasing

✅ Heavy aeration & filtration running 24/7

✅ Pothos added for natural nitrate absorption 🌱

✅ Beneficial bacteria growing fast

At this point the tank is officially alive — now waiting for the nitrite spike to crash before full stabilization 💪

The Flowerhorn lands tomorrow morning before noon 👑🐠

So now it’s crunch time 😅