Cycling Question

[jwfleck]

Just getting into the hobby, have a 75 gallon tank with a 16 gallon sump. I started the tank about three weeks ago and have about 60#s live rock and 3 damsels. I used RO water when I set up the tank, and my LFS told me to use something called Nutrafin Cycle.

I have been testing the water every two or three days, but have yet to see any increase in ammonia, nitrite or nitrate - at what point should I see an increase in ammonia?? How will I be able to tell when the tank has cycled and I can add corals, fish, etc.

Also, the live rock has turned much more green than when I put it in the tank 3 weeks ago? I have two large snails that came with the live rock and about 10 smaller snails with no shells that have also appeared. Should I put in some crabs to clean up the algae, or is this a bad idea at this point.

I have attached two pictures

Any feeback would be appreciated.
Thanks

 

[wontonflip]

Nice pics. If your rocks were already live, I'm not sure how much of a cycle you will get anyway....if you already put in damsels, I'd keep checking the water to make sure there are no ammonia spikes. If your sand was live, too, the more you might not get a cycle anyway. Definitely wait on adding any more fish for another few weeks or so to let the water chem settle down.

 

[messiah023]

what kind of substrate is that? It' looks thick. Rock or crushed coral or just sand?

 

[Bifferwine]

If you used cured rock, then you may not see a cycle. I would remove those damsels though. There's no need to put them through the cycle process if your tank does cycle. You risk killing them, and that's not right. Your tank will cycle perfectly fine without live fish. And if they survive, they will try to kill (and will probably succeed) any fish you try to add afterwards. Damsels are some of the most aggressive fish out there and should never be used in a cycling tank.

 

[Solarfall]

If the nutrafin cycle you're talking about is what I'm thinking of, I'm not sure the bacteria will even survive in saltwater, though I may be wrong.
That's a common product in big box pet stores so I'm assuming you're going to a petco or petsmart or something. If you get stuff from there, try the biozyme bacteria that's in a little cup thing. It does what that stuff is supposed to do but much better.