Nano tank?

Question

I have a 12 gallon nano saltwater tank with 20lbs of live sand and 10lbs of already cured live rock. I has been running for 2 days. I tested the water earlier today and the pH was 8.2, the ammonia was 0, the nitrites were 0, and the nitrates were 5. Also, the specific gravity was 1.021 and the temperature is 78 degrees. When will it be done cycling? Should I do something to get it to cycle? I have heard that you should put a raw shrimp in the tank to create ammonia, but I do not know of anyone who has tried it. I know that I should wait and see if the levels stay stable, but how long should I wait before I can start adding fish?

I want to eventually have 2 small false percula clowns, a clown goby, a couple peppermint shrimp, 2 or 3 feather dusters, and a few hermit crabs. I am not going to add all of them at once, but I want to eventually have that much in it. Would it be too much to add a small blue/green chromis to cycle the tank with and then just leave it in there?

Answer 1

G's on the mark with his answer - there's really no difference in how you cycle the tank, other than you have live rock to seed the bacteria. You can use shrimp, fish food, or a few drops of pure ammonia (no soaps, surfactants, fragrances, etc. added). I think I mentioned in an earlier answer that you're already pushing the limits of the tank with two clowns and a goby - the chromis would be an additional fish with the same body shape and from the same general family as the clowns, so they would react even more aggressively toward the chromis than the goby. Plus chromis are schooling fish, and should have a group of its own kind.

Answer 2

Your tank is two small for all that bio load and it needs to cycle for at least a fortnight (some people will cycle for months). In a nano tank the levels of bacteria are constantly waxing and waning they need quite a long time to finally balance.

Answer 3

From what I've heard, it is very difficult to keep the water quality good in such small tanks. In addition, the general rule for stocking a saltwater aquarium with small to medium fish is 2" of fish for every ten gallons.

Answer 4

i have never cycled saltwater but in freshwater you have to introduce something to get the bacteria to start producing ammonia.

in fresh water you can "feed" your tank with fish food -- much the same as the raw shrimp thing.

i would research online -- someones got to have written something about saltwater cycling somewhere.