A rollercoaster 24 hours for the new kid

Hey everyone So just to start I have a 65 gallon tank with 95 lbs live rock and 80 lbs live sand. Emperor 400 power filter, 2 320pgh flow pumps and 1 600 flow pump (that Im using as a gentle wavemaker, and just the standard natural ligt set that came with the tank/stand.

Its been 10 days since I set it all up. Ive keep lights off minus 3-4 hours at night (can't help myself) and keep a blanket over during the day. Ive been testing twice everday and keeping a log of (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, ALK, salinity and temp) bc I was curious about what all the data would show me in the long term.

For the last 6 days i've had ammonia readings that have blown away the test kit (max 8.0 ppm but realistically it had to have been much higher) with low nitrite/nitrate along with it.

Last night: Ammonia 8.0++ Tonight: Ammonia 0
Nitrite 10+ Nitrite 20+
Nitrate 40 Nitrate 200+

Also, my pH and ALK dropped after a pretty consistant 7-8 days.

Did my bacteria colonies just kick some serious @## overnight? Is this normal? I've always had in my head based on everything I've read that it would be a more casual decrease. My nitrates just outpaced my nitrites. It just seems odd. I appreciate anyones opinion/comments and sorry for the lenghty post. I dont know if I should be excited or confused lol.

 

Your tank is cycling..

 

lol.

 

Everything is normal, dude. That is what is supposed to happen.