Does my tank look okay?

Hello everyone, I'd like to get some feedback on my new tank setup. I put the live rock/sand in about 1 month ago and it appears to have cycled. I'm a little bit concerned about the bleached/green coralline on a lot of the rock. I would have expected to see more color by now. Maybe it is because it was uncured when I added it. Also, I have not yet seen any algae blooms, is this normal?

Anyway, here are my water parameters and a pic:

Temperature = 77 F
pH = 8.2
NH3 = 0 ppm
NO2 = < 0.3 ppm
NO3 = 5-7 ppm
S.G. = 1.024
dKH = 9
Ca = 450 ppm
PO4 = 0.2 ppm



I'd appreciate any feedback...thanks a bunch!

 

i would say it hasnt cycled yet. you shouldnt have any nitrite. i would be concerned about the phosphate as well. do you have n e thing besides the rock in the tank? what brand of kits are you using?

 

looks good. I would check your mag also. usually if you keep the mag,cal,alk in check your Coraline will grow.
and redmans cube is right you shouldn't have any nitrite if your cycle is done. also with a phos of .2 the algae will come if you don't get that number down.

 

+1 on the nitrites.

 

You don't have a damsel in there?
If not, there's nothing creating any bioload, so you aren't keeping any bacteria alive.
Time to add a damsel.

 

also what kind of water did you use?

 

The nitrites could very well be zero, it's just that the kit I'm using cuts off at 0.3 ppm. It is a Tetra test kit.

 

you wouldnt need a damsel the LR alone should cycle the tank, esp if its uncured. get some good test kits i prefer salifert.

 

I use RO/DI water and did a 20% water change two weeks ago. I'm fairly confident that the tank has at least partially cycled because I had huge ammonia and nitrite spikes within the first two weeks.

I have 1 turbo snail and 1 hermit crab in the tank now and they have been there for a week.

As for the phosphate level, I just did a test of my RO/DI water and it was less than 0.1 ppm. My tank water is definitely higher than this, probably around 0.3 ppm now judging from the resolution of my test kit. Why would my tank water be higher than my pure RO/DI water?

 

After the die-off from the liverock is done being broken down to nitrates, the bacteria need something to consume or their numbers die off too. They only stick around when there's a job to be done.