newb cycling

Alright i got a few quetions. Ive had my 44 gal corner tank filled with salt water spec. gravity at 1.022, temp at 79-80(is this too high). I got 2-3inch sand bed of aragomax, i have a tufa rock arch that i carved and hoping to seed. the rest will be live rock from the LFS. the tank has been running now for 12 days with the tufa and one piece of live rock, power heads and bio wheel filter without carbon is running for circulation. im pretty sure that the rock was fully cured when i bought it. Im gonna get the rest this weekend. one actinic fluoro and one daylight fluoro, for lighting, no skimmer yet. QUESTION i got the red sea marine test lab, ive done all the tests befor and after the piece of live rock was added, PH-8.2, ammonia-0, my problem is with the nitite and nitrate tests. On the card it shows 0 ppm as a light green color, when i did the test my test tube was clear, there is no color for clear. IS it possible for the chemicals to go bad. i tested befor and after the piece of live rock and no difference in results. i know one piece is not very much bio-load but i was expecting to get some reading of ammonia, nitrate, nitrite

 

Salinity is to low that needs to be closer to 1.024 to maybe 1.025 the temps are OK at a steady 79F as for the sand depth ? its not deep enough if you want a sand bed of any benefits and its too deep if you don't want any issues with stagnate areas . 1 to 2 inches or 5 to6 inches depending on what you want it to do? As for the L/R why ?Its your money but I'm sure their will be other stuff more important that the tank needs ? All you need is a piece if rock or a cup of good healthy sand to get it all going.

 

Invest in a hydrometer to measure SG if you can. Swing arm kinds are notoriously inaccurate. Chances are that test kits are bad. - just be nothing to measure. -- Should get good cycle with addition of new LR.

Have fun! ;D

 

I never had success with the red sea test kits, they were always wrong. I like aquarium pharmaceuticals or salifert. You may not get any readings right now but things will change when you put more LR in there...or whatever other way you plan on cycling. I would run carbon 24/7 in a tank and invest in a skimmer to remove any detritus while cycling. All the dead stuff from the rocks will just sink to the sand bed. I cycled my tank with LR, skimmer, powerheads and the filter. I personally liked using LR mixed with tufa rock, I used tufa as base rock and it seeded within a few months from the LR.

 

make sure you are using the proper amount of drops, if you are just putting one drop of each into the tube you're wrong... (i did that the first time too).
each bottle has a drop with a number in it... use that many drops while following the card