Question about Cycling

I know I am posting alot lately, but I am just setting up a saltwater tank for the first time so bare with me! I have a 46 bow, and on friday the 23rd I set up my tank. I have 120 pounds of Live Sand 80 pounds of base rock, and I used RO water to mix the salt with. I let it run for 2 days, and I than added 2 Clown Fish and a bottle of Safe Start Instant Saltwater Cycler. It is supposed to instantly cycle your tank. The clowns have been fine, and they appear to be happy and are swimming around and eating when I feed them. Today is the 27th and ammonia appears to be at around 0.25-0.50 and Nitrites appear to be around 0.25. My LFS told me that there would be little to no cycle at all with the safe start.

5 questions:
1. Since the Clown Fish are a Damsel fish, they should make it thru any cycle and be ok right?

2. Since I am not using any live rock, and I used a bottle of Safe Start, how long can I expect my "cycle" to last, and how will I know when it is over?

3. Will a CUC survive a cycle?

4. My ammonia and Nitrite levels are pretty low, can I expect them to stay that way b/c of no live rock?

5. When should i start to use my Skimmer?

P/S: I have a ball of Chaeto in my Fuge, will this help me during any cycle process i might go thru?

Any help in these areas would be appreciated. Thank you!

 

Tank cycling:There are some who would tell you that once "the numbers" are all good the cycle is over and you are ready to go, I am not one of those. What many beginner (even some advanced) aquarium keepers are not (fully) aware of is that the full cycle takes at least 6-8 months. The reason being, mainly, is this is the time required to fully cultivate a total beneficial bacterial base and achieve a saturation of such. Also, allowing the tank to "season" and go through the inevitable mini-cycles and diatom blooms and get fully established is the key to a healthy and stable tank in the future. You could have one fish after about the 6 week mark, let the tank get established by light feeding and going through a moderate light cycle (6-8 hours) for the next 3 weeks.At the 2 month mark, A 25% water change of the "total"water volume is in order. After that, add a few clean up critters (crabs and/or snails) and allow the tank to "catch up" to the added load (you may at this time add some live bacteria to help in this process) and give it another 2 weeks doing all your tests on a regular (weekly) basis and determine if the tank is stable. Water changes of 30% should be carried out once a month to once every 5-6 weeks. Coral should not be introduced (even soft) until the tank is around 3-4 months old. Too many beginners don't exercise the proper patience and discipline at this early stage of getting their tank going only to have problems and head aches down the road. Once the tank has gone through this full cycle period and the tank is stable, then and only then, should you add more difficult coral like hard coral. I always employed a bit of advice I got when I was starting out to add bacteria after each water change for the first and subsequent next 4-5 changes. After the 4th water change then and only then add to the tank and minimally at that.
Another good tactic I learned is to add (whatever you are adding) a couple days after a water change. This gives the new creature fresh minerals and trace elements and a good 3-4 weeks (I adhere to 4-5 week intervals between changes) to adjust to the new water parameters, light, temp etc. before disrupting the tank for the next water change.
I hope this helps.

 

Clowns are more hardy so they should be fine, the levels are not high enough to kill them.

The cycle depends on how long it takes to get a good beneficial bacteria colony. It could take days/weeks/months. I would measure the levels and wait until they are back to almost 0. At that point you can add some more livestock.... I would go with cleanup crew.

I wouldn't add anything else yet.

They are low but will probably drop even more as the bacteria do their job.

I would use a skimmer now to help with nitrate levels.

The chaeto will help the tank but I don't know if it will speed up the cycling process or not. It will definitely help filter everything out.