How Long Will It Take To Cycle?

[jamjar]

Hi everyone

i have a 60ltr tank with a internal fluval 2 and fluval 3 and i will be upgrading to a tetra-tec 1200. i have two T5 lights and one T8 light that are on for 12hrs a day i also have a v2 skim 400 protein skimmer. Ive been cycling it for 2 months now and still no sign of it completing, ive got 7kg of live rock and live sand i got some coloured polps and green mushrooms, 3 turbo snails and 2 hermit crabs, I added this about a month in. There is brown algae on the sand and red stuff, i think its algae on the sand and glass. I have been toping the water up when it gets low with plain ro water.

my first reading was on the 29/6 and it was PH 8, Ammo 1.2, Nitrite 0.3 nitrate 10. saltintisty 1.024
now on 3/8 the reading is PH 8, ammo 0.3, nitrite 0.1, nirate 20 saltintisty 1.024

Am i doing any thing wrong? any suggestions?

many thanks!

 

[BigC]

The norm if thats what you can call it, would be to set all the tank going (electrics, liverock etc) and wait it out.
Ammonia will spike and fall away to zero next Nitrite will spike and again fall away to zero then you test for Nitrate, if this is below 10 then you can add you clanup crew such as snail and hermits.
Your Ammonia and Nitrite are barely detectable but your Nitrates are creeping up a little, I would do a largish 50% waterchange and cut down the lighting to around 8 hours (works better for me than a full 12 hour photoperiod) I would also do away with the biological filtration in the Fluvals and just use them as circulation pumps The Liverock is your filter system in this type of tank. Alternatively buy some Korallia pumps as replacements for the Fluvals. Consider a sump/refugium with macro algae which you can illuminate 24/7, the idea being that the macro algae uses up all the neutrients in the water and starves the algae in the main tank. People say you dont need a skimmer but I would keep it.
Hope there is some help to be gained trom the above
Regards
BigC