well week one is done

[kkiel02]

You will get a "hard" cycle if you dont do water changes but if there are some hitchhikers that you want to save people do water changes for a "soft" cycle. This just means they keep ammonia down to a low number but this may cause mini cycles after the initial cycle is complete. I personally didn't do water changes as I wanted it done quick and easy imo. I also had a quick cycle in terms of what others posted but I used live rock and without water changes I feel it goes quicker.

I would also give your skimmer a week or so to break in like falcon said. You may have to adjust it quite a bit in this timeframe. You do this for a slime to form on the skimmer, i believe.

Oh yeah and I would also suggest the nitrite test kit. Ammonia and nitrite are poison to fish at any doseage. Nitrates can be bad if they get real high but that is why we do water changes. Also I would reccomend getting a nice test kit as I bought the api test kit when I first got in then found out they arent very accurate.

[Meslo]

Nitrites are at .5ppm

So how often should I test at this stage of the game ?

[kkiel02]

I would test daily to watch the cycle. My nitrites only lasted 2 days but everyone has different experiences with cycling.

[Meslo]

Monday Tues Wed
Amonia 3 1.5 .25
nitrites 1 1 1
Nitrate 20 20 20
Phosphate .25 .25 .25

[Meslo]

and the skimmer is looking NASTY in the cup on top but I guess thats a ggod thing