Red SeaFish Pharm ARE22210 Reef Mature Pro Test Kit for Aquarium

I bought this after having it highly recommended to me by a fellow reefer. What I didn't know at the time of purchase, is that the cycle is based on using Live Rock in your aquarium and I was using CaribSea Life Rock.Never during testing have I seen any ammonia or nitrite display on the red sea test kits, only nitrates of 10ppm and the algae outbreaks they warn of never arrived.As a result there was nothing in my aquarium that could feed the clean up crew, nor the herbivorous fish that is recommended after 10 and 14 days. I'm now on the last day of the cycle and I remain unconvinced that the tank could host livestock without an ammonia spike so I am ghost feeding the tank for a week before I introduce anything.I've given the product three stars as the guide is easy to follow and in the right conditions I think this could work extremely well.Sadly, it wasn't suitable for my aquarium and I don't think enough effort is made to inform you prior to purchase that the programme is designed to work with live rock.

Successfully cycled my ~500L system with these kits, I had ~50kg of Pukani rock, and 3 bags of Red-sea live-sand. I cured my rock in plastic bins in my garage for 2-3 months beforehand, and had a small amount of macro-algae from a friend's tank in my Refugium.You will probably need more than one of these, i think i needed 3 or 4 to cycle mine. Though I think I could have gotten away with two kits, and extra bottles of KH Coralline Gro, and N03:P04-X.Everyone's tank is different, but I do feel the guide's target water parameter levels are a bit "best case scenario", i.e: a bare bottom tank with artificial rock? It was suggesting that my tank should have had nitrate levels ~5ppm by day 11, and to introduce the "clean up crew". However my nitrates were more like 40ppm, which would have been very bad for invertebrates. I had to do lots of water changes over two more weeks, and much bigger than it was suggesting to get nitrate levels down to safe levels.

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