Help!

[TheBalance]

Hey everyone! Ok so 3 weeks ago I got myself a nice little 46gallon bow front fish tank. I filled it with saltwater, got 40 pounds of live sand and let that settle for like 2 days. Then I purchased my fluval 306 canister filter and got that up and running. My plan was to do a fish less cycle but that didn't happen... My birthday was shortly after this and I ended up with 2 nano clown fish and a yellow tailed damsel. And it was hard for me to tell my mom/friends no. Also 10lbs of live rock! So here I am 3 weeks later happily enjoying my fish tank but my real question is, should I keep putting more money into my tank? (Live rock and then more livestock?) Because I was reading and hoping a fish in cycle would start up but here I am with 0 readings for everything! And I'm confused. Because I half expected my amonia to rise? And I also have a clean up crew... (3 hermit crabs, 5 snails 3 different kinds) I have my own test kit and I also checked with the pet store and they tested all the same. So my questions is, should I be ok to continue with adding rock and fish? Or should I try to return the fish(sad face)and do nitrogen cycle while I can. Oh and lastly I have only done one water change last week and it was 10%. Sorry for all the info being scattered, but all input would be very much appreciated! Thanks

 

[Donya]

If the fish are small and the live rock was really good quality, that might be why you're ok. 10lbs of cruddy rock is not going to be nearly as useful as 10lbs of really porous stuff covered in life - which might not even give you a cycle if it was transported well (the cycle is usually caused by dieoff on the rock and/or sand). It would be a good idea to get more LR in there soon though just as a precaution.

What all have you been testing for? If only ammonia, you should also be looking at nitrite and nitrate. As long as those other two values are ok, the fish are probably fine. Make sure you are regular on water changes and keep testing.