After your NH4 and N02 become zero, your N03 will be very high, this is the time to do water change.. So keep a check on your NH4 and N02...
Normally, I think there is no differences but go slow on the stocking of fishes...
Have no experience with Porcupine Puffer but they look docile enough... Valentini Puffer is actually a toby and they are known to be fin nippers, so you have to watch out on that...I suggest you leave butterfly out of the list unless you can say which one you are going to keep as most butterflies are obligate coral feeder... The rest of the fishes is okay...
Due to their feeding, their bioload will be quite high although so little fishes... So a good and oversized skimmer is a good investment to have...
Removed the hang-on filter to aid with bringing down the temperature...
Tested the Parameters...
NH4 - 0.25
N02 - 1
N03 - 40
Seems like coming to a end,
Did a massive water change with my main tank water and added ultralife to aid with the cycling...
I am not sure how accurate is the test strip but the test kit for API is quite reliable, you might wanna change to that...
NO4???? I presume you are talking about Ammonia(NH4)? You dun have the test kit for Nirite(N02)?
For cycling, the bacteria will break down NH4 into N02 den into N03.So it is better to confirm that both NH4 and N02 is zero as they are deadly...
Something is not right... Can you check for Ammonia (NH4) and Nitrite (NO2) again to confirm becos it is not possible that the cycling only take 5 days? Did you add anything in the process?
I presume you are asking whether is the sand too fine... Actually it ranges from very fine (powdery) to very big chucks(frag size)... Normally the fine ones will get sucked up...