This is my first saltwater tank it is a 25g with 15lbs or dryrock and 5 pounds of liverock from my dad's tank. We set this tank up the day of the swap and today when I did my water test it showed 0 ammonia 0 nitrite >5 nitrate and 8.1 ph could my tank be done cycling already? My dad had me join here to ask questions said it would help me learn more by talking to people in the hobby I will post a picture of my tank soon.
I highly doubt that your tank cycled. More than likely it's just started and with a lack of an ammonia source ie food, decaying matter it may take awhile before you really see any signs of cycling. I am pretty new at this but here is what I did.
Feed the tank pure ammonia,you can get this at any local hardware store. It has to be pure! Read the label if it has surficants don't use it. Test your ammonia level before you do anything. 4ppm is your goal.
Getting your baseline.
Add .5ml of ammonia to freshly mixed gallon of saltwater, shake it up and then test the ammonia level. This will give you a baseline. Lets say that gallon of your freshly mixed ammonia water measured 12ppm and you have roughly 12 gallons of water in your tank. If you poured that into your tank you should come out with a measurement of 1ppm so .5ml will raise ammonia 1ppm. Then you will need 2ml to get your tank to the target 4ppm. Don't use my measurements! Store bought ammonia can be different strengths that's why it's important to get your baseline.
Adding the amonia
Take 1 gallon of water from your tank and keep it in a clean container. Add half of the required amount of ammonia to that water you just removed. KEEPING IN MIND HOW MUCH IS ALREADY PRESENT IN THE TANK. So if your tank is at 0ppm you would add 1ml but if it's at 2ppm you would only add .5ml. Now stir up that water and add it back to the tank. Wait an hour and retest your ammonia. If it is at 2ppm then you are on track and you can redo the step above to get to the 4 ppm goal. If not then adjust your formula by adding more or less. Keep in mind these numbers are only an example. Oh and remove all types of chemical filtraton, no carbon, phosban, purgen, polyfilter, and the likes. I didn't even skim.
24 hours later
Retest your ammonia levels. You should see a drop. Using the same measurements as before get your level back to the 4 ppm goal. I did this every 24 hours for 2 weeks. Every day you do this your ammonia levels will decrease faster and faster. Meaning your bacteria colony "what you want" is getting larger and larger. I only did water changes when my nitrates reached 20ppm.
2 weeks
At the 2 week mark I stopped the ammonia dosing and did a 25% water change. Then waited another 24 hours and retested all my levels. Ammonia was at 0 nitrites 0 and nitrates were at 5 ppm. I added I dose of ammonia just enough to get it to 2 ppm and waited another day to retest. Ammonia was at 0 nitrites were barley readable and nitrates were at 15 ppm. At that point I knew my tank had enough bacteria to support some livestock.
Keep in mind just because your tank can support some livestock doesn't mean you can go crazy, and by no means is your tank fully cycled. Be prepared for algae blooms and the likes