Ammonia Cycling: When To Stop?

[e_reef]

I've been cycling by dosing with ammonia. I've read a few different articles on it and they all say different things. One says to cut the amount of dosing in half when the nitrites are detected, another says to keep dosing full amount until both ammonia and nitrites are 0, etc. I was wondering what approach people used? When did you decrease the amount used to dose? How much decrease? When did you stop completely?

Also, beyond the cycle, do I continue to dose ammonia if I won't be adding any live stock for a few weeks? Or will the waste from the CUC/natural die off of bacterium & algae be enough to keep the tank cycled without throwing it off again? I can see that the tank would reach an equilibrium and sustain itself, but would that level be so low that adding a fish would get it off again and start another mini cycle?

 

[Reel North]

I just cycled mine. I took it to 8ppm the first day, and then let it drop to .25 ppm. I then continued dosing up to 4ppm until the bacteria base was strong enough to take that to zero in 12 hours.

I did a big water change, and added some snails and a few anthias. Now.... I wait for a couple weeks to go by before adding anything else. Don't rush once you start adding living creatures. The biological filter is still fragile.

Get those nitrates down!

 

[itz frank]

I cycled mine about 2 months ago using the shrimp method. I ran my Ammonia to 2ppm and left the shrimp until it was mush. Once ammonia was undetectable, I dropped the shrimp back in and ran it back to 2ppm to check and see if I could get rid of it in 24 hours. Ammonia and Nitrite read 0ppm. Nitrates I didn't care for since I was only cycling the live rock and not setting up the tank. I then just set everything up inside the house, moved the liverock, and did a 100% water change with NSW. ZERO problems. I also dosed BioDigest twice.

It took me a little more than 3 weeks time with half live rock and half dry rock. Lights were on about 5-6 hours a day.

I moved the occupants of my 60 cube over which included 9 fish and corals and began feeding. Never saw a nutrient spike. Haven't had an algae issue. Feeding 2 cubes of mysis a day has brought me .25ppm nitrate.

I continue to dose BioDigest. I do believe it played a factor in my success. 2 months up and running and the tank is teaming with life and pods.

125gal.

 

[e_reef]

Thanks for the answers so far all.

So what I've done so far: I have 16 lbs base rock and 1 pound live rock. I started the cycle on 4/20 by adding the live rock and placing a shrimp in. About a week later I pulled out the shrimp and started dosing ammonia instead. On 5/1 I added a bottle of BioSpira. As of the last 2 days, I have had Ammonia and Nitrite readings of 0, and am still dosing with 3 drops of ammonia every day. So in a 24 hour period, the 3 drops of ammonia is completely converted. I have about 9 gallons in my BioCube after rocks and sand are added.

I'm going to check the next two days and if the readings keep turning up 0, I will consider it cycled and go look into getting a CUC to deal with this Algae that's started blooming over the last week.

 

[mcgyvr]

I just pee in mine then come back to it in a month.. Good to go

 

[thegrun]

Add ammonia to a level of 2 ppm once and you are done. All you do by continuing to dose ammonia is slow down the cycle and leave yourself with higher nitrates at the end of the cycle. Unless you plan on leaving the tank sit for over a year the bacteria does not need to be fed.

 

[Highweigh]

I read somewhere that the initial dose of ammonia is enough and any further doses after that will just give you an undesirable amount of nitrates in the end... not 100% sure if this is true but it's what I heard

 

[e_reef]

Yeah, I had a feeling that you should stop dosing. Anyways, I'm done adding ammonia. Next comes the clean up crew while I get my heat issue under control: I have a BioCube and if I run the lights the temperature raises about 4 degrees a day and then only drops 2 degrees at night, so the temperature steadily climbs if I attempt to use the lights in any normal matter. But I've ordered the RapidLED retrofit kit and that will definitely help the situation. For now, I will just keep off the lights since the CUC won't be needing them.

 

[snorvich]

Add ammonia to a level of 2 ppm once and you are done. All you do by continuing to dose ammonia is slow down the cycle and leave yourself with higher nitrates at the end of the cycle. Unless you plan on leaving the tank sit for over a year the bacteria does not need to be fed.

This.

 

[Potatohead]

I only dose to 1.5 - 2 ppm and then after three weeks or so when it is gone I will put in a small amount, maybe 1/4 the original dose, once that dose can be consumed in 24 hours and nitrites are also zero I'll do 100% water change and add livestock.

 

[fernalfer]

I'm in the same boat here as well. If you take the advice of some and only dose ammonia once at 2ppm, how are you able to tell if you can convert the ammonia down to 0 in under 12 hrs unless you dose your tank back up to 2ppm? I'm very confused. I feel like you have to dose until you can see your bacteria are able to convert the ammonia properly. If you dose 1 time how is it possible to see this happening? Also some say bacteria need to be fed because they die off within a few days. And some say the bacteria last weeks even months. Not sure who is right and who is wrong.

I dosed mine with pure ammonia to 4ppm it took 36 hours to bring it to 0. So some here say i should just leave it. And some say dose back up to 4ppm until it can convert in under 12hrs. Left wondering how to proceed.

Now if i leave it and not dose anymore ammonia how will i ever know that it can convert it in under 12hrs?

 

[itz frank]

Well, keep in mind that something doesn't die and then slap you right up to 2ppm. It tamps up and begins the cycle from .1ppm. Second, this is also why it's recommended to slowly introduce fish to the tank. I hit mine a little harder because I was introducing 9 fish from an upgrade.


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[fernalfer]

still leaves me confused on how i should proceed. So after dosing my ammonia for the second time at 3.5ppm it took abot 40 hours to get that down to 0. But my nitrites are thru the roof. So do i just not add any more ammonia and see what happens or do i dose with more pure ammonia to see if the bacteria are converting it more quickly?

 

[itz frank]

3.5 was probably a little high. But, IMO, once everything settled to 0ppm. You're probably ready to rock and roll. Unless you wanted to dose a 2ppm and see about catching 24 hours to 0. The choice is really yours at this point.

Again, if you're not adding 30 fish, I don't think you need to wait.


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[fernalfer]

3.5 was probably a little high. But, IMO, once everything settled to 0ppm. You're probably ready to rock and roll. Unless you wanted to dose a 2ppm and see about catching 24 hours to 0. The choice is really yours at this point.

Again, if you're not adding 30 fish, I don't think you need to wait.


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Ok so now that i'm at 0 for ammonia should i stop dosing ammonia and wait for my nitrates which are thru the roof to come down? Also nitrates are thru the roof as well.

When do i dose again with ammonia? Do i dose once nitrites are at 0 to see how long it takes for both to come down to 0?

 

[Potatohead]

still leaves me confused on how i should proceed. So after dosing my ammonia for the second time at 3.5ppm it took abot 40 hours to get that down to 0. But my nitrites are thru the roof. So do i just not add any more ammonia and see what happens or do i dose with more pure ammonia to see if the bacteria are converting it more quickly?

I would agree 3.5 is high. If your nitrates are super high you can do a water change if you want, but it doesn't really matter with no livestock in there. If I were you I would dose 1/4 what you were, up to 1 ppm and when that is consumed in 24 hours, and nitrites are also zero, you are ready to add fish. If you still have some nitrites, wait 48 hours and dose ammonia again, and check after 24 hours.

When it's all done you will have to do a large 80 - 100% water change to get your nitrates back down.

 

[itz frank]

Above advice is good.

Again, if you're adding 1-2 fish at a time, you probably don't need to keep dosing.

I waited until I had 0ammonia and 0nitrite. Didn't even test nitrate. Just did 100% water change.


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[fernalfer]

not worried about rushing or even adding fish anytime soon. Just want to find the quickest way to get the nitrites down which are high right now and most say in order to do this i need to stop dosing ammonia.

 

[e_reef]

I stopped dosing the ammonia after my previous post. At that point though, my tank was processing the ammonia I put in daily within 24 hours.

I find it interesting that the comments in this post all mentioned dosing once and waiting for an extended period before dosing again to test how efficiently the bacteria was processing the ammonia. All the articles I read in my research mentioned daily dosing until the process was complete.

As a side note, I believe that BioSpira really wrapped the cycle up faster. I honestly expected another week or 2 before the cycle would of finished but within 2 days of adding the BioSpira, I was getting consistent 0's for ammonia and nitrites.