Cycle Help/Guidance

[fernalfer]

Ok a little history. I have a 120 gallon 48x24x24 tank. Inside i have 120 lbs. of Marco Dry Rock (That was soaking in Brute tubs 3 months prior to filling tank with water using phospfree to rid the leeching phosphates) and Live Caribsea special grade sand.

Now i used the fishless cycle method using pure ammonia and Fritz9 nitrifying bacteria to help the process along. Here was my process:

Day 1: I dosed the tank to 3ppm pure Ace Janitorial ammonia using the ammonia calculator online to get precise dose. About 5 hours later tested for ammonia and sure enough it was present. No Nitrite, No Nitrates yet.

Day 2: Tested Ammonia right around 2ppm and now had Nitrites present very little .50ppm no Nitrates

Day 3: Ammonia- 0 /Nitrates- 1ppm /Nitrates- 0 Dosed Ammonia to 3 ppm a second time.

Day 4: Ammonia- 3ppm Nitrites thru the roof- 5ppm and Nitrates also present

Days 5-9 I continued to dose Ammonia to 2ppm and within 18 hrs ammonia came to 0. Nitrites remained high and Nitrates were about 50ppm

FINALLY Day 10 after dosing ammonia to 2ppm miraculously Ammonia and Nitrite were 0 and Nitrates about 60ppm

Day 11: Dosed Ammonia to 2ppm and both Ammonia and Nitrites came down to 0 in under 18hrs. but Nitrates remained high 60-80ppm

I now assumed i was cycled. I tested it for 2 more days dosing ammonia and sure enough in under 18 hrs. both Ammonia/Nitrites came down to 0

***Now my tank is empty. No fish, inverts, or corals. I have a lemon peel Tang that will be in Quarantine for 6-8 weeks. The big debate is:

1. Whether to continue dosing ammonia to keep the bacteria fed while doing water changes to bring down the Nitrates.

or

2. Whether to stop dosing Ammonia all together and let the tank do its thing

or

3. Just Ghost feed (flake food/pellets) until your ready to stock

I firmly believe Number 1 is the answer and here is why:

I tested my cycle and sure enough was able to bring dosing ammonia at 2ppm to ammonia and Nitrites 0 in well under 18 hrs. So i began ghost feeding by putting Pellets and flake food in a mesh bag letting the food decay for a full week testing all along the way. Never really got an ammonia or nitrite reading just Nitrates remained high at 60ppm.

So i decided to test my tank to 2ppm after a week of ghost feeding. After 5 hours ammonia was about 2ppm and Nitrites were like .25ppm. About at the 10 hr. mark i tested again Ammonia 1ppm but Nitrites spiked to like 3-4 ppm.

It took ammonia about 12 hrs. to zero out but took Nitrites 36 hours to zero out. So my conclusion is that ghost feeding even killed off some of the bacteria because a week prior when dosing with ammonia it took under 18 hrs. for Nitrites to zero out. Now a week of ghost feeding and it takes Nitrites 36 hrs. to zero out after dosing to 2ppm ammonia.

So to end this long post How exactly do i keep my tank cycled when i have nothing in it and won't have anything in it for awhile?

It has been almost a month and still no algae either. I just don't want to lose my cycle and need the best method possible of keeping it. Ghost feeding isn't working.

 

[thegrun]

STOP DOSING AMMONIA!!!! You should have dosed one time and that is all the ammonia you ever would have needed to add to the tank. Once the ammonia and nitrites dropped to zero, if you absolutely had to know how fast your tank could process the ammonia you could have dosed one more time, although the second dosing is really completely unnecessary. If the tank processed ammonia once it will do it again. All that continuing to add ammonia does (or did) is drive your nitrates up to an unacceptable level, now making large water changes necessary to bring them down or you will soon be battling algae. The bacteria that converts ammonia to nitrites and nitrites to nitrates can live over a year without needing additional food so there is absolutely no need to feed the bacteria unless you plan on leaving the tank without fish for a year.

 

[fernalfer]

STOP DOSING AMMONIA!!!! You should have dosed one time and that is all the ammonia you ever would have needed to add to the tank. Once the ammonia and nitrites dropped to zero, if you absolutely had to know how fast your tank could process the ammonia you could have dosed one more time, although the second dosing is really completely unnecessary. If the tank processed ammonia once it will do it again. All that continuing to add ammonia does (or did) is drive your nitrates up to an unacceptable level, now making large water changes necessary to bring them down or you will soon be battling algae. The bacteria that converts ammonia to nitrites and nitrites to nitrates can live over a year without needing additional food so there is absolutely no need to feed the bacteria unless you plan on leaving the tank without fish for a year.

I know i'm being very anal about this and promise to take the advice you have given me several times already.

But i'm curious as to why it took my nitrites 36 hrs. to zero out when prior to my last test a week before it only took about 12 hrs. Why a week later it takes that much longer. dosing to 2ppm ammonia both times.

I guess because of this is why i thought or think my bacteria are dieing off.

I just feel if i went off my last test and thought my tank was cycled, i would of put my first fish in a week later and had him sitting in high nitrites for over a day. When i thought they were being processed faster.

 

[scallywags]

if you keep dosing, then you are creating larger and larger build up... thus taking longer to "zero out"

 

[bvaughn7]

Ok a little history. I have a 120 gallon 48x24x24 tank. Inside i have 120 lbs. of Marco Dry Rock (That was soaking in Brute tubs 3 months prior to filling tank with water using phospfree to rid the leeching phosphates) and Live Caribsea special grade sand.

Now i used the fishless cycle method using pure ammonia and Fritz9 nitrifying bacteria to help the process along. Here was my process:

Day 1: I dosed the tank to 3ppm pure Ace Janitorial ammonia using the ammonia calculator online to get precise dose. About 5 hours later tested for ammonia and sure enough it was present. No Nitrite, No Nitrates yet.

Day 2: Tested Ammonia right around 2ppm and now had Nitrites present very little .50ppm no Nitrates

Day 3: Ammonia- 0 /Nitrates- 1ppm /Nitrates- 0 Dosed Ammonia to 3 ppm a second time.

Day 4: Ammonia- 3ppm Nitrites thru the roof- 5ppm and Nitrates also present

Days 5-9 I continued to dose Ammonia to 2ppm and within 18 hrs ammonia came to 0. Nitrites remained high and Nitrates were about 50ppm

FINALLY Day 10 after dosing ammonia to 2ppm miraculously Ammonia and Nitrite were 0 and Nitrates about 60ppm

Day 11: Dosed Ammonia to 2ppm and both Ammonia and Nitrites came down to 0 in under 18hrs. but Nitrates remained high 60-80ppm

I now assumed i was cycled. I tested it for 2 more days dosing ammonia and sure enough in under 18 hrs. both Ammonia/Nitrites came down to 0

***Now my tank is empty. No fish, inverts, or corals. I have a lemon peel Tang that will be in Quarantine for 6-8 weeks. The big debate is:

1. Whether to continue dosing ammonia to keep the bacteria fed while doing water changes to bring down the Nitrates.

or

2. Whether to stop dosing Ammonia all together and let the tank do its thing

or

3. Just Ghost feed (flake food/pellets) until your ready to stock

I firmly believe Number 1 is the answer and here is why:

I tested my cycle and sure enough was able to bring dosing ammonia at 2ppm to ammonia and Nitrites 0 in well under 18 hrs. So i began ghost feeding by putting Pellets and flake food in a mesh bag letting the food decay for a full week testing all along the way. Never really got an ammonia or nitrite reading just Nitrates remained high at 60ppm.

So i decided to test my tank to 2ppm after a week of ghost feeding. After 5 hours ammonia was about 2ppm and Nitrites were like .25ppm. About at the 10 hr. mark i tested again Ammonia 1ppm but Nitrites spiked to like 3-4 ppm.

It took ammonia about 12 hrs. to zero out but took Nitrites 36 hours to zero out. So my conclusion is that ghost feeding even killed off some of the bacteria because a week prior when dosing with ammonia it took under 18 hrs. for Nitrites to zero out. Now a week of ghost feeding and it takes Nitrites 36 hrs. to zero out after dosing to 2ppm ammonia.

So to end this long post How exactly do i keep my tank cycled when i have nothing in it and won't have anything in it for awhile?

It has been almost a month and still no algae either. I just don't want to lose my cycle and need the best method possible of keeping it. Ghost feeding isn't working.

What did you end up doing? I would've said ghost feed the tank. Cycling mine now with shrimp. Bacteria loads can fluctuate while stabilizing. Without a constant bioload they fluctuate.