Cycle Help

[dhigley]

Greetings all I'm new to the hobby and have setup a 120 reef with a 30 gallon sump. Total water volume is actually around 125. My question is that I trying to figure out if my tank is near the end of the cycle or not. It's been running about a month and a half and I've never really gotten a nitrAte spike. I started out with adding on accident a little ammonia that wasn't pure to start my cycle. Then after I figured that out I got Fritz Aquatics ammonium chloride and have been dosing that with a little fish food for several weeks. My tank can process 2ppm down to .5 in less than 24 hours. My nitrItes have been between 2-5 (hard to tell with API kit) and my nitrAtes have never gotten above 80 which I find weird. Other aspects I've left out are that I used a bottle of Fritzyme and started with agraalive sand and dry rock.

My question would be is my tank already cycled and I just didn't get a big nitrate spike? Should i keep dosing ammonia up to 2ppm? Water change? I'm at a loss from everything I have read. Any help would be appreciated.


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[Stolireef]

Stop dosing ammonia. If in two days, you're reading 0 on both ammo and nitrites, you should be good to go. I'd be testing nitrates now. I'll bet they are pretty high.

 

[dhigley]

I just tested them 80ppm never have gotten any higher.


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[AnnaCassandra]

I agree, stop dosing ammonia and wait for ammonia and nitrates to get to zero, not having nitrates over 80ppm isn't a bad thing, your nitrates don't have to spike super high in order for you to be cycled.

 

[dhigley]

Ok will do thanks guys


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[JUNBUG361]

Agree to comments

 

[Stolireef]

I just tested them 80ppm never have gotten any higher.


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Actually, your nitrates are pretty high right now at 80. You typically want to run them around 10 or less (although opinions vary and some run them as high as 20).

Sounds like your tank is coming along really well and the basic cycle is solid.

 

[jake32010]

So I'm in the same boat. But I used live rock and live sand. I havent added anything like ammonia. My thank has been cycling for 2.5 weeks my nitrates are at 0-5ppm my nitrites are at .25ppm my ammonia is at 0ppm and my ph is at 8. Should I be adding anything or no? please help, thank you

 

[Stolireef]

So I'm in the same boat. But I used live rock and live sand. I havent added anything like ammonia. My thank has been cycling for 2.5 weeks my nitrates are at 0-5ppm my nitrites are at .25ppm my ammonia is at 0ppm and my ph is at 8. Should I be adding anything or no? please help, thank you

If you want to test where you are in your cycle, pick up some janitorial ammonia at Ace hardware. Add enough to your tank to bring it up to about 2ppm of ammonia. If the ammonia and nitrites are gone in about 48 hours, you're in good shape. If not, just wait until they both hit zero and you should be good to go.

 

[jake32010]

Thank you I will do that. Is there a certain type of ammonia that I should get. I'm going to Home Depot

 

[Stolireef]

I can't speak to home depot but Ace Hardware sells it. Look for the bottle with the reddish brown label. It says Janitorial Strength Formula and is at 10%. Don't get anything with added scents or surfactants. Oh, and don't put it too close to your nose or you'll wake up from your reef keeping blackout.

 

[jake32010]

Thank you I just got a gallon of it from ace. How much do you think I should put in to get to 2ppm

 

[Stolireef]

See this calculator. Very handy. Its at the bottom of the page.
http://www.fishforums.net/aquarium-calculator.htm
BTW, you'll probably need only a few milliliters. Then again, you'll have enough left over to have truly sparkling jewelry (great for cleaning hard stones like diamonds).

 

[jake32010]

Just put some in I will keep you posted thank you so much