Cycling Question

[AirForceAquariu]

Hi all! As you might guess I am quite new to the hobby and trying to cycle my first tank. Due to budget constraints I only added about 1/2 of the suggested 1-1.5 lbs per gallon of rock. I have been doing regular topoffs and water tests for the last week and a half. I have a 65g with a 15g sump. I run a HOB overflow with a mag 7 return and a coralife 75 skimmer (it runs a little wet I am still learning to work it.

The short version is: I haven't noticed any nitrites and only minimal ammonia and now a non-zero quantity of nitrate and less ammonia. Is the tank cycling properly? I can afford the rest of the rock now so I could order it if that would help. Thanks in advance.

Params: Temp 78-80, Ammonia ~0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate ~.15 SG 1.024.

 

[Vapour1ze]

How long has the tank been up to temp and running? Have you added a source of ammonia? You said rock but was it dead rock or live rock? You need to make sure you have a source of ammonia to turn into the nitrate/nitrite. It takes time, patience is key in this hobby. You will see a spike in levels and then you will most likely get your algae bloom etc. then add your cuc and so on and so fourth. Don't rush it. But read up on sources of ammonia for cycling.

 

[AirForceAquariu]

It is LR and I also have Live Sand in there which I figured the die off from would start the cycle. It has been at temperature and running about 2 weeks. I amtaking it slow since I don't want to mess up, just am unsure of where exactly I am at. Thanks for your help!

 

[Vapour1ze]

Ok, great, well you are right about the die off, that would be a source. If it was live rock from a established tank, and you kept it in water during the transition to your tank, you might barely see a cycle... Two weeks is a decent time especially using live rock if it was well established, you may already be cycled. I would give it a few more days... Keep an eye on levels, if you don't see ammonia, nitrate, nitrite spike. You've cycled. Do a 10-20 % water change, and add your clean up crew following with a first fish.

Good luck!

 

[AirForceAquariu]

Thanks so much! That is good news! It was from the LFS (good reputation in the area) and was cured and transported in water so that would explain that. A follow on, I wanted to add some more rock from a different source to increase biodiversity, I assume that will restart a cycle. Will it hurt the estblished rock? Will it take the same amount of time to cycle or will the estblished rock speed the process?

 

[wooden_reefer]

Hi all! As you might guess I am quite new to the hobby and trying to cycle my first tank. Due to budget constraints I only added about 1/2 of the suggested 1-1.5 lbs per gallon of rock. I have been doing regular topoffs and water tests for the last week and a half. I have a 65g with a 15g sump. I run a HOB overflow with a mag 7 return and a coralife 75 skimmer (it runs a little wet I am still learning to work it.

The short version is: I haven't noticed any nitrites and only minimal ammonia and now a non-zero quantity of nitrate and less ammonia. Is the tank cycling properly? I can afford the rest of the rock now so I could order it if that would help. Thanks in advance.

Params: Temp 78-80, Ammonia ~0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate ~.15 SG 1.024.

First you need to have enough ammonia to have a cycle. It is not that you need a great deal, but you need to have enough.

Second, getting only half of the rock to cycle is not a bad situation.

If you stock livestock slowly, it might take you six months to stock a tank. Six months after the cycle, a good fraction of the bacteria that were created during the cycle would have died.

If you stock very slowly, incremental cycling is the way to prevent any mini-cycling.

When you start QT for a livestock, you also start a cycle in a small container with some DT water and some new rock. As the QT finished, the new rock would also be cycled. You then rinse the rock with DT water to remove any unwanted stuffs like ammonia during a cycle, then add to the DT sump.

This way you will completely eliminate mini-cycling as you stock very slowly.

 

[JammyBirch]

If I had to do it all over again I would use DR.Tims ammonia chloride and marine bacteria, you can get it from amazon. Simply because you put a known amount of ammonia in the tank to raise the ammonia to about 2ppm, the add the bacteria and watch it all happen in a week.

Where you're at now it sounds like its cycled you can't get nitrate without getting nitrite, it think your nitrate level is pretty low so you don't have a huge bio filter of bacteria in place.

Buy the dr Tim's ammonia chloride, $8 on amazon I think, add one drop for every gallon including sump...should be 2ppm. Watch and see what happens it should lower the ammonia and convert it to nitrate in a few days.

This is what I did, after starting a cycle the old fashioned way with shrimp...never again.

Good luck

 

[wooden_reefer]

If I had to do it all over again I would use DR.Tims ammonia chloride and marine bacteria, you can get it from amazon. Simply because you put a known amount of ammonia in the tank to raise the ammonia to about 2ppm, the add the bacteria and watch it all happen in a week.

Where you're at now it sounds like its cycled you can't get nitrate without getting nitrite, it think your nitrate level is pretty low so you don't have a huge bio filter of bacteria in place.

Buy the dr Tim's ammonia chloride, $8 on amazon I think, add one drop for every gallon including sump...should be 2ppm. Watch and see what happens it should lower the ammonia and convert it to nitrate in a few days.

This is what I did, after starting a cycle the old fashioned way with shrimp...never again.

Good luck

You do not need to buy dr anything.

Cycling is extremely easy.

It is very easy to have a source of ammonia and bacteria seed. No need to buy dr anything.

Can you get some water from an established reef tank?

 

[JammyBirch]

I never said it was hard, the kit help speed it up...that's all. The ammonia chloride is really nice to have to test the status of your newly cycled tank. You can also get pure ammonia from some hardware stores but the little dropper bottle is way better...

Try it out...

 

[wooden_reefer]

I never said it was hard, the kit help speed it up...that's all. The ammonia chloride is really nice to have to test the status of your newly cycled tank. You can also get pure ammonia from some hardware stores but the little dropper bottle is way better...

Try it out...

Dr anything does not speed up by more than a couple of days if that.

Even if you do not buy bottled ammonia but rely on decay, ammonification will happen fast enough.

At the first stage of a cycle, when bacteria number is low, as long as there is some ammonia, bacteria will grow. The level of ammonia will not be rate limiting in the first few days of a cycle. Even if you just put some chopped up fish food, the decay will be fast enough. If you blend a fleshy protein to milk looking, ammonification will be completed within 48 hours.

If you can get some water or sand from an established tank for bacteria seed, which is the best way, you do not need dr anything.

 

[JammyBirch]

Wow jerk, it's a suggestion...I guess we should just do it your way. Hey smart guy who said need?

 

[MinnFish]

Wow jerk, it's a suggestion...I guess we should just do it your way. Hey smart guy who said need?

That's unnecessary, Jammy. Let's keep this civil. Please, before someone gets a violation or the thread closed. Please sir.

 

[W1ngz]

I never said it was hard, the kit help speed it up...that's all. The ammonia chloride is really nice to have to test the status of your newly cycled tank. You can also get pure ammonia from some hardware stores but the little dropper bottle is way better...

Try it out...

I gotta agree on this one, it's how I cycled my 2 freshwater and my marine tank. It might not make it faster, or better, or give me any bacterial super heroes or whatever, but it's specific doses and data I can measure and be confident that my initial cycle has completely run it's course.

 

[JoelA7]

Hello. I think you need to step back a pace and just follow the most basic procedure. That way you will be sure to have cycled. And I suggest adding the second half of your live rock now, and then do the following.

Get an inorganic source of ammonia. It needs to have no additives such as surfactants. My neighborhood hardware store sells Ace brand 10% ammonium hydroxide. Perfect. I forget the formula to calculate how much you need to add to get 1.5 ppm. But that's what you want to hit. Mix the ammonium hydroxide in a couple of quarts of tank water and then very slowly add it to the tank where there's plenty of current to disperse it. Test every day until you are back to zero. Repeat until your tank processes the NH3 from 1.5 to 0 in 24 hours.

Once your tank processed the first batch of NH3 to zero you should be getting progressively higher nitrite readings. Do one or two more NH3 to zero and you should have plenty of NO2. Test daily as it should start to come down and at the same time NO3 will be rising. NO water changes yet.

When nitrite has dropped to zero you have cycled. Do some big water changes and start to ghost feed a little bit each day to keep your bacteria bed happy while you start to stock your tank.

Good luck! It's bloody addicting.

 

[wooden_reefer]

I gotta agree on this one, it's how I cycled my 2 freshwater and my marine tank. It might not make it faster, or better, or give me any bacterial super heroes or whatever, but it's specific doses and data I can measure and be confident that my initial cycle has completely run it's course.

What dose do you need?

10 grams of moist flesh will go thru ammonification to yield about 3 pmm n- ammonia in 25 gals of water.

Even if you do know this, you should be able to eyeball the amount of food you feed all you livestock. Add several times this amount every few days during the cycle will do just fine.

Bacteria will multiply when the conditions are correct.

I am just trying to relate to you that cycling is very easy and dr anything does not add any significant value.

 

[AirForceAquariu]

Well this took off... I will be adding the second half of my LR this weekend. I will watch for how the cycle is handled. I did add some estblished sand and from talking to a few people the think I just got some good sand and LR and have a well cycled tank. We will see what happens to the Ammonia from the new rock, that will be a big test of the bio-filter.

Thanks everyone for all your help! I am excited to keep learning and exploring!