Cycling Troubles in 150 Gallon Reef

[jonathon4hamman]

Hi I am relatively new to the hobby of saltwater but have had over 10 years in the fishkeeping hobby. I am currently trying to cycle my new 150 gallon reef. I read through multiple cycling advice pages and a few recommended I introduce a frozen shrimp to the tank on day one to kick start the cycle. I did this and after 6 days I still have no measurable ammonia nitrite or nitrate in the system.

Info on the system
125 gallon display.
30 gallon sump
all dry reef rock 200lbs
reef octopus skimmer
maxxspect gyre 150
apex gold
vectra m1 return

any help or guidance is greatly appreciated.

 

[SnoopyDaPimp]

Cycling Link

See if this thread will help you. Goes through feeding the empty tank to get everything going.

 

[tazdvl]

I think ghost feeding is the way to go. you can also use ammonia dose to get to 2ppm that will kick off cycle. DON"T use ammonia with surfactants or perfumes, which are hard to find actually. So back to ghost feeding just keep throwing in a "normal" amount of food daily till you hit 2ppm ammonia, much less smelly then big old piece of rotting shrimp. And no need to run lights or skimmer in fact running skimmer might slow process.

 

[gone fishin]

I would suspect the shrimp has started to decay by now. Did you toss in a deli shrimp?

FWIW I prefer to just add pure ammonia to get the cycle going.

 

[jonathon4hamman]

I tossed in one of the tail off shrimp that one would typically have for dinner. And I will turn off the skimmer/lights to see if that makes a difference. In terms of dosing pure ammonia is that something one would find at a grocery store or is it more an lfs product?

 

[Jerett83]

Any hardware store should sell it but like stated before make sure its pure and not scented

 

[cougareyes]

I tossed in one of the tail off shrimp that one would typically have for dinner. And I will turn off the skimmer/lights to see if that makes a difference. In terms of dosing pure ammonia is that something one would find at a grocery store or is it more an lfs product?

You can get at an lfs, the product I use is Dr Tim's ammonium chloride. I like using this because it's been calibrated to one drop per gallon to reach 2ppm of ammonia. The stuff from the hardware store you can play a guessing game as to the dosage, you can calibrate yourself with a drop in a gallon of water and test ammonia. Depending on your stocking plans you can also cycle lower than 2 ppm, I do 1ppm, it goes faster. If you decide to use ammonia go to
Dr. Tim's website and follow his instructions precisely, or you'll have issues like the one's I've seen on this board. I've cycled my last 3 tanks this way and prefer it to using food.

 

[Jwheld]

I used blue ribbon clear ammonia. (1 gallon for a few dollars at true value) It's 3% ammonia with no additives. If you shake the jug at the bubble do not dissipate right away, do not use. There are dosing calculators found based on water volume, concentration, and desired ppm readily available online. Cheap way to go!! A few dollars will last a very long time.

 

[gone fishin]

https://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/AmmoniaCycling.php

The link is an ammonia dosing calculator. If I remember correctly I picked a small bottle of ammonia up at the grocery store in the cleaner aisle and as mentioned before a lot of hardware stores will carry it as well.