Did my cycle stall?

[alshayazoo]

New to the hobby and to Reef Central. This is a great forum full of resources.

I have a Red Sea Reefer 250 that I received as an anniversary gift and was started 4 weeks ago. The wife had it delivered and I watched as it was set up. The wife is regretting the gift now.

I've learned a lot about tank set up from this forum and wish I had had more of a hand in the decisions in the beginning, but what is done is done.

I have 75 pounds of dry rock and the install guys added a sealed bucket of sand that looked moist.

They handed me a bottle of bacteria and said "Add this everyday for 10 days then you can add fish". I also got Tropic Marin test kits and Red Sea Coral Pro Salt.

After 10 days of nothing much happening I added a raw shrimp to help start ammonia production and over the next 10 days I saw the ammonia jump to 1ppm and is now down to 0.01ppm. Once the ammonia dropped I tested Nitrite (0.0) and Nitrates (100) and thought to myself YAY!!! Because of the high Nitrates I decided to do a 15% water change to see if that would bring them down some.

A day after the water change the ammonia stayed at 0.01 but the Nitrites went up to 2ppm and Nitrates are at 100ppm, both the maximum my test kit can show. I figure either I got a false reading when I tested nitrites the first time or Nitrates are so high that it is effecting the Nitrite test. These parameters have stayed the same for the last 4 days.

Looking at this empty tank is killing me but I will be patient. Here are my questions.

1. Has the cycle stalled?
2. Is there anything that I need to do or should I just wait it out?
3. Should I add another shrimp and dose more bacteria to keep the cycle going?
4. Would adding a couple pieces of live rock help?
5. If adding live rock, would I need to quarantine it?

Thanks in advance for the help!


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[cougareyes]

You are cycling and nitrites can stall for a few days through the 1st couple of cycles. Seems the initial building of the nitrifying takes a bit longer than the bacteria breaking down ammonia. You have either made a mistake with testing the nitrates or added nitrates somehow with the water you used. 1ppm of ammonia would cycle through to somewhere around 10ppm of nitrates. But the nitrates would not interfere with your cycle. If your nitrates really are 100, you will have to deal with that before you start stocking.

 

[GimpyFin]

Kudos to your wife. Killer anniversary gift.

Yep, just wait it out. Ammonia and nitrite will eventually zero out and you will just have nitrate. At that point, you could do a water change to help bring some of the Nitrate down if you'd like. An alternative to waiting it out would be adding bacteria like Biospira. It makes your biofilter ready almost instantly. Just take it slow, though when adding livestock.

 

[alshayazoo]

Kudos to your wife. Killer anniversary gift.

Yep, just wait it out. Ammonia and nitrite will eventually zero out and you will just have nitrate. At that point, you could do a water change to help bring some of the Nitrate down if you'd like. An alternative to waiting it out would be adding bacteria like Biospira. It makes your biofilter ready almost instantly. Just take it slow, though when adding livestock.

Thanks. I'll sit on my hands and wait.

The wife did well.....

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[dreaddinit]

What is it looking like now?

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[Sk8r]

You need a lot else before you add fish: quarantine tank(s) for tank transfer (see the sticky) and qt procedures before a parasite sneaks in to set up in that sandbed. You also needs some inverts to work in there for a while (micro hermits/snails) to be sure that sandbed can handle 1 fish. We've got a red-arrow sticky up top on setup that will suggest other questions...

But congrats on a magnificent gift! Great start on the hobby! And kudos to the wife!