Fishless cycling help!

[gcorona301]

Hello everyone so i started my 40 gallon saltwater tank a few days ago with live sand about one inch to one inch and a half, and life rock from caribsea 40 pounds and one piece of purple cured live rock. To fill up the tank i used Red sea Coral Pro salt but will be switching to IO Reef Crystals (since i only bought 55 g of the Coral Pro) as soon as i have to do a water change and im using Ro/Di water. Someone told me to do a fishless cycle by simply adding pure ammonia. But now im reading its best to add fish food so the bacteria have a different type of food to feed off? Am i on the right path by just dosing pure ammonia?
I also added instant ocean bacteria starter. So the
first day i dosed it to 4ppm ammonia, 0 NitrItes, 0 NitrAtes. PH 8.2 salinity 1.025.
Second day: Ammonia .50- NitrItes 5.0+(off the charts)- NitrAtes 30ppm- PH 8.0
Third day: Ammonia 0ppm- NitrItes 5.0- NitrAtes 40ppm PH 7.8-8.0
Noticing the PH is dropping a bit
What are your guys take on this? whens the next water change?
Am i doing fine?
Am i worrying to much?
DO i just need more patience?
lol Thanks guys hope to hear from you experience reefers out there!:bounce2:

 

[Potatohead]

Dose pure ammonia up to 2 ppm and add a bacteria "starter" like Bio-spira or Seachem Stability (you did). After about ten days you will notice ammonia dropping and nitrites rising. Do nothing until four or five days of no ammonia reading, then add about 1/4 your original ammonia dose. Once your nitrites are gone (couple weeks), ammonia should also be zero and your nitrates will be quite high. Do a 100% water change and you're good to go.

Edit - noticed you have live rock in there so it sounds like it is already seeded pretty well based on your readings second day. You dosed it way too high with ammonia which is why your nitrates and nitrites are so high. Your ph is dropping because nitrates are acidic and will do that when they are a high level. IMO I would let it sit for two days, test again. If no nitrites dose to .5ppm ammonia, check after 24 hours. If no ammonia and no nitrites do your big water change and done.

 

[gcorona301]

Dose pure ammonia up to 2 ppm and add a bacteria "starter" like Bio-spira or Seachem Stability (you did). After about ten days you will notice ammonia dropping and nitrites rising. Do nothing until four or five days of no ammonia reading, then add about 1/4 your original ammonia dose. Once your nitrites are gone (couple weeks), ammonia should also be zero and your nitrates will be quite high. Do a 100% water change and you're good to go.

yes i did do that i added 4ppm ammonia tho and added bacteria starter and ammonia went down to 0, NitrIte spiked up and NitrAtes are starting to rise up. So i am in the right track im assuming

 

[Sley1]

No pro here, but I think with using ammonia you should be dosing some each day till your back to 4ppm, then see how long it takes for the bacteria to bring it down to zero. If your able to dose to 4 ppm and it's gone the next day, and nitrites are gone as well, then your cycle is complete. Nitrates should be getting higher each day as well. Should take at minimum 12-15 days or so with adding the IO bio- spira. Once this happens begin water changes to lower the nitrates.

 

[Potatohead]

I edited my original post, don't dose it back up to 4 ppm unless you are putting 30 fish in there it does not need to be that high, it will take forever for your nitrites to come down and thenyour nitrates will be crazy high if you keep doing that lol

 

[gcorona301]

I edited my original post, don't dose it back up to 4 ppm unless you are putting 30 fish in there it does not need to be that high, it will take forever for your nitrites to come down and thenyour nitrates will be crazy high if you keep doing that lol

Lol to come to think of it that's pretty true, but Do you think I should do like a 25% water change just to help out on lowering the nitrItes and nitrAtes?

 

[gone fishin]

Lol to come to think of it that's pretty true, but Do you think I should do like a 25% water change just to help out on lowering the nitrItes and nitrAtes?

Wait until the nitrites hit zero before doing a WC.

 

[gcorona301]

Alright thanks guyys!

 

[gcorona301]

So checked my nitrItes right now when I got off work and they went down to .50!! bacteria in a bottle plus live sand and live rock really did kick start my cycle

 

[zelie_dad]

I dosed ammonia to 2ppm every day during my cycle. I also dosed 2 bottles of Bio Spira about 1 week apart because my nitrites were so high. If I had to do it all over again, I would wait until my ammonia was 0 then dose back to 2 ppm. That way my nitrates wouldn't have gotten so high at the end. Once ammonia and nitrites were at 0 after 24 hours, I dosed one more time to 2 ppm, waited, tested again and if they were 0 after 24 hours, I considered my tank cycled. Like I said, after my cycle my nitrates were sky high, and after a large water change it helped bring them down considerably. They were probably around 20, then my Zeovit system started to kick in. Currently, I'm around 6 ppm Nitrate, and 0 phosphate.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[gcorona301]

I dosed ammonia to 2ppm every day during my cycle. I also dosed 2 bottles of Bio Spira about 1 week apart because my nitrites were so high. If I had to do it all over again, I would wait until my ammonia was 0 then dose back to 2 ppm. That way my nitrates wouldn't have gotten so high at the end. Once ammonia and nitrites were at 0 after 24 hours, I dosed one more time to 2 ppm, waited, tested again and if they were 0 after 24 hours, I considered my tank cycled. Like I said, after my cycle my nitrates were sky high, and after a large water change it helped bring them down considerably. They were probably around 20, then my Zeovit system started to kick in. Currently, I'm around 6 ppm Nitrate, and 0 phosphate.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

SWEET! and yeah i just dosed my ammonia to 2ppm this morning, nitrites are at 0 and nitrAtes are 40ppm, PH 8.0
So im going to check up tomorrow