My 280g Custom upgrade.....
- Thread starter SPotter
- Start date
Dustin1300
Reefaholic
Floyd sparked my mind on the ammonia and I decided to go pick it up. I've seen that method used often and makes the most sense as it won't have any by products. You have better control of how much ammonia is going in too rather than just waiting for die off from the shrimp. I'll likely start dosing the ammonia tomorrow. Let's see who cycles first? RACE! (The part of the system I'm bringing up is 311 gallons...we're close
)
Floyd R Turbo
Either busy or sleeping
You dose the ammonia and maintain the ammonia level above 1.0 ppm until all the ammonia you dose gets converted to NitrAte in 24 hours.
You will get a huge (I'm talking huge) NitIte spike, which is when you can tell that your ammonia->nitrite colony is well established. Keep dosing ammonia as this is feeding those bacteria, and their by-product will build up the NitrIte until that colony is established. Then NitrAte will begin to rise.
Your last dose of Ammonia will get fully converted to NitrIte then NitrAte and after 24 hrs you should have no Ammonia or NitrIte and your cycle is done.
Incidentally NitrIte is not poisonous in a saltwater tank. You can have NitrIte as high as 100ppm with livestock in the tank, but you'd have a really hard time making that happen.
If you want to cycle your tank this way and actually see the peaks in NirtIte and NitrAte you would want to do this without your Algae Scrubber hooked up, because that will soak up a lot of the ammonia nitrite nitrate so you wouldn't test high levels - maybe a little, but not much. Some (not all) have experienced a 'silent cycle' because of this effect, the bacterial colony grows but on a curve that rises and flattens out rather than spiking. Also with a dosing cycle (ammonia dosing) you will have a large biological colony to do filtration, and if you then don't put any fish/bioload in right away, it will naturally downsize in proportion to the nutrients available. In a new tank, this process bounces all around for 6 months, so you can call it 'cycled' but it's not really 'established' for 6 months. There's a reefkeeping article about that and the unknown things we don't or can't test for in the first 6 months of a new tank here:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-01/eb/index.php
#15 - great read. Point 1 talks about letting algae bloom and soak up the waste, of course an algae scrubber does this so it doesn't end up on your rock
unless your rock has lots of nutrients buried in it, in which case you're going to battle that no matter what.
You will get a huge (I'm talking huge) NitIte spike, which is when you can tell that your ammonia->nitrite colony is well established. Keep dosing ammonia as this is feeding those bacteria, and their by-product will build up the NitrIte until that colony is established. Then NitrAte will begin to rise.
Your last dose of Ammonia will get fully converted to NitrIte then NitrAte and after 24 hrs you should have no Ammonia or NitrIte and your cycle is done.
Incidentally NitrIte is not poisonous in a saltwater tank. You can have NitrIte as high as 100ppm with livestock in the tank, but you'd have a really hard time making that happen.
If you want to cycle your tank this way and actually see the peaks in NirtIte and NitrAte you would want to do this without your Algae Scrubber hooked up, because that will soak up a lot of the ammonia nitrite nitrate so you wouldn't test high levels - maybe a little, but not much. Some (not all) have experienced a 'silent cycle' because of this effect, the bacterial colony grows but on a curve that rises and flattens out rather than spiking. Also with a dosing cycle (ammonia dosing) you will have a large biological colony to do filtration, and if you then don't put any fish/bioload in right away, it will naturally downsize in proportion to the nutrients available. In a new tank, this process bounces all around for 6 months, so you can call it 'cycled' but it's not really 'established' for 6 months. There's a reefkeeping article about that and the unknown things we don't or can't test for in the first 6 months of a new tank here:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-01/eb/index.php
#15 - great read. Point 1 talks about letting algae bloom and soak up the waste, of course an algae scrubber does this so it doesn't end up on your rock
unless your rock has lots of nutrients buried in it, in which case you're going to battle that no matter what.
SPotter
Active member
Floyd sparked my mind on the ammonia and I decided to go pick it up. I've seen that method used often and makes the most sense as it won't have any by products. You have better control of how much ammonia is going in too rather than just waiting for die off from the shrimp. I'll likely start dosing the ammonia tomorrow. Let's see who cycles first? RACE! (The part of the system I'm bringing up is 311 gallons...we're close
Ok Im on board! my twv right now is probably around 420g.
SPotter
Active member
Welcome aboard!!!! Its been a lot of fun so far.
SPotter
Active member
Hey mike, the cutout in the glass for the weir is 2" and the water level is 1" from the top of the tank. I'll post some pictures of it a little later on tonight.
SPotter
Active member
SPotter
Active member
People have been doing it that way for years. Google "ammonia surfactants" and you'll find threads all over the place where people panic because they used the wrong ammonia and had to tear down their tank and scrub it down. You'll find a few threads of mine in there as well.
Just to cover all of that, all soaps are surfactants. Not all surfactants are soaps. Surfactants cause a liquid to spread out, basically breaking the surface tension. Think of a drop of water on glass, it beads up. Surfactants reduce this effect.
If you buy the Target or Wal-Mart brand of ammonia, it will say "pure ammonia" or something like that, then the label will list "surfactant". When you shake that stuff up, it will get a little foamy at the top but the bubbles will break right away. This is not a soap-based surfactant and is generally safe to use (and I did, at first). Find another bottle and shake it up and if it stays foamy at the top, like you would expect would happen if you shake soapy water in a bottle, then that stuff will ruin everything in your tank, and you will have to throw out all decor and plumbing, and bleach the tank down. Don't use that stuff
The Ace Hardware brand is slightly more expensive but is also 2x the strength and does not list surfactant as an ingredient, so you can be assured that it is 100% safe. I would not buy anything but that stuff. Seed your tank with bio-media, dose about 1/8 cup and test it an hour later. Keep dosing until you get your ammonia above 1.0ppm and keep in there, but don't go over 4ppm or the biological process can stop. I tried to keep it right around 1.0 or maybe 2.0, testing before and after dosing and keeping a log book.
Floyd once we get the level above 1.0 pps what would the frequency and amounts of the maintenance dosage be?
Dustin1300
Reefaholic
TheFishTeen
New member
I agree. That is the nicest glass eurobrace i have ever seen.
SPotter
Active member
Me too!
Nice!!!! My local ace didnt have the big bottles so I bought 2 of the smaller ones. Game on!!!
SPotter
Active member
It did not. The price was comparable to other well known tank builders. I love the look of it and the add structural support to the big tank.
