My 280g Custom upgrade.....

SPotter said:
Ammonia update....after three 1/8 cup doses my ammonia level is over 1ppm and I will leave it at that for the night.
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Did you just use the ammonia or did you add shrimp too? When I started my first tank I used granulated Ammonium Chloride and shrimp (until it started to stink which was really fast!) seeded it with Fritz Turbo9000 (I think that is what it was), anyway it took it throuogh the initial cycle in about 2 weeks and then I ordered live about 150lbs. of live rock from Dale Barger (Gulf-view) out of Florida. Georgeous rock! And 200lb live sand from him as well. Put that in the tank and ordered clean up crew. Had no cycle from that which could be detected.

But now if we change some of the variables...let's say I take 50-60 lbs of the live sand out of my existing tank (I have waay more than I need because when I set up the 165 I bught another 100 lbs), cause it does not need to be there and put in in my refugium/sump, then put in more of the rock from Gulf-View whouldn't that cause an almost immediate cycle? The little die off from the live rock would spike the ammonia slightly but the already existing bacteria/biofilter is already in place. But wouldn't this make a just about established tank?

Steve, your not the only one who asks "stupid questions"!
 
Matt, no shrimp but I did pull a few pieces of live rock from 80g tank that I have been running. I might add one or too more that have some pesty paly's that I havent been able to get rid of.

follow up on the stink....The odor police has woken up and I have already received several texts and calls about it. I think I might work late tonight :)
 
SPotter said:
Matt, no shrimp but I did pull a few pieces of live rock from 80g tank that I have been running. I might add one or too more that have some pesty paly's that I havent been able to get rid of.

follow up on the stink....The odor police has woken up and I have already received several texts and calls about it. I think I might work late tonight :)
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Send her some ROSES!
 
SPotter said:
Look what I got!!!!!

a6f80c7c-d106-0e5d.jpg
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That's the good stuff!

SPotter said:
Floyd once we get the level above 1.0 pps what would the frequency and amounts of the maintenance dosage be?
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I just dosed once a day. Test first, then dose, wait 30 minutes, test again. I had the amount figured out at one point and I'm sure I wrote it down, but it's just better to write down how much you dosed and how much that increased the ammonia and it's a linear relationship from that point.

IIRC it was 1/8 cup or 1/4 cup would raise it 1.0 ppm in 225 gallons. I think I even got all anal and tested it on 5g bucket first with a syringe from a Salifert kit and an API test kit and then extrapolated it.

SPotter said:
Well the cycle is definitely underway! I went into the basement this morning to check on things before leaving for work and the stink was nuts. I am so happy I got out before the wife woke up :spin3: I will test nitrites tonight to see if those are showing anything yet.
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Nitrites probably won't show up for a week.

Dustin1300 said:
I've still not had time to research the method but still unclear how long I'm to add Ammonia to the tank....:reading:
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Kind of a stupid answer, but it's however much you need to add to raise the ammonia. It all depends on tank volume.
 
Thanks for the response Floyd...No way to answer a stupid question without a stupid answer, right;) Steve and I e-mail/PM one another quite often right now so I completely understand the ammonia process after I wrapped my head around it. Back to Steve's thread!
 
cycling update.....

cycling update.....

So I got home and the odor was pretty strong. First thing I did was look at the skimmer....I almost lost my stomach when I opened the lid!!!

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Then tested the phosphates..... 0.06822

Next I tested my ammonia and that was right around 1 ppm.

So figured lets test nitrites for the fun of it and here is what I got....

Image 1.jpg

To make sure my kit is accurate I tested a sample from 80g tank that is well established....

Image 4.jpg

Finally I didn't stop there...I got out the nitrate kit and tested that.....

Image 2.jpg

So, my pukani is still leaching Po4 which is probably adding to the nitrate level but things are definitely under way. I will give the tank another week and a wc to see where the p04 level goes before deciding on running gfo.
 
I don't know for sure on this, but it seems to me that you would not want to run the skimmer during a cycle. that's just removing bacteria (or rather, the 30% of bacteria that are skimmable). Talking out of my behind here but that's just my gut reaction. You want the bacteria in the tank to go overboard at this point. Maybe I'm wrong...
 
Floyd R Turbo said:
I don't know for sure on this, but it seems to me that you would not want to run the skimmer during a cycle. that's just removing bacteria (or rather, the 30% of bacteria that are skimmable). Talking out of my behind here but that's just my gut reaction. You want the bacteria in the tank to go overboard at this point. Maybe I'm wrong...
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I did some searching last night and its definitely a mixed bag answer. Some people say yes you must, some it doesnt matter and the rest say never. So I guess its personal experience and preference. The tank is loaded with pukani rock. 75lbs of it was cured for 2 months in brute and 75lbs was cured for only 3 weeks in a different brute. Both cans received wc's every other week with water from current system so there should be a decent amount of bacteria on them. The rocks were taken out of the garbage cans, rinsed and laid out on a table for a couple of days but they were kept moist with towels laying over them until they got back into the tank.

Given my po4 is already at .069 I am leaning towards keeping the skimmer on as I dont want that number to get carried away. However, I just got an earful from my wife about the whole house smelling right now and that odor is coming directly out of the skimmer so I may end up shutting off for now.
 
That's why you're getting nitrites, because you have partially cured rock in the tank. This might actually provide enough ammonia to get your bacterial colony going, because 2 days out of the tank will cause a huge die-off of whatever colony was on that rock afer 3 wks - 2 months of curing. I would keep the ammonia right around 1.0 still, but I doubt your cycle will last 2 weeks - think of it is a more than a mini-cycle, but not a full cycle.
 
Then maybe I will shut the skimmer off and get a little relief from the wife complaining about the odor. Once I get my ATS set up that should knock out the po4.
 
I had cycle my DT and a coupe QT tanks with the ace hardware Ammonia before. I had a finished cycle with zero nitrites in 10 days with just one small LR and the rest dead rock. thats dosing 5ppm ammonia. The longest part was waiting for the nitrite to clear.

It makes cycling a tank fun.
 
You are definately winning the race considering I've not started adding ammonia;) Once I get back from PA today I'll get the bulkhead hole drilled in sump and plumb the fuge in and I can begin our 'race'. Guess I was giving you a head start!
 
LOL....it probably wouldn't have been a fair race to begin with since I have 150lbs of cured rock that went into the tank with some die off on it already from being out of the water for a couple of days.
 
Cycle updates....
Ammonia is between 1ppm and 3ppm
Nitrite....off the chart
Nitrate.....darker than 20 ppm and not as dark as 40 ppm so lets call it 30 ppm

I am thinking that I will not do a dose of ammonia tonight and possibly do a water change tomorrow.
 
Remember that Nitrites are not toxic in saltwater. I wouldn't sweat it. Once the scrubber goes online that nitrate will drop fast. This tank isn't tied into the rest of your system, IIRC, so I'd just leave it be...but that's just me...
 
Floyd R Turbo said:
Remember that Nitrites are not toxic in saltwater. I wouldn't sweat it. Once the scrubber goes online that nitrate will drop fast. This tank isn't tied into the rest of your system, IIRC, so I'd just leave it be...but that's just me...
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Should I continue to add doses of ammonia? I just measured its still holding at 3ppm and I skipped adding it yesterday.
 
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