DeepBlueZoas
New member
So this is going to be a long post so I'm going to try to include as much information as possible because now I'm at a loss and don't know where to go from here so please any insight is greatly appreciated.
System is roughly 500 gallons with six tanks each year which have two dividers making it 18 separate cubicles the system has a 10 ft glass sump and 58 gallon square sump for moving biomedia.
Each cubicle has their own aeration and water flow supplied by Sweetwater air pump and an iwaki 100 rlt. Tank also has a tradewinds one horse chiller keeping tank at 76 to 77 degrees supplied by a jebao DCT 12000.
I have about 5 gallons worth of seachem pond matrix in media bags in the glass sump as well as a small bag of ceramic ring bio media if 58 gal tub is filled with about a half cubic foot of k1 like moving media that is constantly tumbling. This is a good overview of what the tank it's set up like now go into what was added to the tank to do the fishless cycle.
I started with natural sea water from the ocean collected on an incoming tide with very clear water at about six feet below the surface.hi then sterilize the water with 5 ml of 6% bleach per liter of water then dechlorinated with pure sodium thiosulfate at 10% grams sodium thiosulfate per milliliter of bleach. I also added a little more than called for of this sodium thiosulfate to ensure there is zero chlorine left.
I then added enough ammonium chloride to get the ammonia level .5 parts per million. And then begin adding seachem stability at about double the dose for about 4 days adding bicarb to keep alkalinity up. I am using the API test kit and cross-referenced it with known ammonia levels in to ensure accurate readings.
The first seven days ammonia stayed at 0.5 parts per million nitrite and nitrate still undetectable.
Then I decided to get Fritz turbostart 900 I haven't added that at the recommended dose for 3 days and immediately the next day started registering nitrite.
7 days after adding turbo start and continually adding bicarb to keep alkalinity up the ammonia was zero and now the nitrite was 5 parts per million and nitrate is still 0 at 2 weeks in. I talked to the guys at Fritz to see why the nitrite wasn't cycling over to nitrate they thought it might be in nutrient deficiency so I added phosphates and 2 tablespoons of pellets. Then added another dose of 600ml of turbo start.
After adding the pellets ammonia went back up to 0.25 and the nitrite stayed at 5 parts per million. at this point I checked the TDS reading on my rodi water which ran 10 parts per million so I added some sodium thiosulfate to each jug of top off water from then on and added a little bit to the system. Since then I now have new filters and reading is 0 TDS.
after one more week the nitrates finally started showing up and small numbers about 5 part per million but the nitrites are still at toxic levels of 5 parts per million with no sign of going down.
6 days after adding the pellets and no sign of any change I started doing partial water changes around 30% with natural seawater without sterilizing this time filtered with 100 micron sock. I have now done 4 water changes and ammonia is finally 0 but the nitrites are still at toxic levels around 5 to 2 parts per million and no sign of changing.
PH has been held at 8 to 8.2 for the entire duration and the sea water have tested and always reads out 0 ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate.
Total time elapsed since cycle was started is 28 days. was told that turbo start would cycle out three parts per million ammonia six times the amount in my system and cycle the nitrite as well at the longest 5 days. I'm really at a loss and don't know what to do I've already spent close to $300 on this bacteria and it doesn't seem to be doing anything for the nitrites. There's anything you guys think I missed or didn't include in the information in this post let me know.
System is roughly 500 gallons with six tanks each year which have two dividers making it 18 separate cubicles the system has a 10 ft glass sump and 58 gallon square sump for moving biomedia.
Each cubicle has their own aeration and water flow supplied by Sweetwater air pump and an iwaki 100 rlt. Tank also has a tradewinds one horse chiller keeping tank at 76 to 77 degrees supplied by a jebao DCT 12000.
I have about 5 gallons worth of seachem pond matrix in media bags in the glass sump as well as a small bag of ceramic ring bio media if 58 gal tub is filled with about a half cubic foot of k1 like moving media that is constantly tumbling. This is a good overview of what the tank it's set up like now go into what was added to the tank to do the fishless cycle.
I started with natural sea water from the ocean collected on an incoming tide with very clear water at about six feet below the surface.hi then sterilize the water with 5 ml of 6% bleach per liter of water then dechlorinated with pure sodium thiosulfate at 10% grams sodium thiosulfate per milliliter of bleach. I also added a little more than called for of this sodium thiosulfate to ensure there is zero chlorine left.
I then added enough ammonium chloride to get the ammonia level .5 parts per million. And then begin adding seachem stability at about double the dose for about 4 days adding bicarb to keep alkalinity up. I am using the API test kit and cross-referenced it with known ammonia levels in to ensure accurate readings.
The first seven days ammonia stayed at 0.5 parts per million nitrite and nitrate still undetectable.
Then I decided to get Fritz turbostart 900 I haven't added that at the recommended dose for 3 days and immediately the next day started registering nitrite.
7 days after adding turbo start and continually adding bicarb to keep alkalinity up the ammonia was zero and now the nitrite was 5 parts per million and nitrate is still 0 at 2 weeks in. I talked to the guys at Fritz to see why the nitrite wasn't cycling over to nitrate they thought it might be in nutrient deficiency so I added phosphates and 2 tablespoons of pellets. Then added another dose of 600ml of turbo start.
After adding the pellets ammonia went back up to 0.25 and the nitrite stayed at 5 parts per million. at this point I checked the TDS reading on my rodi water which ran 10 parts per million so I added some sodium thiosulfate to each jug of top off water from then on and added a little bit to the system. Since then I now have new filters and reading is 0 TDS.
after one more week the nitrates finally started showing up and small numbers about 5 part per million but the nitrites are still at toxic levels of 5 parts per million with no sign of going down.
6 days after adding the pellets and no sign of any change I started doing partial water changes around 30% with natural seawater without sterilizing this time filtered with 100 micron sock. I have now done 4 water changes and ammonia is finally 0 but the nitrites are still at toxic levels around 5 to 2 parts per million and no sign of changing.
PH has been held at 8 to 8.2 for the entire duration and the sea water have tested and always reads out 0 ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate.
Total time elapsed since cycle was started is 28 days. was told that turbo start would cycle out three parts per million ammonia six times the amount in my system and cycle the nitrite as well at the longest 5 days. I'm really at a loss and don't know what to do I've already spent close to $300 on this bacteria and it doesn't seem to be doing anything for the nitrites. There's anything you guys think I missed or didn't include in the information in this post let me know.
