Nitrogen cycle
- Thread starter azcrazy
- Start date
ur gonna want to add a cleaning crew before fish anyways. i have a 150 gal tank and my son and wife couldn't handle the wait for the cycle so i did some research and found a product called api quick start, it has some of the good bacteria in it and in some cases can cycle a tank in a few days, my tank took 5 days after i added it, and was able to start stocking the tank. Every tank is different, and if u can wait for the cycle to finish itself i would do it that way.
gone fishin
New member
IMO since the fish and CUC have already been in the tank a few weeks what is done is done. I would suspect the damsels have done the job for you. It will be kind of hard to tell now how robust of a cycle your tank got. As a result I would not add any fishes for a little while and when you do, do not add to many at once. Check out the stick at the top of the forum called setting up, it full of info. Good luck just my 2 cents.
Yea i went to a different store, more family own and they told that .25ppm nitrites is not the worst that they have seen but DO NOT ADD anything else to the tank and test every day till there is no nitrites and hopefully little nitrates.
My cheato grew from a baseball to a football size so is growing but not sure of that is enough
My cheato grew from a baseball to a football size so is growing but not sure of that is enough
Dkuhlmann
New member
FYI, once a tank is cycled you will never really see ammonia unless something dies, or you overload your bio filter with too many fish. Fish produce ammonia when they poop and pee. So there is a constant supply of ammonia you just don't see it because the bacteria eats it faster than you can test it. It's the same theory that you might not read nitrates or phosphates because your algae is eating it.
I would retest your nitrites to make sure you actually have a reading. .25 is a very small amount. Also IMO it doesn't make sense what your readings are. 0 ammonia, .25 nitrite and 0 ammonia just doesn't make much sense.
Dkuhlmann
New member
In addition to what Tony said you can over feed your fish as if you had more and it will help produce a bit more ammonia than the fish alone put out and help to increase the bacteria that you need once you do add more fish.
anthonys51
New member
you have a really big tank with a lot of rock. how many fish do you even have in the tank. a few damsels will not over load a tank that size with 60 lbs of live rock and a refug. dont over test, to me those stupid api test kits are so cheap and hard to read at low range there not worth the trouble. your tank is 2 weeks old with a refug. do your fish look active and eating well. is your water clear and odorless. is your tank algae free abd cyano free. if so your doing your a good job. i am not saying dont test, they have a place, but look at other things too.
Yea fish is active, eat well at least they chase the food around the tank and i use whole cube of frozen mysis shrimp, water is clear not odor.
even the LFS told me that my nitrite was .25 ppm but it could spike up and had to watch it, my nitrate was at 0,ammonia was 0, PH at 8/8.2 temp is 76/78ºf salinity im keep in it at 1.025 solid, still dont check mag,cal casue i dont have any coral, should I?
even the LFS told me that my nitrite was .25 ppm but it could spike up and had to watch it, my nitrate was at 0,ammonia was 0, PH at 8/8.2 temp is 76/78ºf salinity im keep in it at 1.025 solid, still dont check mag,cal casue i dont have any coral, should I?
Happyschneider
New member
If you do regular water changes you might be fine with magnesium and calcium. Make sure that you top off the water with rodi when evaporating so that the salinity stays constant.
You might consider testing for alkalinity as this is important to keep pH buffered and it can be used up by other things than corals.
You might consider testing for alkalinity as this is important to keep pH buffered and it can be used up by other things than corals.
Happyschneider
New member
These kits are incredibly difficult to read in my experience. I just got a Hanna checker for Nitrites and am much happier with it. I use it for my QT. Another thing you might want to look into is a seneye. It tests continuously for Ammonia which might be a good thing for you so you can add prime in the right doses in case it is needed. Ammonia will become a problem if your pH drops so might well be worth observing with a reliable way (again, I am not a big fan of the drop tests as the colors are so difficult to differentiate).
I'm surprised that Nitrate is discussed as I thought it was not really a huge problem in marine fish? Did I remember that wrongly? I mean in a reasonable concentration at least. Funny enough, I never detected any nitrate in my system so far but this is probably due to the algae bloom and that I have not really been feeding so far.
I'm surprised that Nitrate is discussed as I thought it was not really a huge problem in marine fish? Did I remember that wrongly? I mean in a reasonable concentration at least. Funny enough, I never detected any nitrate in my system so far but this is probably due to the algae bloom and that I have not really been feeding so far.
Yea i will wait few days and then retest since i have had 3 (2 LFS and mine)kits reading the same.
I may even go to the last LFS i know near me to see what he thiks and what he reads.
seamonster124
New member
Nitrogen cycle
Yes. Nitrites will be zero and remain at zero when cycle is complete. Nitrites drop overnight and then u are safe to add fish.
Yes. Nitrites will be zero and remain at zero when cycle is complete. Nitrites drop overnight and then u are safe to add fish.
well my test is .25 ppm nitrites and no ammonia no nitrates, so no idea what happen there :reading:
seamonster124
New member
Nitrites should be dead zero. If it's stuck, a water change can kickstart it again
