Tank is not cycling

S

st0ned0g

Member
Getting back into it after 10+ years. Picked up a 44 hex for free. Purchased a 10g for a sump and put some pexi glass in it for baffles. Put about 65 to 75ish lbs of dead rock into it. The rock is from my old tank, I had spent years charry picking really nice pieces so I kept them all, just dried them out. Used reef crystals salt. I am currently running a bubble magus skimmer, but I have not been the whole time. I started running it about a week ago. Figured I did not need a skimmer due to it only being water and rock.

Set it up back in mid-November, about 2 weeks before Thanksgiving. The ammonia shot up fairly quickly to 4ppm. It has stayed there ever since, no trites and no trates. I have tried multiple things, including buying a peace of live rock form the LFS to seed, putting a small bottle of Dr. Tim's about January 5thish, and getting a small bag of sand from a local refer to seed. Nothing is pushing the cycle forward. Im at a loss here, any ideas?
 
reading threads on the same topic.... they are being told their cycle is done... has the hobby changed that much, that people put fish in tanks with ammonia now?
 
I would mix some new water, just a gallon. Test it and see what you get. You should see zero. Compare.
Something is not right.
 
st0ned0g said:
i did back when i started, no ammonia from the RODI water.

hit two LFS tonight, no Salifert ammonia test kits.
Click to expand...
Nope, not the RO water. New saltwater you mixed. Some salt mixes will read ammonia when mixed up.
There are bacteria in the air and dirt that can cycle the tank. It should have happened by now just from dust.

Or your water system started using chloramines for sterilization recently.
Chloramine is a chemical disinfectant used in drinking water treatment, formed by mixing chlorine with ammonia. It is more stable than chlorine, providing longer-lasting disinfection while producing fewer harmful byproducts, making it a common choice for many public water systems.

You have never used Prime in the water? That makes the API test forever read a pukey green.

Really guessing here.
 
Never used prim.

and i dont remember if my test of the new water was RODI only or newly mixed.... probably was not newly mixed though since i did not need a water change.


"the XXXXXXX Water Authority uses both chlorine and chloramine to disinfect tap water in the XXXXXXX"

so its a problem with my city water messing with the test results, not actual ammonia? I have talked to two LFS in the area about this, you would have thought they would know about the issue and told me when i asked them....

Thanks for your help. ill start up the quarantine and test after i mix the new water.
 
Add a chloramine removing cartridge to your RODI. Sediment-carbon-chloramine-RO-DI.

Mince is actually 7 stage
Sediment
Carbon
Chloramine
RO
Cation DI
Anion DI
Mixed bed DI
 
No, it's a real test. Chloramine breaks down to chlorine and ammonia. It's a bad thing for aquarists but it can be dealt with.
 
ok, so google says to use API Stress Coat or Seachem Prime additives to neutralize both. can this work in the short term so i can start stocking?

my family wants to move to gold fish because this is taking so long lol...

i assume getting a new filter addition to my RODI is probably cheaper in the long run then using these two additives every time i do a water change.
 
I have never had to deal with chloramine so I don't know. There is special media to remove it. I have never used it.
I have used prime for ammonia spikes when you first place a large amount of live rock in a tank. It worked for that.
 
This tank is cycled.

It's a little disappointing after 20 years we haven't progressed in teaching updated cycling science to cycle questions but progress is slow. There's twenty proofs we're about to discuss :)

#1. This test kit indicating a stall is not a seneye. You're reading nh4 100% guaranteed, yet reefing uses nh3.

#2. Show me a cycling chart ever published that has ammonia not dropping at day twelve in the history of publishing.

#3 ammonia doesn't run zero in cycled running reef tanks it runs at constant low levels that fluctuate slightly based on variables

4. Have you ever wondered why, for forty years, all the sellers at a reef convention never have trouble moving into the convention, and fully stocking, reef tanks that don't stall and they never miss? Notice how only us buyers get a different set of rules that leave us stumbling? That applies here.



*the reason there's twent revisity is because you guys are going to deny my first eighteen examples coming he he

But alas, we'll arrive all together at the end.

Post a tank pic That's where the details begin
 
To quell the anger certainly coming :)

Any animal you add into this tank will act normally vs die of ammonia burning. Symptoms and lack thereof matter

The sole, only issue causing this concern is a test kit reading. Not a symptom

That's the hidden pattern in all stalled cycle posts

Nobody's thread ever has a symptom in an animal, even delicate ones like boxer shrimp, it's always the nh4 kit.

I have threads that show ammonia spiking to 8 ppm (per api, of course, as relayed by the tester) by simply moving one rock in a reef tank, which cannot occur. No, there aren't ammonia pockets under reef rocks waiting to erupt

#4 at no time in recorded history has a seneye owner reported a stall cycle from any means. They're all done by: day ten
All combinations meet that timeframe.

I have a ten page thread handy of 100% years old symptom free tanks with no cause for ammonia fear all posting about loss of cycle, solely due to focus on what red sea and api ammonia said. The impact of relaying an nh4 reading vs an nh3 reading into a cycle troubleshoot can't be understated.


What is the brand of this test kit
 
There are metabolites that cause misreads in api and red sea / similar nh4 kits/ when original ammonia is dosed so high. When large initial amounts are reduced the harmless metabolites still cause high false readings

Even if it's a salifert nh3 we expect low persistent levels of nh3 in a ready / running reef tank it's not zero, to expect zero ammonia means we're using old cycling science that kills fish in droves.

All ammonia is fine after day ten using bottle bac, especially after adding live rock.

It's the disease prep you're really needing that's the sole cause of loss for fish in cycling tanks.

Simple tank detritus causes spikes in readings on nh4 guess at the color kits.

I'm not saying this to inflame the OP: I'm saying your risk to new fish isn't a stalled cycled it's that we having been preparing your disease exclusion plan for ten posts vs looping back into nh4 distraction

fish disease by skipping fallow, qt and disease prep is what kills your fish nowadays. False stall posts kill fish by ignoring the loss cause and focusing on the red herring. This is the pattern of 24 straight years of cycle analysis online; for sure if any reader has a link for a thread *that they were in* that shows ammonia symptoms in a reef display, at any stage, post that and I'll be glad to see it. But we won't do that, it's all test kit driven. That's an amazing pattern reefers display in my opinion, this predictability.

Reefers should not be dosing even to 2 ppm: that advice did come from a bottle bac seller though, and I think he knew advising such overdose combined with the kits everyone used ten years ago was going to sell a LOT of extra bottle bac.

Proof #14 is going to be a sixty page testless cycling thread where we got 150 reef tanks ready by day ten by simply not testing for ammonia, other than the occasional seneye owner audit who's always welcome to post a read (it's a digital calibrated nh3 meter)

Cycle troubleshooters

When you discern that the time underwater is twelve weeks, never entertain the possibility of a stall.

Proof #5: not one poster reading this thread, even five years from now after a rigorous online search to determine why their nh4 test vial is so green, has ever seen symptoms of ammonia poisoning in a - display tank- at any stage of running. All stalled cycles perceived came from solely a test kit reading nh4 levels not at zero. Even if the tank is ten years old with great fish and corals (have many examples handy to link)

Stated timeframes referenced to any cycle chart made by scientists not with api instantly wrangles a stalled cycle reef tank post into compliance.

Back in the day ten years ago disease wasn't rampant like it is now, anticipating this is updated cycling science. Ammonia control as tipped from the bacteria bottle has advanced tremendously. The gap between cycling rules for buyers vs sellers of remedy is ten miles wide still

To fix this tank and get it ready for a fully stocked, ten day reef show tomorrow, what would a seller do? That's key to fixing this perceived stall.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

W
Cycling new Tank
Replies
2
Views
3K
C.Eymann
C.Eymann
D
Help with new tank cycling
Replies
12
Views
1K
wvned
wvned
N
Saltwater cycle possible stuck
2
Replies
26
Views
7K
Guygettnby
Guygettnby
E
What's Old is New Again
Replies
2
Views
362
Uncle99
Uncle99
B
Left Tank for a long time, now want to reboot
Replies
7
Views
145
griss
griss
Back
Top