Hi,
I'm on day 5 of cycling my TBS package. I have two tanks going through a cycle right now. I've been doing fairly large daily water changes to keep the total ammonia under 1 ppm. Usually after each water change my ammonia readings drop under .5. They are usually back up around 1 ppm next next morning / late evening.
So far I've removed any obviously dead sponges (very stinky).
Running my skimmer 24x7, its pulling a good amount of stuff, usually takes a bit of time to start foaming again after a water change. Using RO water with IO salt. Nitrites are still very low, .05 ppm or lower, PH around 8.0/8.1.
I'm using a FasTest kit, RedSea kit, Jungle Ammonia strips, and the Seachem strip that hangs inside the tank.
I added the bacteria powder that came with my package.
Questions:
From what other folks that have gone through the cycle on the first part, what day roughly did you start to see a measurable increase in nitrites and a decrease in ammonia?
Should I shut off my fuge? The water appears to be pretty stagnant in there, it doesn't get much flow, I have a 13W CF lighting it.
Should I drop in some Cheato macro into my fuge, will that help the cycling process or just prolong it?
Is it ok to pull the LR each day to scrub off dead sponges? I don't want to increase the die-off by doing so, I checked for dead sponges twice so far on both tanks.
On a side note, the crabs, snails and I believe 1 mantis appear
to be doing well. I hear clicking alot more now, then I did during the first few days.
Thanks,
-Mike
I'm on day 5 of cycling my TBS package. I have two tanks going through a cycle right now. I've been doing fairly large daily water changes to keep the total ammonia under 1 ppm. Usually after each water change my ammonia readings drop under .5. They are usually back up around 1 ppm next next morning / late evening.
So far I've removed any obviously dead sponges (very stinky).
Running my skimmer 24x7, its pulling a good amount of stuff, usually takes a bit of time to start foaming again after a water change. Using RO water with IO salt. Nitrites are still very low, .05 ppm or lower, PH around 8.0/8.1.
I'm using a FasTest kit, RedSea kit, Jungle Ammonia strips, and the Seachem strip that hangs inside the tank.
I added the bacteria powder that came with my package.
Questions:
From what other folks that have gone through the cycle on the first part, what day roughly did you start to see a measurable increase in nitrites and a decrease in ammonia?
Should I shut off my fuge? The water appears to be pretty stagnant in there, it doesn't get much flow, I have a 13W CF lighting it.
Should I drop in some Cheato macro into my fuge, will that help the cycling process or just prolong it?
Is it ok to pull the LR each day to scrub off dead sponges? I don't want to increase the die-off by doing so, I checked for dead sponges twice so far on both tanks.
On a side note, the crabs, snails and I believe 1 mantis appear
to be doing well. I hear clicking alot more now, then I did during the first few days.
Thanks,
-Mike
