Trying to cycle old rock.

[Irishman360]

So I have roughly 8-10 lbs of dead rock and wanted to add it to my DT. I threw the rock in a 5 gal bucket, a small piece of rock that got broken off from my DT, added water to the bucket from my DT when I did a water change and put a power head in the bucket. I then dosed about 1 tsp of pure ammonia.

I let it sit for a month and tested the water water and ammonia was off the charts so I didn't bother testing the rest. Another month/ month & a half (today) I decided to test the water and I have zero ammonia but my nitrate and nitrite are off the charts. I feel like I'm missing something on why my Nitrite & Nitrate aren't at zero. Anyone have any thoughts or opinions on this?

 

[reefer1970]

I was under the impression that dry rock if clean, maybe soaked and rinsed in RODI would not have to be cycled. Maybe I am wrong. If you pulled it out of an old tank and it was sitting in a moldy bucket in the basement, that would be a different story. If you are now showing high levels, you may now need to cycle it. It should not take 45 days but watch for the nitrites to drop before the nitrates and that will tell you if it is going in the right direction. Something does seem wrong. You used pure ammonia?? Did you do partial water changes as needed? You may want to pull it, power wash it in the driveway, start fresh, no added ammonia and and do partial water changes as needed when the levels are off the charts. Like I said I could be wrong, I've only ever cycled live rock that had die off

 

[Dkuhlmann]

You need to wait for the nitrite to go to 0, the nitrate will not. After you have 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite you can do a big wc to get the nitrates down.

 

[gone fishin]

It is possible that there was a lot of organic matter already on the rock adding the ammonia just pushed things higher. It would appear to me the rock is cycling since the high ammonia is gone and now got high nitrites. I would just let it continue. Good luck just my 2 cents.

FWIW testing for nitrates with high nitrites can skew the nitrate test.

 

[thegrun]

You added way too much ammonia to begin with which slowed down the cycle. Now with very high nitrites your cycle is going to continue to progress slowly. Personally I would make a 75% water change to bring the nitrites to no higher than 5ppm and then let nature take it from there. I agree with the above post, your nitrites will not drop to zero, all you need to watch is your ammonia and nitrites.

 

[Irishman360]

Should I still use my DT water or would my premixed stuff work?

 

[gone fishin]

IMO your DT water would be fine for a WC.

 

[Irishman360]

When I first started my tank I only had these two rocks in it. After learning that I need A LOT more rock, I ditched these two in a box and let them dried out. They never fully went through the cycle processes.

 

[Mark9]

Withe ammonia gone and nitrites high, you are almost done cycling the rock.
I do the same thing as you did, bucket, dry rock, and water from a DT WC, but I also add a heater and some bio-spira, speeds it up, gets the rock ready quick.