Whats Up with this Cycle?

MP1VwrR.jpg
 
Those numbers seem reasonable to me. You'll just need to wait at this point. I might do some water changes or add some Prime or Amquel if there's any life on the live rock that I wanted to save.
 
bertoni said:
Those numbers seem reasonable to me. You'll just need to wait at this point. I might do some water changes or add some Prime or Amquel if there's any life on the live rock that I wanted to save.
Click to expand...

I don't have any Live rock in the tank. Just Dry Rock and Caribsea Life Rock
 
Which is where my confusion comes from, I didn't think it would be able to start making nitrates that fast without Live Rock?
 
Ah, I see. I had never heard of that product. The company claims to have seeded it with bacteria, which might be possible. It's also very hard to predict how quickly bacteria will start to grow. I don't think those levels are all that surprising for a real system. We see a lot of variation in startup time. Personally, I'd just wait.
 
bertoni said:
Ah, I see. I had never heard of that product. The company claims to have seeded it with bacteria, which might be possible. It's also very hard to predict how quickly bacteria will start to grow. I don't think those levels are all that surprising for a real system. We see a lot of variation in startup time. Personally, I'd just wait.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply! I hadn't seen or used it before either but it looks really cool so I grabbed some/.

Definitely waiting for ammonia to hit 0, and then redose until it can hit 0 within 24 hours.
 
I've heard of Life Rock, never knew anyone who used it. Supposedly, seeded with bacteria - just not sure what kind.

This looks normal to me. How long is this tank up? You might add some BioZyme (red can) to speed it up a bit. I prefer this over any of the liquids, and I usually lay it down under the substrate (which you can't do anymore). But as Jonathan said, you're best bet is to wait.
 
You really dosed it up high... I am cycling my 10 gallon nano, I dosed it to 2-3 ppm ammonia, and it has been slowly coming down for 8 days..... and I added bacteria.... 6-8ppm will take quite a while.
 
I just went through a cycle myself. What I did is after the initial ammonia dose. I ghost fed the tank to keep the bacteria fed just a small amount of flake food is what I used Twice a day. Then when the nitrites were almost down then I went to ghost feeding every three days. I also used dryrock and a bacteria product, live sand and live rubble in the sump. 12 day cycle. I also did a 50% water change when nitrites hit zero and keep in mind with the API tests as long as you are reading nitrites they will give you a false positive on nitrates. Another thing make sure you shake bottle 2 for 30 seconds before you add bottle one. So add bottle 1 put lid on it invert several times then add the shaken up bottle 2 and shake for 1 minute it is in the instructions. And different then the ammonia test
 
A tiny bit of ghost feeding is fine. I would wait for a day of zero ammonia and then consider stocking small animals, if I wanted any. At that point, the ghost feeding would help them grow and reproduce. A bit of food now wouldn't hurt, but given the very large initial ammonia dose, I wouldn't bother in this case. There should be plenty of fixed nitrogen in the system.

I'm not sure where the idea to test the ammonia processing capacity by re-dosing got started, but it doesn't make much sense to me.
 
BryanCaruso said:
I just went through a cycle myself. What I did is after the initial ammonia dose. I ghost fed the tank to keep the bacteria fed just a small amount of flake food is what I used Twice a day. Then when the nitrites were almost down then I went to ghost feeding every three days. I also used dryrock and a bacteria product, live sand and live rubble in the sump. 12 day cycle. I also did a 50% water change when nitrites hit zero and keep in mind with the API tests as long as you are reading nitrites they will give you a false positive on nitrates. Another thing make sure you shake bottle 2 for 30 seconds before you add bottle one. So add bottle 1 put lid on it invert several times then add the shaken up bottle 2 and shake for 1 minute it is in the instructions. And different then the ammonia test
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice! At the very least I am following the testing instructions. I am a chemical engineer student so doing lab related stuff is not too challenging. I didn't know that about the Nitrite test showing false positives for Nitrate. Why is that?

bertoni said:
A tiny bit of ghost feeding is fine. I would wait for a day of zero ammonia and then consider stocking small animals, if I wanted any. At that point, the ghost feeding would help them grow and reproduce. A bit of food now wouldn't hurt, but given the very large initial ammonia dose, I wouldn't bother in this case. There should be plenty of fixed nitrogen in the system.

I'm not sure where the idea to test the ammonia processing capacity by re-dosing got started, but it doesn't make much sense to me.
Click to expand...

Small animals being a CUC? Better get to work on picking that out then.

I understood it as follows: the point of a cycle is to get a bacteria population present that can eventually process ammonia from livestock waste. So redosing to a small amount and seeing if it gets to 0 within a day lets you know if its ready to process livestock waste.
 
A cleanup crew would be a good start, and some people like to stock mysid shrimp, copepods, and amphipods to provide live food, and some cleanup.

Bacterial populations can change rapidly. They generally won't live long without food, so what we need is a seed population. The ammonia dose that was added probably is days worth of fish output. The excess bacteria that are dying now, or being killed by viruses, etc, will provide enough ammonia to keep the system going, if there's not enough available as is.

If I was planning to stock a large fish population in one shot, I might ghost feed ¼ of the total food I was going to give the fish. One day probably would be plenty of testing. Bacterial populations can grow very rapidly.
 
I never re dosed however doing my research. It seemed like some people wanted to see how fast the ammonia came down in a 24 hour period. Also some people thought that continuing dosing would prepare them for a larger bio load sooner. And I don't know why the nitrites results in a false positive of nitrates wheather it is API related or all tests just what I learned from my cycle
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

S
Cycling question
Replies
5
Views
1K
griss
griss
S
Tank is not cycling
2 3
Replies
44
Views
825
wvned
wvned
N
Saltwater cycle possible stuck
2
Replies
26
Views
7K
Guygettnby
Guygettnby
S
200 Gallon Mixed Reef - Rock Questions
2
Replies
20
Views
556
wvned
wvned
D
Help with new tank cycling
Replies
12
Views
1K
wvned
wvned
Back
Top