2-Week Old RSR-350 Cycle & Salinity Problem…?

[Drkimseu]

Aloha R2R

Setup: 2-Week Old Red Sea Reefer 350 (91 Gal), Carbisea Fiji Pink LS, Dry-Rock. Using Tropic Marin Pro (which ill share my error after). Goal is a mixed reef tank.

Issue: I set this tank up on January 1st 2022 and used Dr Tim’s one and only bacteria. No livestock, no ghost feeding etc.

I tested my water parameters using API kit on 1/5, 1/9, & 1/15. Only on 1/15 however (test were normal on 1/5 & 1/9), I noticed my Ammonia test kit was “milky white” which was not even a matching color when compared to the API Test Result Guide.

So I did some research on old forums and found that if this Ammonia coloration is an issue, its usually due to high salinity (and the chemical solution being unable to mix with the saltwater sample).

So then I checked my refractormeter’s calibration with RODI water (as I don’t have a calibration solition), and it read WAY below 1.000… and it was at this moment I knew I made a HUGE mistake.

When I mixed my Tropic Pro Reef salt, I mixed it about 3/4c per Gallon (higher than the 1/2 cup on the manufacture label) because my salinity was not even close to 1.026 when I used a half-cup…

So fast forward to 12 hours ago, after calibrating my refractormeter with RODI water, I got an insane reading of about 1.050/65ppm…

I did about a 25 gallon water change (removing salt water and refilling with fresh RODI Water) last night and got the salinity down to about 38ppt. I retested the water parameters today and no change in results from 1/5-1/16.

So I will do another 5-8 gallon water change today to get salinity in check. I am also headed to my LFS to get calibration fluid to ensure accuracy.

Finally my question(s):

1) I am not sure if I should add another Dr Tim’s bottle in the tank? (As I don’t believe nitrifying bacteria could have survived that high salinity condition I’ve put them in…?) I assume I may have killed off any bacteria.

2) My water parameters have been exactly the same since my first test on 1/5. Is it safe to assume given my mis-read parameters, that my cycle has not even started?

1/5, 1/9, 1/15, 1/16 Test Results
PH: 8
Ammonia: .25ppm
Nitrite & Nitrate: 0

Thanks for all your help in advance I definitely am taking this as a big learning experience and looking to better myself. I am very patient and have no problems learning from experienced reefers

 

[Jekyl]

Couple things to help along the way. Get actual calibration liquid or search for how to make your own. Second get a better set of test kits. There's a reason the API master set costs the same as 1 salifert. From your post it seems you've added bacteria but no source of ammonia?

 

[brandon429]

Here’s all you need to do

add two pinches of finely ground up flake food, ground into powder into the display. Wait ten days you’re cycled regardless of what those cheap/entry level/ doubted by the majority in reefing test kits say.

factors in assigning your start date:

-30 page threads are available where we assign start dates and the efficacy rate / no loss rate is 100%

-all our bottle bac cycles operate on ten day waits, you’re delaying your routine another ten due to never feeding your bacteria. Household contaminants have fed them but fish food is better and directly matched to bottle bac strains / Dr. Reefs bottle bac thread.


-adding water bacteria in water doesn’t kill it, don’t buy more bac. Your salinity variance didn’t kill it.


-people use that brand to carry fish on day one. Yours has been stewing two weeks, the cycle got better not worse and the fish food trick is certain to work even if your bottle was compromised which it’s not. We didn’t get to page thirty in assigning perfect start dates by routinely encountering dead bottles of bacteria designed to live in water. If you added fish right now they’d live, this is why all fish+ dr Tims cycles you can see work out fine, and none don’t work out.


you’re waiting ten more days for two reasons: 1. To spend the time reading in the disease forum how adding unprepped fish is likely to kill them within a few months after start. And 2. Because after feeding this will hyper grow bacteria already attached to surfaces


your tests above have no load testing sequence. And if you try and make one using the worlds most misinterpreted misreading ammonia kit above all available brands, you’re going to get a confusing cycle. Your start date is on the 26th after adding fish food today.


known wait times work 100% of the time when tested by seneye under loading. Api or Red Sea cycles done by one off ammonia tests work this well: google this “api ammonia misread” then sub in Red Sea for another search. That’s 400,000 pages of people not believing the test and not running it correctly anyway (nh3 vs nh4 interpretation)


you don’t need to test your tank to cycle it. Cycles break down into 4 options and for each option we know the ready date before the tank is even built.

 

[Drkimseu]

Couple things to help along the way. Get actual calibration liquid or search for how to make your own. Second get a better set of test kits. There's a reason the API master set costs the same as 1 salifert. From your post it seems you've added bacteria but no source of ammonia?

Thanks! Yes I am going to my LFS as I type this lol. And I used the API kit just as it was cheap and convenient…

no I did not add any source of ammonia.

 

[Jekyl]

Thanks! Yes I am going to my LFS as I type this lol. And I used the API kit just as it was cheap and convenient…

no I did not add any source of ammonia.

Sure fire way to determine is adding ammonia to bring to 2ppm. When calculating this keep in mind the displacement caused by rocks and sand. For example in a 100g system you may only have 80g of water. If the value drops to 0 in 24 hours the tank is cycled.

 

[brandon429]

Do not go to 2 ppm you’ll regret it. Doing above = no regret, no false stall, no need for large water change and prevents you false stalling by following old cycling science. If you dose to 2 ppm expect a false read, you’ll buy more bacteria where it’s not needed, all focus will be taken off disease preps and put into cycling long after the cycle is done. Never input two ppm into cycles unless you have seneye to see when it clears. The feed trick will work, and gives a very specific range of completion.


expect a bad outcome if you dosed 2 ppm here, that makes up 350,000 pages of the 450,000 pages you can see for api misreads since the dawn of reefing.


at no time since inception has any seller at a marine convention used 2 ppm clearance on api to select when they can set up a skip cycle reef to carry their entire years stock investment. That is solely advice sold to stumbling buyers, who will then buy any number of products to unstick the falsely stuck cycle. Sellers never use it, never.