Cycle complete

[JasonK84]

my tank has cycled using Dr. Tims ammonia. I've redosed several times and just redosed again after getting these test results.

If nitrates stay like this does anybody see a reason to do a water change before introducing fish? This is a 120 gallon fish only system.

I've got 6 fish that have been out of quarantine for a couple months living in my 30 gallon and more that are in 2 other QT tanks getting ready. This is my first time cycling with ammonia and haven't seen nitrates this low when cycle is complete. Test kit is new and nitrates were showing higher earlier on but have decreased. Is it possible to have denitrification happening this early on?

Media being used is 4-marinepur plates, 4 liters of pond matrix, and some Matala mat. Skimmer is Reef Octopus 200int. I have it running but don't have it dialed in and collecting much yet.

 

[NY_Caveman]

I would say you are good, but go slow and watch Ammonia closely after adding. Be ready for a water change with that many fish if doing all six.

 

[brandon429]

Post at same time

Since test kits range, we need to know how long water has been in your tank to see if you are cycled. There is a certain duration timeframe where all tanks cycle based on what you've used, and the time. when timeframes for submersion have been met, we only need to know if ammonia goes to zero in 24 hours after being dosed to 2 ppm if a double check is required. There are times in a bottle bac cycle where ammonia goes to zero due to what's added in the water vs being truly cycled, so, duration of submersion is the most important detail.
Additionally, if you've met time frame details and the ammonia test didn't agree, it seemed to show an incomplete oxidation, we'd still defer to submersion times to call the cycle and we'd deem the test kit incorrect, submersion timing is that reliable.
How long has this tank had water

 

[JasonK84]

Water went in on October 5 according to my build thread.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/120-planet-aquarium-build.458000/page-2

 

[JasonK84]

What about the nitrates showing lower now than they did earlier on in the cycle? I add ammonia but the nitrates are decreasing. Is denitrification possible this early on?

 

[brandon429]

Sure could be, and could be total test error. See this giant thread

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-microbiology-of-reef-tank-cycling.214618/

17 pages = boring read but also a lot of cycles logged. Here's summary for your tank in short


-you have met 30 day submersion times, boosters used (ammonia etc) and you are using correct surface area in the tank, per pics. You have an ability to pass a mild oxidation test like on post six there, but the tradeoff is to keep testing it vs relying on submersion science means you pump more algae feed into the system.

-only ammonia matters in cycling not the other two at all, reasons are in thread w links. This helps cycling by reducing drifts in testing for three items. Ammonia is the critical one

-it's not harmful to make a small oxidation test if you like, we can use those results, handy. Ill link your thread to our thread so we can move past the guy cyberstalking me there lol and back into predictive tank cycling. If you want to see if thirty days plus boosters is enough to get a base cycle going, then the specific test everyone agrees on will be for you to input drops of liquid ammonium chloride into the tank until you get ANY incremental increase detected in free ammonia from your kit. Any increase, not a specific two ppm for certain reasons. Any detected change in reading, then stop, wait twenty four hours.

If by twenty four that reading is back down to the color of ammonia above you are cycled and we finally have a post on topic I can link to put our thread back on track for page eighteen. Nitrite doesn't matter and nitrate is always produced by ammonia oxidation, we may or may not measure that accurately and in some cases it's not surprising if some is gassed out in denitrification but that's not expected this fast.

Ps I'm from Lubbock It's too dang cold here / y'all are on school delays tday

 

[brandon429]

also one other big deal


You mentioned ammonia, did you use any bottle bac

I hope not. As it will be neat to be measuring what naturally seeded nitrifers do, but if you did use bb it's ok just wanted to check that part

 

[JasonK84]

also one other big deal


You mentioned ammonia, did you use any bottle bac

I hope not. As it will be neat to be measuring what naturally seeded nitrifers do, but if you did use bb it's ok just wanted to check that part

In the beginning I added stability and nitrobacter 7.

 

[JasonK84]

Sure could be, and could be total test error. See this giant thread

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-microbiology-of-reef-tank-cycling.214618/

17 pages = boring read but also a lot of cycles logged. Here's summary for your tank in short


-you have met 30 day submersion times, boosters used (ammonia etc) and you are using correct surface area in the tank, per pics. You have an ability to pass a mild oxidation test like on post six there, but the tradeoff is to keep testing it vs relying on submersion science means you pump more algae feed into the system.

-only ammonia matters in cycling not the other two at all, reasons are in thread w links. This helps cycling by reducing drifts in testing for three items. Ammonia is the critical one

-it's not harmful to make a small oxidation test if you like, we can use those results, handy. Ill link your thread to our thread so we can move past the guy cyberstalking me there lol and back into predictive tank cycling. If you want to see if thirty days plus boosters is enough to get a base cycle going, then the specific test everyone agrees on will be for you to input drops of liquid ammonium chloride into the tank until you get ANY incremental increase detected in free ammonia from your kit. Any increase, not a specific two ppm for certain reasons. Any detected change in reading, then stop, wait twenty four hours.

If by twenty four that reading is back down to the color of ammonia above you are cycled and we finally have a post on topic I can link to put our thread back on track for page eighteen. Nitrite doesn't matter and nitrate is always produced by ammonia oxidation, we may or may not measure that accurately and in some cases it's not surprising if some is gassed out in denitrification but that's not expected this fast.

Ps I'm from Lubbock It's too dang cold here / y'all are on school delays tday

I added 5ml after those test results earlier today. Tested about 30 minutes later and it was only up to about .5ppm.

Not only cold here but we got lots of snow. I was out shoveling the driveway at 4:30 this morning and it was still coming down. My kids are 4 and 2 so I don't keep track of school delays. That will be next year. I listed Amarillo as where I live but I'm actually 45 miles north in Dumas. Luckily I was off today but my wife was not so lucky. A coworker came by and picked her up on the way to work

 

[Ruben's Reef]

Mine cycles in 3 weeks using Dr Tim bacteria/ammonia but I give the whole month just in case. I will suggest that when you start adding fish do one or two at a time so you give sometime to the BB adjust to the new ammonia volume in the water. Something that help me out to see how the ammonia was working was the Seachem Ammonia Batch. Also, I change from API to Salifert on Nitrite and Nitrate test kit, better reading.

 

[JasonK84]

 

[JasonK84]

Sure could be, and could be total test error. See this giant thread

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-microbiology-of-reef-tank-cycling.214618/

17 pages = boring read but also a lot of cycles logged. Here's summary for your tank in short


-you have met 30 day submersion times, boosters used (ammonia etc) and you are using correct surface area in the tank, per pics. You have an ability to pass a mild oxidation test like on post six there, but the tradeoff is to keep testing it vs relying on submersion science means you pump more algae feed into the system.

-only ammonia matters in cycling not the other two at all, reasons are in thread w links. This helps cycling by reducing drifts in testing for three items. Ammonia is the critical one

-it's not harmful to make a small oxidation test if you like, we can use those results, handy. Ill link your thread to our thread so we can move past the guy cyberstalking me there lol and back into predictive tank cycling. If you want to see if thirty days plus boosters is enough to get a base cycle going, then the specific test everyone agrees on will be for you to input drops of liquid ammonium chloride into the tank until you get ANY incremental increase detected in free ammonia from your kit. Any increase, not a specific two ppm for certain reasons. Any detected change in reading, then stop, wait twenty four hours.

If by twenty four that reading is back down to the color of ammonia above you are cycled and we finally have a post on topic I can link to put our thread back on track for page eighteen. Nitrite doesn't matter and nitrate is always produced by ammonia oxidation, we may or may not measure that accurately and in some cases it's not surprising if some is gassed out in denitrification but that's not expected this fast.

Ps I'm from Lubbock It's too dang cold here / y'all are on school delays tday

 

[brandon429]

Nice! I'll call that half or close to half ppm from down the interstate. That's way more snow than I thought (cue the Minnesota poster with a drift as high as the house )

Ok in 24 hours can't wait to see. Really fun

 

[brandon429]

Tales from Dumas (it's ok to derail we got twenty four hours to kill heh) I used to jam and go to college with a phenomenal guitarist from there named Joel Ramirez, big 80s hair at the time. And Dan Truelock still lives in Dumas and was far better behaved than I at school in 93 at levelland



hey did you use any bottle bac

 

[JasonK84]

Tales from Dumas (it's ok to derail we got twenty four hours to kill heh) I used to jam and go to college with a phenomenal guitarist from there named Joel Ramirez, big 80s hair at the time. And Dan Truelock still lives in Dumas and was far better behaved than I at school in 93 at levelland

hey did you use any bottle bac

I posted earlier that I used nitrobacter 7 and stability the first week. Nothing since.

 

[brandon429]

With the direct feeding of ammonia you used, I bet it would stil test the same in 24 hours even without direct bb dosing given this much time under water and surface area used, it's amazing how many nitrifers are cross contaminated into our new tanks upon setup even before dosing.

Given bottle bac here and feed, should be all set.

Technically we're ideally supposed to change out all the water in the tank before re dosing to 1 ppm, that way if any reductions happen in 24 it's due to surfaces and not just bottle bac dosed into the water (why duration matters)

Big final water changes are hard for large tanks to conduct, and, given this much time if it still passes anyway it's definitely coming from the surfaces and not as a suspension-cycle reading. We can trust the no water change reading here, vs other collected examples, because you used clean ammonia and not several rotting shrimp. You maintained very on-par dosages, we get to test predictability with the follow up.

 

[JasonK84]

You guys just got a new LFS in Lubbock a couple months ago didn't you?

Fish Pros?

We have one in Amarillo.

 

[brandon429]

Yep and he's good, really good aquarist. 3/4 of my planted tank fish loading comes from there

 

[JasonK84]

I like Anthony. Some of his help in Amarillo not so great. Last time I was in there his tanks looked worse than I had seen. If Anthony is there I prefer to deal directly with him.

 

[brandon429]

I recall a pet store in Amarillo called bubbles

That was last lfs I was in there, approx 1999 ish

There was a hobby shop on western or bell can’t recall that sold remote control airplanes, which then became the seeds of a decades long rc devotion. Drove from planview to that rc shop 200 times easy. It had a huge red top winger hanging prominently in the store