Hi Everyone,
The cycle is done on my tank. I've been using Dr. Tim's Ammonium Chloride Solution in combination with Instant Ocean Bio Spira and MicroBacter 7. I've been following Dr Tim's Guide To Fishless Cycling. According to the schedule from Dr. TIm's I shouldn't perform a water change until about 4 days after I add live stock. My nitrates are currently at tolerable level of 15.7 ppm. Should I stick with the Dr. Tim's schedule and do the water change after adding live stock, or should I go ahead and do a 25% water change now, and see if I can get the nitrates down to more comfortable 10ppm. The bacteria hasn't had anything to feed off of yet except the ammonium chloride solution. And the tanks pretty clean, I haven't been running any filtration or lights.
Here's a quick breakdown of how I cycled the tank and the testing results. First I seeded some CaribSea Dry Rock in a 5 gallon bucket using MicroBacter 7 and a raw piece of shrimp to get the ammonium going for about a week before the new tank got here. I add the seeded rock along with some more dry rock, CaribSea Live Sand and saltwater into the new tank. After the tank cleared and the sand settled I started Day 1 by dosing 40 drops (20 Gallon AIO IM Fusion) of Dr. Tim's Ammonium Chloride Solution and cap full of MicroBacter 7.
Day 2:
Ammonium .2 - 1 ppm
Nitrate 0
Nitrite 20 ppb (Billion)
Dosed entire bottle 125ml bottle of Bio Spira
Day 3:
Ammonium 0 -.25 ppm
PH 7.8
Dosed 40 drops of ammonium chloride
Dosed one cap of MicroBacter 7
Day 4:
Dosed one cap of MicroBacter 7
Day 5:
Ammonium 0 ppm
Nitrate 15.6 ppm
Nitrite 87 ppb (Billion)
Dosed 40 drops ammonium chloride
Left town for a few days
Day 11:
Ammonium 0 ppm
Nitrate 15.7 ppm
Nitrite 7 ppb (Billion)
Ph 8.3
Dosed 40 drops of ammonium chloride
Dosed 1 cap of MicroBacter 7
The cycle is done on my tank. I've been using Dr. Tim's Ammonium Chloride Solution in combination with Instant Ocean Bio Spira and MicroBacter 7. I've been following Dr Tim's Guide To Fishless Cycling. According to the schedule from Dr. TIm's I shouldn't perform a water change until about 4 days after I add live stock. My nitrates are currently at tolerable level of 15.7 ppm. Should I stick with the Dr. Tim's schedule and do the water change after adding live stock, or should I go ahead and do a 25% water change now, and see if I can get the nitrates down to more comfortable 10ppm. The bacteria hasn't had anything to feed off of yet except the ammonium chloride solution. And the tanks pretty clean, I haven't been running any filtration or lights.
Here's a quick breakdown of how I cycled the tank and the testing results. First I seeded some CaribSea Dry Rock in a 5 gallon bucket using MicroBacter 7 and a raw piece of shrimp to get the ammonium going for about a week before the new tank got here. I add the seeded rock along with some more dry rock, CaribSea Live Sand and saltwater into the new tank. After the tank cleared and the sand settled I started Day 1 by dosing 40 drops (20 Gallon AIO IM Fusion) of Dr. Tim's Ammonium Chloride Solution and cap full of MicroBacter 7.
Day 2:
Ammonium .2 - 1 ppm
Nitrate 0
Nitrite 20 ppb (Billion)
Dosed entire bottle 125ml bottle of Bio Spira
Day 3:
Ammonium 0 -.25 ppm
PH 7.8
Dosed 40 drops of ammonium chloride
Dosed one cap of MicroBacter 7
Day 4:
Dosed one cap of MicroBacter 7
Day 5:
Ammonium 0 ppm
Nitrate 15.6 ppm
Nitrite 87 ppb (Billion)
Dosed 40 drops ammonium chloride
Left town for a few days
Day 11:
Ammonium 0 ppm
Nitrate 15.7 ppm
Nitrite 7 ppb (Billion)
Ph 8.3
Dosed 40 drops of ammonium chloride
Dosed 1 cap of MicroBacter 7