Cycling an Aquarium

[Bldgengineer]

That would be a good idea. Or, you could test before you add ammonia to make sure you are starting at 0ppm.

Got it! Thanks!

 

[LetItReef]

I started filling my barebottom 25g tank 6 days ago with 5g water from my existing tank then the rest new water. Then I added about 5lbs of liverocks yesterday from my existing tank and also started tossing pellet food/frozen food/coral food.

I tested ammonia today and reads 0.
My plan is to wait another week, transfer 5g -10g old water in the new tank , wait a day and when ammonia reads 0 , I will probably start moving liverocks and livestock slowly.

IME, using some of the old water helps with the cycling/ helps acclimate livestock on the new tank.

 

[Brew12]

I started filling my barebottom 25g tank 6 days ago with 5g water from my existing tank then the rest new water. Then I added about 5lbs of liverocks yesterday from my existing tank and also started tossing pellet food/frozen food/coral food.

I tested ammonia today and reads 0.
My plan is to wait another week, transfer 5g -10g old water in the new tank , wait a day and when ammonia reads 0 , I will probably start moving liverocks and livestock slowly.

IME, using some of the old water helps with the cycling/ helps acclimate livestock on the new tank.

I'm sure the water helps with cycling a little bit but not nearly as much as the live rock. Now for helping livestock acclimate? I'm a big fan. If I ever do another system transfer I will use tank change water to fill the new system and then move as much live rock over as possible.

 

[Bldgengineer]

What I would do in this case, in an abundance of caution, is to add the bottle of Bio Spira when the tank was up to temp. The next day I would dose up to 2ppm of ammonia. It should be down to 0ppm in 24 hours. If it is, I would add a fish or two and feed lightly.

Just want to thank @Brew12 for this article and advice! This worked beautifully! Dosed the tank last night to 2ppm after confirming no ammonia present and dumping bio spira in it the night before, came home from work today and 20 hours later to no ammonia!

 

[nano reef]

Thank you for taking the time!! Nice job!

great article. They kept permanently telling me to the point of anger in another forum not to dose with ammonia after the initial. I think that is just ole mentality. I was ganged up on and crazy mean comments, because e i went against their advice and dosed. I have been cycling for a month tomorrow. I didnt check for 2 weeks long story but then started testing. I am now at 0.25 to maybe even 0 on an api, and high nitrates and have had about 4 ppm nitrates for weeks and 40 ppm nitates. I have had nitrates for weeks as well. I started with live sand and infused caribe sea moaini rock. Had purple spores all over it and was darker color than regular rock. my lfs said it would cycle fast. The last 2 weeks that I have been testing I have seen my ammonia drop, but my nirtites are staying the same. I hard once you have nitrates you are nearing the end if ammonia is at such low levels. Do I have a stalled cycle? I thought it would be wise to dose ammonia, since i have read many posts saying to keep dosing. I added 2 ppm one night and it went back to 0.25, maybe zero. Last night i just added one drop. I have a 10 gallon . What should i do. Nanoreef says no ammonia. Should I keep adding a drop or 2 or dose it to 2ppm? Thanks.

 

[Brew12]

great article. They kept permanently telling me to the point of anger in another forum not to dose with ammonia after the initial. I think that is just ole mentality. I was ganged up on and crazy mean comments, because e i went against their advice and dosed. I have been cycling for a month tomorrow. I didnt check for 2 weeks long story but then started testing. I am now at 0.25 to maybe even 0 on an api, and high nitrates and have had about 4 ppm nitrates for weeks and 40 ppm nitates. I have had nitrates for weeks as well. I started with live sand and infused caribe sea moaini rock. Had purple spores all over it and was darker color than regular rock. my lfs said it would cycle fast. The last 2 weeks that I have been testing I have seen my ammonia drop, but my nirtites are staying the same. I hard once you have nitrates you are nearing the end if ammonia is at such low levels. Do I have a stalled cycle? I thought it would be wise to dose ammonia, since i have read many posts saying to keep dosing. I added 2 ppm one night and it went back to 0.25, maybe zero. Last night i just added one drop. I have a 10 gallon . What should i do. Nanoreef says no ammonia. Should I keep adding a drop or 2 or dose it to 2ppm? Thanks.

There isn't anything wrong with either way. My preference in a smaller tank is to dose to 2ppm and let ammonia drop to 0ppm. Then I will redose back to 2ppm. When it can go from 2ppm to 0ppm in 24 hours I consider the tank ready to add fish. Some people like to dose back to 2ppm every day but I feel this just adds unnecessary nitrate to the tank requiring a larger water change at the end.
It sounds like your only concern is the nitrite. I think you meant to say you had 4ppm nitrites and 40ppm nitrates. If that is correct, the 4ppm nitrite could be lethal to a fresh water fish. Fortunately for us, the chlorides in salt water block the nitrites from impacting the fish.

There are so many options that work when it comes to cycling a tank I don't like telling other people how to do it. I will tell you what I would do. I would stop adding ammonia and wait until nitrites come down to near 0ppm. Since nitrites cause false high nitrate readings, I would expect nitrates to also appear to be dropping even though they are actually increasing. Once nitrites hit 0ppm I would dose ammonia back up to 2ppm and test 24 hours later. As long as ammonia is 0ppm within 24 hours I would plan on adding a small fish or two and feed them lightly for several weeks. This would also be the most cautious approach in my opinion.

If I were in a hurry I would ignore the nitrite reading, do a 5g water change, and add a small fish feeding it lightly for a few weeks. I suspect the fish would be just fine and wouldn't consider this risky or cruel to the fish. It's just not what I would do.

Hope that helps.

 

[Glott3133]

I didn't read through all pages of this thread, but I did read your initial write up on tank cycling; and thought it was great. I do have a question in regards to one of the stages within the cycle. My tank is 4 months old, and has seemed to have gone through the initial ammonia, nitrite, nitrate phase. But I have been battling algae from the beginning. First brown, then green hair algae, then brown again, now green. Is this expected? And will it ever settle down?

I have a 75g with 11 corals and 6 relatively small fish.

Thanks

 

[Qasimja]

I didn't read through all pages of this thread, but I did read your initial write up on tank cycling; and thought it was great. I do have a question in regards to one of the stages within the cycle. My tank is 4 months old, and has seemed to have gone through the initial ammonia, nitrite, nitrate phase. But I have been battling algae from the beginning. First brown, then green hair algae, then brown again, now green. Is this expected? And will it ever settle down?

I have a 75g with 11 corals and 6 relatively small fish.

Thanks

yes thats totally normal you will see a lot of different algaes when your tank first starts out

 

[Brew12]

I didn't read through all pages of this thread, but I did read your initial write up on tank cycling; and thought it was great. I do have a question in regards to one of the stages within the cycle. My tank is 4 months old, and has seemed to have gone through the initial ammonia, nitrite, nitrate phase. But I have been battling algae from the beginning. First brown, then green hair algae, then brown again, now green. Is this expected? And will it ever settle down?

I have a 75g with 11 corals and 6 relatively small fish.

Thanks

Yup.

I feel people lose sight of the fact that a natural reef would be quickly overrun by algae if the cleaners that eat the algae are removed. We can try to force that algae to grow somewhere other than our display, such as in a refugium or algae turf scrubber. Otherwise you need a good CuC to help keep it in check.

 

[Glott3133]

Good point. I currently have 1 turbo snail and 5 other kinds of snails. I probably need to get more for my 75g.

 

[Brew12]

Good point. I currently have 1 turbo snail and 5 other kinds of snails. I probably need to get more for my 75g.

I have a foxface, 4 tangs, 3 urchin, 3 conch's, 200+ other snails and 30+ hermits in my 187g, along with a very healthy refugium.

 

[Bldgengineer]

Good point. I currently have 1 turbo snail and 5 other kinds of snails. I probably need to get more for my 75g.

I would highly suggest reaching out to john at reefcleaners. He can put together a CUC or suggest one of his cleaner packages for you. John is a great guy and can set up a notification for when it's time to refresh your CUC. I've had conversations over email with him at 10 and 11 o'clock at night about snails and dry rock lol

 

[Brew12]

I would highly suggest reaching out to john at reefcleaners. He can put together a CUC or suggest one of his cleaner packages for you. John is a great guy and can set up a notification for when it's time to refresh your CUC. I've had conversations over email with him at 10 and 11 o'clock at night about snails and dry rock lol

Great recommendation. He is where all my CuC have come from.

 

[xabo]

I'm going into week 3 of the cycle. Ammonia - 0.2, Nitrite - greater than 1, Nitrate - greater than 50. How far away am I from completing the cycle? Should I start running the skimmer? Thanks

 

[Brew12]

I'm going into week 3 of the cycle. Ammonia - 0.2, Nitrite - greater than 1, Nitrate - greater than 50. How far away am I from completing the cycle? Should I start running the skimmer? Thanks

What are you using as an ammonia source?
I like to run a skimmer while I cycle, just to get used to running it and help dial things in for when I add livestock. Not necessary though.
I'm sure you are close. Without knowing if you used bottled bacteria or what your ammonia source is, it's hard to say.

 

[xabo]

Used Dr. Tims One & Only fed with his ammonia source. Test kits used are Red Sea. Last week Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate was off the charts.

 

[Brew12]

Used Dr. Tims One & Only fed with his ammonia source. Test kits used are Red Sea. Last week Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate was off the charts.

I'm not sure why, but it seems Dr Tims takes longer to process nitrites. You aren't still adding ammonia, are you?

 

[xabo]

No I am not. Transferred the rock from old tank which was cooked, so basically starting with dry rock. Also used Carib Sea live sand.

 

[xabo]

Also is now a good time to put Ca Rx on line?

 

[Sean Norman]

Awesome thread- have- have learned a lot. My new IM 112 lagoon is 9 days old. I put in live rock from my LFS and was able to transfer over some of my live rock from my existing tank. I could not move it all because I did not want to wipe out my bio filtration in that tank.
I do have two MP blocks in my sump on my new tank as well.
I added all my water and got everything up and running. No skimmer yet and no refugium set up yet.
I added some rapid start bacteria from my LFS and half a shrimp.
My tests yesterday were:
SG 1.025
Temp- 77.1
KH 8.5
Ammonia 3.0 on Hannah Checker
Nitrates 5
Nitrites .25

My question is do I let the shrimp decay to nothing- or do I remove it and ghost feed a little so the bacteria have food.
My guess is my Ammonia will remain constant as long as the shrimp is in their decaying( it has been at the same level for 4 days now).
I was planning on a large water change this weekend.

Thanks.