Cycling an Aquarium

[Brew12]

Update: Day 5, and Ammonia has dropped to 2ppm, Nitrites are rising, today they were at 1ppm, Nitrates up to 20ppm, starting to see brown on the rock and a little on the sand (diatoms?) Lights are on daylight setting approximately 10 hrs and night lights run for 6 hours. Should I cut the light? Is it acceptable for diatoms to grow in the beginning stages of a new tank? Also, the UV light in the canister filter is off, at what point should I start running it?

I run my tank during the cycle exactly like I would when I have livestock. I want to make sure everything is stable and my practices work before I add anything.
I don't know anyone that uses a canister filter on a reef tank, so I'm not much help there.

 

[pulpfiction]

Is bottled bacteria or ammonia necessary with live rock/sand? My nitrate and ammonia levels have been reading 0 for several days. There's a snail currently living in my tank all by his lonesome and seems to be doing fine with the current water parameters.

 

[Brew12]

Is bottled bacteria or ammonia necessary with live rock/sand? My nitrate and ammonia levels have been reading 0 for several days. There's a snail currently living in my tank all by his lonesome and seems to be doing fine with the current water parameters.

No, they aren't necessary. Nothing wrong with adding a little ammonia to verify that the live rock is high quality (I don't think the sand does much). A fair amount of live rock should support a few small fish with no issues.

 

[jgruvey]

Okay I'm having a weird phenomenon when I am cycling my tanks. I am getting a decrease in ammonia and nitrites as normal but my nitrates also seem to be decreasing? It's hard to tell for sure but it looks like they went down from between 10 and 20 ppm down to between 5 and 10 ppm. Is this more likely user error than anything else?
3 days of testing after adding bio-spira went
Nitrates - 40ppm (I think I had some dead bacteria tested in this one maybe?)
Nitrates - 10-20 ppm
Nitrates - 5-10 ppm
Let me know what ya'll think on it.

 

[Garf]

Okay I'm having a weird phenomenon when I am cycling my tanks. I am getting a decrease in ammonia and nitrites as normal but my nitrates also seem to be decreasing? It's hard to tell for sure but it looks like they went down from between 10 and 20 ppm down to between 5 and 10 ppm. Is this more likely user error than anything else?
3 days of testing after adding bio-spira went
Nitrates - 40ppm (I think I had some dead bacteria tested in this one maybe?)
Nitrates - 10-20 ppm
Nitrates - 5-10 ppm
Let me know what ya'll think on it.

If you are testing nitrate with nitrite in the water, it is actually picking up the nitrites and magnifying them. This falsely elevates the nitrate reading so as nitrites come down so does the nitrate reading. It’s normal.

 

[iMi]

I have successfully cycled many tanks using precisely this method. All within just a few days. Never lost a fish. It took about a week to cycle the nano I am working on now. This time I used ammonia and I actually think it made it even faster (usually I go for a hardy fish). I like to mix up my bacteria a little. I used a healthy doze of bio-spira on day one and then stability every day for the rest of the week week. Ammonia spiked, nitrites spiked and then zeroed out within a couple of days. Now I only have some nitrates. Relatively high amount actually and that's okay as I am due for a water change.

I think many people just make too much out of it. I personally don't believe you need weeks to cycle a tank in today's world. There is of course a difference between cycling and maturing/stabilizing a tank. Just my two cents.

 

[Rubberfrog]

How come my ammonia is reading 8.0ppm

Who knows? You didn't give enough I fo to answer. Mayne it's that high because you dumped in a bunch of ammonia last night. Maybe three jumbo shrimp have been in there for a week. Maybe your testis garbage.

How old is the tank? How long has it been cycling? Did you add bac-in-a-bottle? What test kit are you using? Have you tested for nitrates? Help us help you.

 

[Shmollica]

I added bio spira & I add special blend by microbelift I’m using api test kit it’s been running since Dec 20

I’ve started a couple tanks with both of those products without issue....the special blend actually worked amazingly (though it makes your house smell for a bit). You added both of those on Dec 20 into properly heated saltwater alone? Did you start with dry rock?

 

[brandon429]

@ChrisRose305

look what happened in the new members forum

Hello - NEW MEMBER

I will probably stop water changes for a bit and feed every day ,,I think I may be to clean and do to much upkeep ,i literally have a protein skimmer with marine pure block only in a sump ..I will test this weekend from outside sources... i also pulled my chemi pure blue because it has GFO /...

www.reef2reef.com

that’s a ton of posts with no detail, this is rare for reef2reef

I think the whole issue might be made up / not even his pics shown.

Chris has seven threads mixed around and in every post he ignores others help and makes a new thread elsewhere, I had to sub to get it under control to watch out for new posts that mislead our hard work.

EMERGENCY - Ammonia high​

EMERGENCY - high ammonia​

a new thread will be started in a few days no matter what is posted here.

New Tank Cycle Process​

Hello - NEW MEMBER​

New Tank​

see how every post baits the team, no info is given.

this is unhelpful and causes confusion over and over. I bet a new ID gets made soon, but I never forget an aqua scape or an mo.



***Chris if you are sincerely concerned, it’s hard to tell, then you’ll be helped right here, no new posts on the matter is best.

 

[brandon429]

Notice the pattern over and over: no info, someone else’s test kit pic posted, no feedback, fifteen offers for help, no post back, no discussion of new methods tried after his first water change, posts new thread, repeat.


100% of his post is one single API test for ammonia, how does that usually go down?


I predict none of this above is real it’s peeled off web pictures. And if it’s real, now it’s time to focus here Chris -only- in this thread, not a new one, until Brew and team has your issue fixed.

Chris, don't make a new thread for the matter simply follow advice already given in the posts above.

 

[taricha]

Messing around with watching nitrification activity of a couple of products, One product showed overnight effect at 5ppm ammonia, and another (fresh bottle - well regarded product) hasn't showed clear activity for ~5 days and counting.
I don't usually scour tank cycling threads, so I don't know how common that is.
I do know that some manufacturers warn that the "right" microbes that you want are operational at low ammonia and don't do well if it's too high - 2ppm is often the stated ammonia target. Is this commonly observed in tank cycling?

 

[brandon429]

Taricha I think that makes sense, to have variations in ability and speed per mix or even per bottle from a given mix.


the truth is few people are wielding ammonia tests with your chem ability, any reports from threads we could source are of the non-Taricha sampling club which would include myself, were i to own such a kit

our data would be collectively useless in the hunt I do think. You would see wildly disagreeing posts and ammonia action reported 1-99 days after dosing, it is indeed madness out there. It makes active surface areas science look very bad, all the time.

 

[Brew12]

Messing around with watching nitrification activity of a couple of products, One product showed overnight effect at 5ppm ammonia, and another (fresh bottle - well regarded product) hasn't showed clear activity for ~5 days and counting.
I don't usually scour tank cycling threads, so I don't know how common that is.
I do know that some manufacturers warn that the "right" microbes that you want are operational at low ammonia and don't do well if it's too high - 2ppm is often the stated ammonia target. Is this commonly observed in tank cycling?

Somewhere I have a pdf of a study documenting where they tested this in a lab and document how different AOB's prefer higher and lower ammonia levels. This seems to be fairly commonly seen, but is hard to say how much of this is related to the accuracy issues of testing. While it is true that some bacteria may lower ammonia faster from 5ppm to 2ppm than they will from 2ppm to 1ppm it is also possible that that hobbyists only think this is happening because of the more significant color change between higher numbers imo.

 

[iMi]

We will know sincerity when any of the offers above he’s collected from readers are ran by Chris and then discussed in sincere information exchange as is the standard so far, until now.

Notice the pattern over and over: no info, someone else’s test kit pic posted, no feedback, fifteen offers for help, no post back, no discussion of new methods tried after his first water change, posts new thread, repeat.


100% of his post is one single API test for ammonia, how does that usually go down? I predict none of this above is real it’s peeled off web pictures. And if it’s real, now it’s time to focus here Chris -only- in this thread, not a new one, until Brew and team has your issue fixed. Chris, do not make a new thread for the matter simply pay attention here this is a great one for help.


filling in gaps omitted so far:

Chris has pics of $400 in skip cycle live rock from petco. Can live rock cost that much lol I’m going to check their prices now/ all in doubt.


the rocks have been in tank 3 straight months.

no cycle issue here, it’s three months on cured live rock transfer, even KP aquatics un cured is done in ten days. This tank has no free ammonia.


Chris claims to have added six mixed fish from petco, they died a while after. He originally says one snowflake eel in post one, soon to be edited, and now in the most recent new tank one he mentions two snowflake eels. Asked about fallow and quarantine, Chris never responds. What’s the likelihood given what we can read above?


he has removed all dead fish a month ago and still claims ammonia and also says has done a huge water change.

So if he has ammonia, right here is the last thread reviewing it. I’ll link any future new threads made so we can see if this is sincere or false.

Sounds like Chris needs a hobby...

 

[Rubberfrog]

Sounds like Chris needs a hobby...

I think messing with us is his hobby

 

[brandon429]

I thought so too but am leaving 10% possibility this intro into ammonia misreading is just taking time to stick


did you see that

 

[brandon429]

It’s also a very important detail that Chris bought $400 in pre cured live rock, before the bottle bac and has done a large water change since. His issue is solely the api readings, he wants to know why they say a high reading.

none of his rock was uncycled before adding it into the tank months ago. At some point we will have to consider misreading test kits. Even getting any other test kit reading shown would be new information, that was requested in other posts too but not rendered yet.

 

[iMi]

Dec 20 I added bio spira then waited 2-3 weeks got fishes they died then 2-3 week later I got 4 more fishes they died and after my fishes died I put ammonia chloride in there thinking it’s gonna clear ammonia

You can't just add bio-spira and wait weeks to add any food source for the bacterial. I suspect what happened is you seeded the bacteria and then promptly starved it.

You need to either dose ammonia or get a fish at the time you add bio-spira.

 

[brandon429]

This was already live rock though, not dry, like this kind which does not cycle when moved (40 tanks worth)


*and Chris has done the big water change already, he is withholding that info to loop you into false diagnostics.

A thread tracking pure skip cycle instant reefs, no bottle bac

This is a testless cycling thread, we don't want ammonia testing here for any job if possible, because we are teaching reefers/readers that moving live rocks system to system does not restart the cycle: many in our community don't understand that rule and feel that any tank being setup simply...

www.reef2reef.com

Chris‘ rock is exactly like all in that thread.

This thread here, Brew’s thread, discusses dry rock cycling not tank transfers skip cycling.


Chris‘ bacteria and feed are moot points his rock is live, or they would not have charged $400 for it, a few pieces.


Someone here, anyone, review with us if api test kits have ever misread on a reef tank.

To assist Chris, simply define the conditions where Api is correct and when it’s not.

 

[brandon429]

Team,

Be sure and read Chris’ prior threads on the matter below


Every offer from every poster to help him has been refused and simply reposted

over twenty different people have tried to help but he won’t respond with feedback. It is very possible none of this is real.

Hello - NEW MEMBER

I will probably stop water changes for a bit and feed every day ,,I think I may be to clean and do to much upkeep ,i literally have a protein skimmer with marine pure block only in a sump ..I will test this weekend from outside sources... i also pulled my chemi pure blue because it has GFO /...

www.reef2reef.com

EMERGENCY - Ammonia high​

EMERGENCY - high ammonia​

New Tank Cycle Process​

Hello - NEW MEMBER​

New Tank​