Cycling question

[danielankeny]

Hi friends, I’m on day 3 of cycling my QT tank and there is a very mild cloudiness in the water. I’m assuming this is simply evidence of the live bacteria bloom. Is this a likely explanation?

the details:
-New 20g tank
-Fresh rodi water
-Tropic marin pro reef salt at 1.026 mixed in the tank with power filter, marineland powerhead both running for 36h prior to addition of bacteria
- T = 79F
- marineland powerhead 1200gph
- seachem tidal 30 powerfilter with sponge, included plus extra biomedia (all prerinsed)
- 4x4x1 inch ceramic media block
- API marine quickstart bacteria at prescribed dose
-Dr Tim’s ammonia chloride at 2ppm
-no lights on tank. In my basement workroom without windows, only a 30w soft white mood light” in the room running 24h

ammonia dropped to about 1ppm using API test kit.

Loving my pet nitrifying bacteria so far!

 

[Jekyl]

Cloudiness could also be from mixing the salt in the tank. Would do separately from now on.

 

[brandon429]

2 ppm dosing is not for quarantine systems due to reduced surface area in them compared to displays

Expect your non digital ammonia kits to misread for a long time


to get your qt system up to par for use in a reasonable time do this: add one ground up pinch of any fish food, ground into powder, into the current mix. Let sit for eight more days then change out all the water and it’s done cycling regardless of what your test kits say

you will be cycled for any surface area that sat stewing in this mix

your 2 ppm won’t hurt anything in the cycle it’ll just wreck your test kits and make the cycle seem stuck when it’s not. If you have copied the common degree of surface area for your qt going off another build someone showed with fish was enough surface area, you’ll be ready for use.

it can’t not be cycled in eight more days/a week after adding a pinch of ground up fish food (carbon, per Dr Reefs studies) this is a known booster trick for common bottled bacteria. They benefit more from carbon than the ammonia. The stew as is will work fine, add the food wait a week do a full water change it’s done.

 

[danielankeny]

Cloudiness could also be from mixing the salt in the tank. Would do separately from now on.

Yes i did consider this! The tank was clear to the naked eye within a few hours of adding the salt and for at least 18h prior to adding the bacteria though

 

[danielankeny]

2 ppm dosing is not for quarantine systems due to reduced surface area in them compared to displays

Expect your non digital ammonia kits to misread for a long time


to get your qt system up to par for use in a reasonable time do this: add one ground up pinch of any fish food, ground into powder, into the current mix. Let sit for eight more days then change out all the water and it’s done cycling regardless of what your test kits say

you will be cycled for any surface area that sat stewing in this mix

your 2 ppm won’t hurt anything in the cycle it’ll just wreck your test kits and make the cycle seem stuck when it’s not. If you have copied the common degree of surface area for your qt going off another build someone showed with fish was enough surface area, you’ll be ready for use.

it can’t not be cycled in eight more days/a week after adding a pinch of ground up fish food (carbon, per Dr Reefs studies) this is a known booster trick for common bottled bacteria. They benefit more from carbon than the ammonia. The stew as is will work fine, add the food wait a week do a full water change it’s done.

Thank you! So much to learn but loving the whole process!

would you suggest adding dry rock to the QT? I haven’t decided whether it will be a permanent QT tank or whether I will tear it down after each use. Right now it’s empty save the equipment and the 4x4x1 inch ceramic brick

 

[brandon429]

People use hang on back filters packed full of floss or ceramic spheres, no rock or sand if you use meds, meds bind to them

the bio brick isn’t meant for ammonia control because water flows around it vs through it since there is no guiding pressure channel to keep water aimed through it

the way to design the qt is to copy from another working system, pick one from a working thread with fish and copy how they do their surface area

quarantine setups that are for observation and not meds are basically mini reef setups, copy an existing setup this trick above just gets any form of surface area ready that you may choose, within a specific time frame vs having to wait weeks for all the ammonia to resolve.