I'm sure this topic has been covered in the past but I wanted to post my observations and resulting questions.
I'm setting up a 22 gallon nano tank. Although I have everything else, I am still waiting on a custom stand. Without the custom stand, I basically cannot set up the aquarium (and the sump + plumbing that goes with it). In an effort to make use of the waiting time, I put my dead reef rock and "bag o' live sand" in a 10gallon tank. I put in a thing of Dr Tim's one and only and the recommended amount of ammonium chloride. My saltwater is made with RO/DI (reads zero free and total chlorine) + tropic marin salt. Salinity was reading 35ppt per a refractometer.
In the beginning, I was only testing ammonia. It read ~3ppm for the first week. I re-read the instructions and re-watched Dr Tim's videos. The claim is that ammonia levels in some cases drop from 2ppm to zero by the next day. For me, after one week, tank is still reading 3ppt. I had an exchange with someone at Dr Tim's where they told me to drop the salinity to 28ppt. Also, increase temp to around 85 F. I started testing nitrite and nitrate. Tank has been reading 2ppm nitrite and 25-40ppm nitrate via Salifert test kits.
Two days dropping the salinity to 28ppm and the tests reading largely the same, I gave up. I started doing 15% daily water changes. I guess numerous problems were going on in my head. Maybe elevated ammonia or nitrate levels are hindering nitrifying bacteria from reproducing. Maybe alkalinity was consumed to the level that maybe there isn't enough to facilitate nitrification. Whatever, the case, I didn't water changes would hurt. After about 3 or 4 15% water changes, ammonia dropped to about .5ppm and nitrate dropped to about 25 ppm. Nitrite stayed at 2ppm.
I left the tank as it was for 3 days thinking that nitrifying bacteria would take care of whatever ammonia was left. No dice. Tank stayed at .5ppm ammonia. I did one more water change and then the next day, the tank read 0 ammonia. (nitrite and nitrate remained largely unchanged).
I emailed Dr Tim's and was told that likely the ammonia levels were not dropping as the "bag o' live sand" was likely contributing decaying organics that were keeping ammonia levels constant at 2ppm. Ok, I guess I can buy that.
So yesterday, tank was reading 0ppm ammonia. I figure there should now be enough nitrifying bacteria to handle a tiny increase in ammonia load. So I added 1/4 of the usual dose of ammonium chloride. Last night, I tested, it showed .5ppm. Today, I tested again, still .5ppm ammonia.
All that is to say, it seems to me that this bacteria in a bottle is about the most convoluted way to cycle a tank that I can think of. It seems like live rock + live sand and leave it alone for 30ish days is still as good a technique if not better. I am into the third week of this cycle now and the process to convert ammonia to nitrite seems weak still and the process to convert nitrite into nitrate doesn't seem like it benefitted at all.
Thoughts?
Also, regarding my nitrite and nitrate readings - I was using salifert test kits. According to Dr. Tim, test kits can be giving nitrite (nitrogen) or nitrite (ion) readings. Both are valid but its like the difference between imperial and metric. I think salifert reads nitrite (ion) which is roughly 3x higher than nitrite (nitrogen). Does anyone know if that is true? If so, does that mean that my nitrite reading (2ppm) is really less than 1ppm nitrite (nitrogen)?
I'm setting up a 22 gallon nano tank. Although I have everything else, I am still waiting on a custom stand. Without the custom stand, I basically cannot set up the aquarium (and the sump + plumbing that goes with it). In an effort to make use of the waiting time, I put my dead reef rock and "bag o' live sand" in a 10gallon tank. I put in a thing of Dr Tim's one and only and the recommended amount of ammonium chloride. My saltwater is made with RO/DI (reads zero free and total chlorine) + tropic marin salt. Salinity was reading 35ppt per a refractometer.
In the beginning, I was only testing ammonia. It read ~3ppm for the first week. I re-read the instructions and re-watched Dr Tim's videos. The claim is that ammonia levels in some cases drop from 2ppm to zero by the next day. For me, after one week, tank is still reading 3ppt. I had an exchange with someone at Dr Tim's where they told me to drop the salinity to 28ppt. Also, increase temp to around 85 F. I started testing nitrite and nitrate. Tank has been reading 2ppm nitrite and 25-40ppm nitrate via Salifert test kits.
Two days dropping the salinity to 28ppm and the tests reading largely the same, I gave up. I started doing 15% daily water changes. I guess numerous problems were going on in my head. Maybe elevated ammonia or nitrate levels are hindering nitrifying bacteria from reproducing. Maybe alkalinity was consumed to the level that maybe there isn't enough to facilitate nitrification. Whatever, the case, I didn't water changes would hurt. After about 3 or 4 15% water changes, ammonia dropped to about .5ppm and nitrate dropped to about 25 ppm. Nitrite stayed at 2ppm.
I left the tank as it was for 3 days thinking that nitrifying bacteria would take care of whatever ammonia was left. No dice. Tank stayed at .5ppm ammonia. I did one more water change and then the next day, the tank read 0 ammonia. (nitrite and nitrate remained largely unchanged).
I emailed Dr Tim's and was told that likely the ammonia levels were not dropping as the "bag o' live sand" was likely contributing decaying organics that were keeping ammonia levels constant at 2ppm. Ok, I guess I can buy that.
So yesterday, tank was reading 0ppm ammonia. I figure there should now be enough nitrifying bacteria to handle a tiny increase in ammonia load. So I added 1/4 of the usual dose of ammonium chloride. Last night, I tested, it showed .5ppm. Today, I tested again, still .5ppm ammonia.
All that is to say, it seems to me that this bacteria in a bottle is about the most convoluted way to cycle a tank that I can think of. It seems like live rock + live sand and leave it alone for 30ish days is still as good a technique if not better. I am into the third week of this cycle now and the process to convert ammonia to nitrite seems weak still and the process to convert nitrite into nitrate doesn't seem like it benefitted at all.
Thoughts?
Also, regarding my nitrite and nitrate readings - I was using salifert test kits. According to Dr. Tim, test kits can be giving nitrite (nitrogen) or nitrite (ion) readings. Both are valid but its like the difference between imperial and metric. I think salifert reads nitrite (ion) which is roughly 3x higher than nitrite (nitrogen). Does anyone know if that is true? If so, does that mean that my nitrite reading (2ppm) is really less than 1ppm nitrite (nitrogen)?
