Greater than 8ppm ammonia new tank

[greetl01]

Posted a picture in another response. It was Dr. Tim's Ammonia. I only used 2/3 the recommended dose. I doubt the sand and rocks displaced >33% or 25 gallons.

all i know is i've got a 29 gallon, 30lb of rock and about 2 inches of sand. took it down to 20 gallons and 80 drops of the stuff put me exactly at 2ppm

 

[BurtMacklin]

Update for everyone. The API test kit for ammonia and nitrite are awful. At day 4 it was still reading >8ppm and 0ppm for ammonia and nitrite respectively. Salifert test kits arrived today and ammonia is between 1-1.5ppm, nitrite is 0.5ppm. Going to toss those API tests. Thanks for the input, everything is going smoothly.

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

I hate to say it but the api test kits are only an indicator. Good call on the salifert. Kick back and relax, your tank will cycle on its own from here on. Stop buying bacteria. Keep the lights off for a while. Once ammonia is zero you can add some fish. Good luck. Your off to a good start.

 

[BurtMacklin]

I hate to say it but the api test kits are only an indicator. Good call on the salifert. Kick back and relax, your tank will cycle on its own from here on. Stop buying bacteria. Keep the lights off for a while. Once ammonia is zero you can add some fish. Good luck. Your off to a good start.

Thanks. What about the other API kits? I was only using API because they came free with the tank. Should I not use the other bottles for pH, KH, calcium, and phosphate either? If they're all unreliable I'll just get Salifert replacements.

Lights are off and will stay off until I add fish. The tank is looking good right now.

 

[brandon429]

Burt theres one really funny inversion to this all

we were just doing the same thing the other day with a misreading test kit from red sea

its the tests that vary, not the aquarium surface area ability.

I used to benchmark everything against seneye, because the first several I saw were lining up with what we know active area to do regarding ammonia action...and then the misreads started there too

help my seneye is at 1.0 lol in a clear tank, no smell water, all fish fine, corals open.


we are getting hornswaggled by all the testers

Dan P pointed out seneye shortcomings to me long before I saw seneye misreading post.

I think the most important takeaway in your thread was that visual and smell conditions and bac timing were all reliable in the end. luckily, thankfully for the love of pete, a test kit agreed or we'd be on nine pages with everyone sure you are stalled.

we merely got lucky but its awesome nonetheless.

here's the red sea misread, the tank is approaching two years old, all cycle issues resolved two years ago approx.:

EMERGENCY - Crazy Ammonia spike

Hey all, This tank has been up for 1+ year and its been doing great with SPS, LPS etc. Today I had 1 sps peel out and I thought maybe it was the new carbon I changed out, went to rent out a par meter to make sure had them test the water just for ***** and giggles as I test it myself x2 weekly...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[BurtMacklin]

Ammonia has cycled, but my nitrite won't come down now. Any thoughts? No fish in the tank still and no ammonia added since day 10. I have two Banggai Cardinals that I'd like to move from QT to the DT on 2/27.

 

[brandon429]

Some people track and time around nitrite and many many others do not

for any questionable water just change it out and begin having earned ammonia control

 

[BurtMacklin]

Any risk of the nitrite oxidizing bacteria not being fully established? I don't want to water change, put the cardinals in, and have the ammonia converted to nitrite without full conversion to nitrate. Or is this probably not a big deal with a low bio load?

Almost everything I've read about cycling said to get ammonia and nitrite to zero then do a large water change.

 

[brandon429]

I agree all current material says that.

We have been studying updated methods here centered around Randy's article on nitrite neutrality but that's in addition to its neutrality in reef convention planning. There are industries that don't follow classic rules as well

How to unstick any seemingly stuck cycle

non digital ammonia test kit readings make you think you aren’t cycled when indeed you are if you owned a $200 expensive seneye meter, you’d never be doubting your cycle status, since .01% of the reefing population owns these, we need a way to help the majority understand when they’re cycled...

www.reef2reef.com

We use a different meter for starts there vs nitrite, still a wait time involved but we already know when a cycle will be ready before the tank is made... old rules said it had to be a variable wait... but we can't run convention reefs on variable starts, they need to be ready by a given date.