How long should it take for ammonia to get to 2 ppm

[reef tank 2.0]

Per the instructions on the bottle of Fritz Fishless Fuel, I added enough that should have brought my tank up to 2 ppm. I added this, this past Saturday. Sunday my ammonia was registering at .5 per salifert. I tested today, and the result was the same. Since Saturday, I have been adding Microbacter7 each day.

The raw shrimp that I had placed in the tank two weeks ago was deteriorating pretty badly, so I removed that right before adding the fishless Fuel.

my main question is, how long should it take before I start seeing the 2ppm that the bottle's instructions mention?
How long do I need to add the MB7?

 

[lapin]

Instructions say:
Add enough ammonia to tank so the tank measures 2ppm. Let if fall down to about 0.5 Add more ammonia until the tank measures 2ppm. Repeat. When ammonia drops to 0.5 in 24 hours your tank is cycled. Do not add any more ammonia. Change out 50% of the water and add 1 or 2 fish to start.

Stop adding MB7.

 

[reef tank 2.0]

I read the instructions on the bottle as well as online before I posted tis thread. where the heck did you see
"Let if fall down to about 0.5 Add more ammonia until the tank measures 2ppm. Repeat"

 

[reef tank 2.0]

The instructions I see say

"To bring aquarium to 2ppm ammonia add 4 drops per one gallon or 1 tsp per 25 gallons. "

Which i did. I added 6 tsp. Which got me to .5ppm the next day and today. I have NOT added more.

For grins, I tested nitrites, that's still at 0

 

[lapin]

Sounds like they left some instructions off the bottle.
Fritz Fishless Fuel is ammonia , plain and simple. To cycle a tank you bring the ammonia level up to 2ppm. As bacteria grows it consumes the ammonia. You repeat this process until ammonia falls to <0.5 in 24 hours. This means your tank can process fish waste fast enough so as not to harm your fish. Ammonia will never rise unless you add it or something is decaying in your tank.

Cycling an Aquarium

Cycling a new aquarium. One of the earliest topics a new aquarium hobbyist needs to learn is how to properly cycle their aquarium. There is a ton of information on this process and many different methods on how to accomplish it. There are many different chemical and biological cycles our tank...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[reef tank 2.0]

let's back up a tad.

when I was at the local fish store on Saturday, I was telling them I started cycling with the raw shrimp 2 weeks prior to. I asked what liquid I could use to jump start the process to speed it up. He handed me the fishless Fuels and the bottle of Microbacter7. I asked a couple times of the process, to make sure I understood everything. He said that I put in the 6 teaspoons to get me up to 2 ppm, and at the same time, I should add the MB7. which I did.

so that's where I am now. added the fuel Saturday, and that was the only time. I have been adding the MB7 each day since.

I guess I'm a little concerned now. is it too late to add more ammonia, or did I screw everything up by adding MB7 at the same time?

and this is the bottle of fuel that I have

Fishless Fuel

Fritz Aquatics is one of America's leading water quality product manufacturers for aquarium, pond, water garden and aquaculture hobbyists and professionals.

fritzaquatics.com

 

[Dan_P]

Per the instructions on the bottle of Fritz Fishless Fuel, I added enough that should have brought my tank up to 2 ppm. I added this, this past Saturday. Sunday my ammonia was registering at .5 per salifert. I tested today, and the result was the same. Since Saturday, I have been adding Microbacter7 each day.

The raw shrimp that I had placed in the tank two weeks ago was deteriorating pretty badly, so I removed that right before adding the fishless Fuel.

my main question is, how long should it take before I start seeing the 2ppm that the bottle's instructions mention?
How long do I need to add the MB7?

Microbacter 7 is not the typical bacteria product to start an aquarium. Biospira, Fritz Turbo Start and Dr. Tim’s One and Only are products that contain the necessary nitrifying bacteria. Except for Dr. Tim’s, ammonia consumption usually starts within a day or two.

At this point you can stop adding MB7 and just wait until the correct bacteria start to grow, or buy the correct bacteria.

 

[reef tank 2.0]

Ok. Thanks.
I saw some threads on here about some using that mb7.

I bought it going off what the fish store said. Apparently that wasn't correct.

Should I still get my ammonia up to 2ppm or let it remain as is?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

What is the nitrate level? Your tank was already cycling for weeks before because of the raw shrimp, so it might be cycled and perhaps thats why the ammonia not increasing. The nitrate reading should confirm either way

 

[reef tank 2.0]

Hmmmm. I'll check that today. Assumed I never got to that point yet.

I remember doing the raw shrimp method on my last tank and I missed the ammonia and nitrite spike. It must have been minimal and quick.

Wonder if that happened here too. I've been testing for ammoniafor a solid week but never got a reading till I added that fuel.

I'll check nitrates later on

 

[reef tank 2.0]

I wanted to check the nitrates before I left,
Using salifert, my nitrates are somewhere in the 10ppm range. Definitely a hint of purple.

Is it possible to have ammonia AND nitrates registering? I tested the ammonia and the color is definitely a very slight cloudy yellowish.

I'll recheck tonight to make sure

 

[reef tank 2.0]

little bit of confusion here.
I retested everything.
I have a reading straight across the board.
ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. Every one of those has a low end reading, but my water is definitely tinted yellowish for ammonia, and purpleish for the trites and trates.

I am using the salifert test kits, and all have not expired. is what i'm seeing possible? If I am getting readings from all three, how will I ever know when it's done cycling?

 

[Naekuh]

1. add outside source ammonia.. like Dr. Tims, or Fritz Ammonia.
2. Wait a few hours and test ammonia for 2ppm.... if its not 2ppm, then dose a bit more until you get 2ppm.
(you want to keep this below 4ppm if possible.... because anything over that can potentially stall your cycle.)
3. Dose your bacteria per instructions.
4. Test Nitrite... not seeing anything... wait 24 hours and retest.
5. Next day Test Ammonia and Nitrite. If ammonia is 2ppm dont bother testing nitrite.
6. Keep testing Ammonia and nitrite until Ammonia starts dipping.... then test nitrite.
7. Once u see Nitrite... its gonna Explode, while ammonia will tank quickly. Now you should test Nitrate.
8. Keep testing Nitrite until it bottoms to 0. (although some people say you dont have to, you can test nitrate and go onto the next step.) But i like to wait til things get established for my own mind clarity sake.
9. Wait til nitrite bottoms to 0... At this point Ammonia and Nitrite should be close to 0.... Nitrate on the other hand will creep and creep, but its OK.
10. Dose your tank 2ppm ammonia again... test ammonia in a couple of hours to see if you got proper dosage.
11. Record how long it takes ammonia and nitrite to bottom to 0.
12. Test Nitrate... it should be titanic now.
13. Massive water change. ~40%
14. Start any type of mechanical filtration you have.... start your skimmer, turn on your fuge... turn on reactors, start lights at low and ramp up slowly.
15. Enjoy your fish stock.....


You know your done cycling when you dose 2ppm of Ammonia into your tank... and it turns into Nitrite which then turns into Nitrate.

So before waterchange you know your done when you got like 0 ammonia, and like on average 3x-4x ppm Nitrate per Ammonia.

1 ppm ammonia --> 2.7 ppm nitrite --> 3.6 ppm nitrate.
Is the conversion exchange from Ammonia to Nitrate.

Other note... i noticed i cycled faster when Alk at about 8dKH... i read somewhere that cycling your tank will leach your alk.

Another note.... i increased my temp in my tank to 84F.
Last note, i ran a lower salinty at about 1.021 instead of the 1.026, and fixed my salinity at the large water change as the bacteria i hear grows better at higher temps, and a slightly lower salinity.


Using Dry Rock... Dry Sand... and all my Ceramic Media bricks from my old system, my system took 2 months to completely cycle... and like many i thought it stalled many many times, but was actually me just being paranoid and impatient.

I also dosed bacteria, with Fluval brand... Petco had a deal on 16oz on clearance... so i said might as well and dosed that.

 

[reef tank 2.0]

@Mr. Mojo Rising - Not sure if you read much past your post, but a little update. Not much different than the posts up to this point, BUT

I did add another full dose of fishless fuel in last night before bed, hoping to get this ammonia up a bit. I tested everything about an hour ago.....certainly isn't moving much.....
I swear I'm getting Ammonia - 1.5, Nitrite - 0.5, and Nitrates - 10 (all per Salifert)

I understand I should be getting a swing of ammonia, trites, and then trates. but I am getting it all at once. Maybe that's correct, but I'm reluctant to add anything else till I know for sure what's going on. You mentioned the tank may have cycled already, but obviously I missed the big sign stating that. It would only make sense since I had the raw shrimp in there since February 26th. It started decomposing a few days ago, so I yanked it.

that's where I'm at now.

(With all the traffic on this forum, threads get pushed to later pages rather quickly. It's a good thing, but definitely busy)

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

If you have ammonia 1.5 ppm, there's no reason to try to push that to 2 ppm. Just wait for it to decline. The nitrate is not accurate (reads tooo high) with that level of nitrite.

 

[reef tank 2.0]

I certainly have colored testers. What other testing options do I have? Or do I let the system go as is and see if things change? I'll retest tonight though

 

[reef tank 2.0]

just did a retest, ammonia is still around 1.5ppm. I didn't test for anything else. I'll let it go and retest in the next couple days