How to unstick any seemingly stuck cycle

[brandon429]

Just perfect, don’t think I don’t have stomach butterflies waiting for updates he he


ace ventura pump though that tank above looks great, and your kits are calibrated against life carry truth in this case. Can’t wait to see outcomes on additional system

 

[brandon429]

Your seachem badge is indeed in safe zone.

 

[KevPool]

I tossed one of those test strips in as well just to keep an eye on the ammonia between tests and it has yet to spike on me so far the tank seems really happy.

 

[KevPool]

For the new system I have almost everything I need to get it up and going other then the lights, sand and maybe some more dry rock. I do have some older dead rock that I need to bake and clean off before I make my rock scapes I have about 70 lbs right now I need about another 40ish.

Side note my tables are wicked level.

I updated my builder link to the new build but will keep updating the Nano as she grows.

Have a great Friday

 

[brandon429]

hey that's really amazing u should leave the laser level on when the tank is there that way it looks vegas style like that

 

[Delouise]

One week after adding my Snowflake eel and all seems well, he is eating and active. Still reading Zero ammonia, yet nitrite and nitrate are very high...
5 weeks past using Dr. Tims

 

[brandon429]

Wow that is a very neat animal, eats a bunch I bet

 

[KevPool]

So my ammonia was spot on no issues my nitrite was a bit high as well as my nitrate but did a 25% water change I will check it again tomorrow night.

 

[brandon429]

Perfect, we want to see those results contrasted to life in the system, the conflict is on nice one here. Just a perfect example for our thread


ammonia looks great nitrite looks bad, but we don’t mind.

 

[Kingkold020]

I hope you for mind me adding my “stuck” tank in here. I know I’m probably cycled but I wanted to get your input because as I’ve been reading this thread I have understood more thank ever have about cycling. I was also pointed here by krisreef, and I think I’m the first tank in this thread using seachem stability. My first day was on November 17 and I have been ghostfeeding omega one mini pellets. I’m also using the infamous API tea kit as well. I also haven’t added any pellets in the last 24 hours though. My first ammonia reading was on November 19, 0.25ppm, and then it went to 0.50 ppm on November 21 and my ammonia has been “stuck” ever since. My Nitrates rose to 10 ppm on the 24th and now they’re at 20 or 30(I suck with telling the colors on this test kit apart)ppm ever since the 26th. My nitrates are..(I almost got you with that one) My plan after reading this thread was to do a big water change on Monday or Tuesday and try to get life in their or to do the method with the picture and see if my ammonia moves. My question was how high of a water change should I do and what life would you recommend I add to my tank? I have a 20 gallon long? Also what types of coral are fine because I would like to hold off on fish?

Edit: forgot to add picture of the tank and to I lie that this have been a lightless cycle. I had just gotten two Lominie Pixie 30’s but they crapped out on my not even hours after setting them up, not to mention they didn’t fit a rimmed aquarium, so I plan on getting a vipaspectra.

picture below:
First tank picture was day 1 of setup second is from today

Test from November 26 is the first picture. Second picture is from today.

 

[brandon429]

That’s a perfect addition for our study thank you for posting. Nice tank and scape too that’s a lot of good filtration area.

the ammonia earned from feeding pellets is variable breakdown and can’t be used to stress test for ammonia movement on the kits but it’s excellent bacteria feed. the directions say it takes about a week so 12 days of wait is past its bottle dates at least


if you want to add life I think it will live, change any % u can up to all of it, any degree. If you want to stress test, from post one that can be your first pic above without any water change, you’d dose up from that reading above since a motion of ammonia vs a single pic is what we use. You’d need cycling ammonia for the test, dr tims.

either the oxidation test or the change water/ add life sounds reasonable. we don’t have much data on how long this bacteria takes, it’s reported slow in some posts. The only way to know for sure is to run the oxidation test

 

[KevPool]

Hey Brandon I thought I would throw this here for shts n giggles I have a pail of old media that came with a tank bundle I got off a guy. So for the heck of it I have had this running in the bucket for 2-3 weeks now.

I tossed in a few drops of ammonia just to see if by morning it would eat down the ammonia with any bacteria that was on these I think I added a cap of MicrōBacter Start when I set this up. Anywho I tested my ammonia no probs I had 1.2ppm just for gigs I tested the nitrates and holy cow man they were off the chart at the 5 min mark and I still had 4 min to go lol. I'm going to do a full water change on the bucket tomorrow after I check the ammonia, but wow that was high just thought I would share that. Keep in mind I've been adding the water from my tank changes from the pico tank in here for the past few weeks as well as throwing in my old floss.

 

[brandon429]

Appreciated, we want to see any type of surface area work and testing, post away!

the outcomes should be scalable to any size and still be consistent, pico reefs filter at the same rates 500 gallon systems do

 

[shawz_uk]

Anyone have a stuck cycle we can unstick, without changing or buying anything?
lookin for more work tests.


@316Fin so sorry missed your post, I didn’t get the heads up and missed responding. How is the cycle and clouding? on the 19th had been working a stuck thread and just posted it without checking for updates, hated to miss ur post

Hi All,

Fascinating thread.

complete novice here so go easy on me. A couple of mistakes on my part already(.

I have a 30 gallon tank with 9 gallon sump. Used 1 bag of Carib Live Sand abs TMC painted ECO Rock.

Set up and left for a couple of days prior to adding Dr Tim’s One and Only 12 days ago. Day after Added Dr Tim’s Ammonium Chloride to 2ppm.

Mistake 1 - misread guidance and added more ammonium chloride aiming for 5ppm but second mistake quickly followed as overdosed. I have now had ammonia off my Red Sea Ammonia chart.

3 days ago I added another bottle of Dr Tim’s One and Only fearing I had fried bacteria with high ammonia

Tonight I tried diluting Red Sea test with 50% RO and 50% tank water. Result doubled suggests 4ppm ammonia and no sign of moving.

Red Sea Nitrite almost negligible maybe 0.05.

Red Sea Nitrate reading 2ppm.

additional potential mistake bought Microbacter Start XLM as well.

Do I continue to ride it out?

Any thoughts will be massively appreciated.

 

[brandon429]

That matches what Jack did on page one, the compounding. I think your cycle is fine and only the mixed wastewater is in question. Since you've fed, inoculated, and waited the normal number of days we'd have you change the water for new and add some starting life.

Our thread is about the untrustworthy nature of entry test kits and about the trustworthy nature of cycling chart timeframes plus the bottle bac added.

Add some snails and clean up crew after the big water change, thanks for posting!

 

[brandon429]

Your particular cycle is perfect for this thread since if polled, just about any reader would say thats stalled and that multi strains of bacteria have cancelled each other out. We wouldn’t say that here and we aren’t betting on the test kits agreeing afterwards. We think that because feed, inoc and time have been given, life will be kept alive in spite of it all— after the full water change. It will leave a functioning reef filter and animals will stay alive whereas they won’t in an uncycled reef.

old cycle rules simply required us to wait until wastewater was cleared, in all its varied dosing people run no wonder things appeared stalled and with unreliable completion timeframes


but here we made new rules, don’t have to wait past the due date on the bacteria bottle. Rip in some new water and test the theory w us

 

[shawz_uk]

Your particular cycle is perfect for this thread since if polled, just about any reader would say thats stalled and that multi strains of bacteria have cancelled each other out. We wouldn’t say that here and we aren’t betting on the test kits agreeing afterwards. We think that because feed, inoc and time have been given, life will be kept alive in spite of it all— after the full water change. It will leave a functioning reef filter and animals will stay alive whereas they won’t in an uncycled reef.

old cycle rules simply required us to wait until wastewater was cleared, in all its varied dosing people run no wonder things appeared stalled and with unreliable completion timeframes


but here we made new rules, don’t have to wait past the due date on the bacteria bottle. Rip in some new water and test the theory w us

Will get on the water change over the next couple of days and get down to my LFS for the clean up crew.

Thank you for responding! It’s great to know people are out there to help us just setting out!

 

[brandon429]

And this is rather new info/ divergence away from common practice so each new picture/feedback set guides us and guides our timeframes can’t wait to see your results

 

[shawz_uk]

And this is rather new info/ divergence away from common practice so each new picture/feedback set guides us and guides our timeframes can’t wait to see your

Will update and post pictures as I go for sure!

 

[Kingkold020]

Sorry it took a while for the update but I’m a brok college student so it took me a while to save for the coral and inverts. I put in a Florida Ricordea and two Hermits at around 2:00 pm and everything is doing fine. The Ricordea is fully opened and the two hermits have been picking at any leftover food I couldn’t get during my water change. Pics here as well for proof this method works.
First pics: 2:00pm



second pic: 8:15 pm