New tank cycle

[cb1964]

Hello, I’m brand new to the salt water aquarium hobby. I have a 112 gallon tank. When the store I bought it from set it up they had me put a bottle of seed and a bottle of remediation into the tank. I waited a week and saw no ammonia develop so I started ghost feeding which I did for about a week and I added another bottle of seed. Still no ammonia developed. At this point I bought dr. Tim’s ammonia and started following his 14 day schedule. Ammonia is present it went up to 4ppm and is now back down to 2.0ppm. I am on day 9 of his 14 day schedule. I have never seen any nitrites or nitrate develop. I have ordered a bottle of Fritz turbo 900 to add to the tank which has not came in the mail yet. I feel like I am now stuck in the ammonia stage. Can anyone share their thoughts on this with me?

 

[cb1964]

Hello, I’m brand new to the salt water aquarium hobby. I have a 112 gallon tank. When the store I bought it from set it up they had me put a bottle of seed and a bottle of remediation into the tank. I waited a week and saw no ammonia develop so I started ghost feeding which I did for about a week and I added another bottle of seed. Still no ammonia developed. At this point I bought dr. Tim’s ammonia and started following his 14 day schedule. Ammonia is present it went up to 4ppm and is now back down to 2.0ppm. I am on day 9 of his 14 day schedule. I have never seen any nitrites or nitrate develop. I have ordered a bottle of Fritz turbo 900 to add to the tank which has not came in the mail yet. I feel like I am now stuck in the ammonia stage. Can anyone share their thoughts on this with me?

Can anyone help?

 

[Cell]

Stop wasting money. Just finish up Dr Tim's protocol and you will be good to go. As long as ammonia is processing, you are safe to start stocking slowly.

You are at about the 3 week point. Tanks will cycle in about 4 weeks with just an ammonia source and no other bacterial starters.

 

[TheBear78]

Hi.
Bumping your post after 28 minutes without an answer kind of suggests that you may need a bit of patience. This, in itself is an essential part of the hobby.
My recommendation would be to stick to one method and wait it out. Stop throwing crap in the tank, it's not a good habit to have.
I've no idea why Remediation would be used for a new tank.

 

[Cell]

Hi.
Bumping your post after 28 minutes without an answer kind of suggests that you may need a bit of patience. This, in itself is an essential part of the hobby.
My recommendation would be to stick to one method and wait it out. Stop throwing crap in the tank, it's not a good habit to have.
I've no idea why Remediation would be used for a new tank.

They used Remediation because the LFS recommended it. But you are correct in that it was unnecessary.

 

[cb1964]

Since I used seed, I did not use dr Tim’s one and only I just used dr Tim’s ammonia. Should I still see nitrites and nitrates develop sometime in the near future?

 

[Cell]

Oh my bad, I thought it was one and only. Still if you are processing ammonia, you can start stocking.

 

[cb1964]

Won’t it hurt the fish if the ammonia hasn’t gone down to 0ppm?

 

[Cell]

Wait a day and test again, the ammonia reading is likely a false positive. If you tested at 4.0 ammonia and a day later you were at 2.0, you are processing ammonia and that will not stop or stall.

 

[cb1964]

In a couple of days should I see nitrite and nitrate levels?

 

[Cell]

You will likely see nitrite, but until nitrite depletes you will not be able to accurately test for nitrate, so don't bother.

 

[jdmquip]

One thing I’ve learned is patience is key.

 

[cb1964]

Thank you all. Yes I know patience is key. I just wanted a little reassurance that I had not already screwed this up.

 

[cb1964]

I’m also going to put in the Fritz turbo 900 when it gets here unless by next Wednesday I’m seeing the ammonia go towards 0ppm. I understand that that won’t hurt anything

 

[cb1964]

The one thing that I don’t really understand is why no nitrites showing yet. It seems that most everyone else starts getting nitrite readings very soon after they start getting ammonia readings.

 

[brandon429]

stop concerning over nitrites and don't own the kit. Im saying that from years of tracing out what testing for nitrites causes in reefing: you are better off not owning the kit.

only ammonia control matters

take 100% of remaining concerns and put them into disease prevention studies in the disease forum. you're as good as cycled now, it's time to really concern over disease prep.

updated cycling science: nitrite has no bearing in a reef tank display cycle. bottle bac sellers make sure to state the opposite because they know if you think you're nitrite stalled (and that it matters in reefing) you'll buy 3 extra rounds of bacteria. you're already underway doing that, old cycling science made you expend money on fritz when it wasn't needed (and it's not harmful to add agreed)

all focus changes into disease prevention now if you want your fish to live past a year. adding untreated fish to a dry start setup is everyone's help post in today's disease forum work pretty much. spend several days studying that forum, see what Jay uses to troubleshoot and fix the tanks and do those actions from the start vs retro