Newbie cycle question

[dave01282000]

Attempting a fishless cycle on my 20G nano and decided to give Dr Tims a shot.

I'm on day 6 and it's hard to nail down a shade of green but I'm seeing it as somewhere between 4.0 and 8.0 ppm ammonia. Nitrite has been climbing for 2 days and is now at 2.0 ppm.

It's telling me to add more ammonia today, but do I really want to do that if it's still reading as high as it is? I've had a bit of trouble reconciling that it says I will be able to add a fish on day 9, when it seems like a lot of people think it should take at least a month for a tank to cycle.

Any advice is appreciated, thanks in advance!

 

[brandon429]

Do this to be ready by day nine

right now, Input one small pinch of flake food, which is carbon missing from the current setup, ground into powder before you add it (high surface area)

do nothing else till day nine

change all the water

it’s cycled, your testing isn’t going to help, those are known misreading test kits

even the current levels you see aren’t right, above is testless reef cycling going off number of days, like the directions say

do the exact steps above it’ll work, don’t change them

the water change exports the overdosed wastewater and leaves bac stuck to rocks, no need to verify.

 

[dave01282000]

Easy enough...thank you!

 

[brandon429]

I would add one easy insurance step

After the big water change add one last cupful of cycling bac only, no extra feed. Begin reefing

 

[Garf]

add one last cupful of cycling bac only

Why?

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Attempting a fishless cycle on my 20G nano and decided to give Dr Tims a shot.

I'm on day 6 and it's hard to nail down a shade of green but I'm seeing it as somewhere between 4.0 and 8.0 ppm ammonia. Nitrite has been climbing for 2 days and is now at 2.0 ppm.

It's telling me to add more ammonia today, but do I really want to do that if it's still reading as high as it is? I've had a bit of trouble reconciling that it says I will be able to add a fish on day 9, when it seems like a lot of people think it should take at least a month for a tank to cycle.

Any advice is appreciated, thanks in advance!

How much rock/other media is in the tank?

 

[brandon429]

Because he has it, and I make custom cycling calls with perfect outcomes. Plus its only three days with carbon vs the full ten. If he wants to skip that part, go ahead, there's no failed cycles on the site anyway.

I don't have people buy more bacteria but to use an extra squirt of what they already have is fine.

Recommend= don't skip disease preps, do what max did here:

Has anyone done coral/inverts only and no fish at first?

Fish seem to be the main cause of disruption in a display tank, given the current circumstances in the hobby with pests (ich, velvet, parasites, etc.). I have been in this hobby for 18 years, and the amount of pests that are showing up lately is much more (could also be the fact that we have...

www.reef2reef.com

Look what order fish go in the tank using the ideal disease control model Dave

They go in last, vs first, even though your tank can carry them on day one (it was possible for you to not use ammonia and use fish as light ammonia loading with that bac on day one, it prevents the ammonia from rising, you simply took a different way to the same ends)

 

[Spare time]

Just add the rest of the bacteria and you are fine. There is no need to add fish food or more ammonia unless somehow the tank is sterile of phosphate

 

[Garf]

and I make custom cycling calls with perfect outcomes

that’s like saying the sun will rise in the morning, I’m an expert.

 

[dave01282000]

How much rock/other media is in the tank?

It's everyday marco rock, though not a full 20 lbs as I thought that was piled too high...maybe 15? And about an inch of standard coralsea substrate. That's it.

 

[dave01282000]

Because he has it, and I make custom cycling calls with perfect outcomes. Plus its only three days with carbon vs the full ten. If he wants to skip that part, go ahead, there's no failed cycles on the site anyway.

I don't have people buy more bacteria but to use an extra squirt of what they already have is fine.

Recommend= don't skip disease preps, do what max did here:

Has anyone done coral/inverts only and no fish at first?

Fish seem to be the main cause of disruption in a display tank, given the current circumstances in the hobby with pests (ich, velvet, parasites, etc.). I have been in this hobby for 18 years, and the amount of pests that are showing up lately is much more (could also be the fact that we have...

www.reef2reef.com

Look what order fish go in the tank using the ideal disease control model Dave

They go in last, vs first, even though your tank can carry them on day one (it was possible for you to not use ammonia and use fish as light ammonia loading with that bac on day one, it prevents the ammonia from rising, you simply took a different way to the same ends)

Looks like Max does it quite opposite of a lot of what you read (i.e. start with an ocellaris and go from there).

I'm at least as interested in corals as I am in fish, so I won't have any problem going this route.

 

[brandon429]

I just thought he times it so well

if we skip disease preps altogether we get whats in the disease forum work threads, about eight months after starting

if we enact disease preps in fish we buy, then add them to a dry start tank, it’s the wet items like corals and shrimp and cuc that vector in disease and the work for the fish gets undone

his stated way is saving a reefer from skipping preps and from having to own a dual tank setup (one as a 45-90 day fallow prep tank) to process all hard scape or wet items through