Waterbox Cube 10 - The Softie Sidekick

[Gizmoreef]

I am building my first reef tank here: Waterbox 50.3 - The First Reefing Journey but I also had the Cube 10 and all the required equipment to boot up my older Cube 10 tank.

I started posting in 50.3 thread because it was a spur of the moment thing but decided the tank deserves his own thread.

Currently going into day 4 of cycling and placebo or not, I seem to be getting some excellent results using the Dr Tims and the cycle seems to go at a fast rate.
Really does seem to do a good job.

Still no drop in ammonia after dosing it with ammonia chloride powder, however the cycle really seems to take off now. I really don't understand why the ammonia isn't dropping so far.

The setup
Waterbox Cube 10
Prime 16
AI Axis 20 Pump
Tunze 9001 skimmer
Caribsea Arag Premium Grade sand
Real Reef Rock
Apex Jr (PH - Temp - Leak detectors - Mobius)

Plan on making this a nemo tank with some anemones although I am SO tempted to put pulsing Xenia in it and make my reefing life miserable

 

[Gizmoreef]

Ok so first beginner mistake is already here.

I found it strange the ammonia wasn't dropping so last night I was thinking about how that is, maybe doing the Hannah test wrong. Turns out, ammonia max reading is 2.5.

My first reaction was ''O oh". As it turns out, I made a mistake and overdosed the ammonia chloride powder about 4x. Should be around 8-8.5ppm ammonia in the tank right now.

I'm going to do a big waterchange tonight to dilute and do the watertests again untill I am at the right ammonia value. It seems the cycle isn't stalled with the high ammonia (probably thanks to dosing the Dr Tims bac cultures) but I don't want the tank exploding with nitrates and nitrites and cause a major algae bloom. Would people consider just leaving it as is and just let it ride out the long cycle now and do a waterchange in the end to reduce nutrients or just WC right away?