Cycling Knowledge from advice?

[TwistedBrit]

Hey all,

Great community I see here, been prowling for a while, thought I'd finally join and ask for assistance.

I bought my first sw tank second hand, full setup, already running with fish and coral. Transporting it made everything go into hiding for a few days then it all 'came back to life'. It had been neglected so was in a state of ugliness. I added some CUC and cleared all the algae for a clean looking tank, after 3 months it looked awesome, 2 month later I decided to add more fish and coral. Unfortunately the 2nd fish I brought in came with disease and within 4 weeks despite my efforts, my tank was lifeless. I parted with the corals and drained it.

I've decided after more research in what could of happened and increased my QT procedure to try and prevent a repeat scenario, I'm starting again. I've set up with Aqua Natural Coarse Aragonite sand, dry rock and my water is sat at 1.026, 26°c.

Tank is 100ltrs, plus 10ltrs in a canister filter I aim to use as a reactor (just water in it at mo to increase flow, no media).
Dosed full bottle of One and Only, instructed Ammonia (minus a few drops for rocks and sand).

Out of curiosity after only one 24hr cycle, I tested for Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate here's roughly where I am at.
Ammonia - 1.6ppm.
Nitrite - 0.25ppm
Nitrate - 25ppm

I wasn't expecting anything at the first 24hr other than Ammonia. Has something gone wrong here? Or has the cycle just started, with the ammonia dropping and nitrites raising. I've read loads about the cycle and the results make me feel like I've missed some "expected" results somewhere or I've done something wrong, its literally been a day so it could just be too early to worry but that's also the reason I am. Should I be?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[Spare time]

Ammonia should be up, then nitrite while ammonia falls, then nitrate while nitrite falls. However, nitrite can interfere with nitrate tests, so its best not to focus on the nitrate value, just that there is some present.


PS that sand will adsorb copper if you are running the QT with copper.

 

[Garf]

Or has the cycle just started

Looks like it

it could just be too early to worry

Certainly could be

Welcome.

 

[Doctorgori]

Welcome,
what did you do with the old rock?

 

[TwistedBrit]

Thanks for the simplified version, my kinda lingo.
So, ignore the nitrates for now. Dose ammonia to maintain 2ppm after each 24hr period. Wait, test, repeat if necessary until nitrates are higher and ammonia drops to 0 in 24hrs?

Cheers.

 

[TwistedBrit]

Welcome,
what did you do with the old rock?

Old rock is currently in a bag in the garden dying off. I wanted a completely fresh new start, nothing from the tank, sterile beginning.

As you can probably tell by my question, I learn better by doing, I must of read a thousand articles on cycling and in 1 day I was confused by the results, it'd be better for me to see, so I wanted to exclude any live sand or rock where possible.