thoughts on next step that should be taken?

[Dbichler]

You cycled after the shrimp decayed and ammonia went down. There was no need to add more ammonia. It doesn’t hurt but doesn’t do much other than keep adding nitrates to your system. I would do a waterchange more so to be safe and get your nitrates to a level you want to keep the tank at. This also gets you in the habit of doing them and to get used to making sure all parameters are in order. I would add two of the qtd fish then a couple weeks later add two more.

 

[reef tank 2.0]

i certainly hope this is another case of me overthinking, and being overly cautious.
I guess that will be answered once fish have been added.

sigh

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

There was another thread where cloudy white ammonia test was caused by high salinity, not low ammonia.

 

[reef tank 2.0]

hmmmm, well my salinity is at 1.025

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

hmmmm, well my salinity is at 1.025

Do you know that is accurate?

Is this the API test kit? I'd get a different one if that's the case.

 

[reef tank 2.0]

The 1.025 that I'm getting is from both my refractometer, as well as my Milwaukee MA887

 

[reef tank 2.0]

The more you guys keep telling me the same thing over and over, I think my hard head is struggling to absorb it..............if I once had ammonia, around 2ppm, but now the test comes back white....then that means the tank is cycled.

a couple weeks ago, I remember overdosing the fishless fuel attempting to get it up to 2ppm. I remember the color getting yellowish-orange.....which meant close to 2ppm per Salifert. I certainly didn't do any water changes, but a day or two after, that yellowish orange went away and showed up as white.

which is how it shows now.....white.

so I think it's safe to say, the cycle is done. I need to stop fighting it

unless anyone has any additional concerns, I think it's time to move on and hope for the best

 

[reef tank 2.0]

thank you all again.......
tired of this hobby, and I don't even have fish yet

 

[Dbichler]

thank you all again.......
tired of this hobby, and I don't even have fish yet

Ha just wait for your first casualties which everyone goes through also.

 

[reef tank 2.0]

I had a couple in my last tank, if I recall, it was due to carpet surfers. That's when I installed a jump screen.

Have that on my current tank. That avoids one potential problem

 

[reef tank 2.0]

does this sound about right?

I did about a 50 gallon water change tonight (33%). About an hour after filling the tank back up, I decided to test the ammonia and the nitrites. just as before, I got no reading on the ammonia, but my nitrites were still around 4ppm. Obviously the nitrates were around 100ppm or more (salifert shows very purple!!).

not quite sure how to get those nitrites down, in order for the nitrates to drop as well.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

If nitrite is really 4 ppm, then nitrate is actually much lower than a Salifert kit suggests since a little nitrite shows as a lot of nitrate with kits like that one.

 

[reef tank 2.0]

I'm not saying my tank is or is not cycled at this point.....but I think I may have screwed all this up by not following the instructions to a tee. let me explain

i was adding the fishless fuel as the label instructed. all good there. I immediately added the nitrifying bacteria at the same time. The thought just occurred to me that I could possibly be neutralizing the ammonia with the bacteria, causing the cycle process to be very slow, or not at all.

i should have raised it to 2ppm, THEN added bacteria.
which is probably why i have not seen anything bottom out at 0ppm like most say it should.

would you agree with this statement?

considered doing this ONCE AGAIN, but waiting before adding the bacteria.

thoughts on this mind set?

 

[brandon429]

there were other ways to verify this cycle other than testing, that's handy to know.

these rules apply as well imo:
- there are no cycle charts from books that take longer than 30 days in water
(printed cycling charts are free and independent from the insult that is collective hobby nondigital ammonia testing + rule determination with the readings)

- there is not one single linkable example in all of reefing, any year from any board from any thread, where a convincing argument can be made that at day 30 of any cycling approach, the tank couldn't carry the intended bioload.

precedent also makes a nice verifier

wait time-based cycling lets reefers focus instead on fish disease since that's where the risk is at

well done here.

this reef is long since cycled. change out the cycling water for new, as much % of water as you can stand to change because a clean start is great, and the cycle was already done a couple weeks ago.

@Dan_P add to my spot-check list: the claim that any shrimp + contact time cycle in a common test system left for 14 days can endure a full water change, then demonstrate fair ammonia control upon retest just like Dr. Reef tested for his giant thread of deposition dates among brands of bottle bac. The nominal ability the surfaces developed for ammonia uptake by day 14 in a common reef tank cycle spread out among the collective degree of rock surface area people typically use per gallon= no problem carrying anyone's fish load by day 14 wait, which is just a mere +2-4 days longer than a printed cycling chart shows for ammonia control drop dates. it may very well happen by day ten, as the books show.

if there was almost no ability at day 14 wait in a shrimp degradation cycle I'd be flabbergasted.

My prediction to be ran through seneye proofing is this arrangement can demonstrate biofilm+filter bacteria establishment on or before day 14 and it will never take longer. that's the closest I can guess having never been seneye fact-checked on the matter.

 

[ScottJ]

I immediately added the nitrifying bacteria at the same time. The thought just occurred to me that I could possibly be neutralizing the ammonia with the bacteria,

This IS the "cycling process"

 

[reef tank 2.0]

did a 60 -70 gallon water change yesterday. testing parameters didn't budge. as others have mentioned, maybe my salifet ammonia test kit is bad. I'm gonna hold off on any more water changes til I get fish in the tank. I'm on week two with my QT fish up and running.

I ordered some pods from Reef by Stele and should be to me by end of week. Since I don't have a fudge set up, I was going to add them to the DT. Then feed them phyto each day after. they will be the only things in the tank, at least until QT is finished.

with these pods being so small, and most not able to be seen.....if my parameters are bad, how long would it take for the pods to belly up? I don't think there is a way for me to tell, is there? I imagine I wouldn't see any of them on the glass or rocks.

and how exactly do you clean the sand bed during water changes with the pods being there, hopefully alive? (I have always cleaned my sand every 1-2 weeks, whenever the water change happens. I have never added pods to my tank before, so this is a first