0 ammonia and 0 nitrites in New tank

EAZi_Coral

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I appologize for my bad english to start with.
So.
I started my tank(2ns hand tank) last wednesday, I had loverocks from the same aquarium, I fully flushed the tank with tap water and cleaned it with sponge, tank sat dry for 24 hours. While liverock was out of the water, I used morter cement to make a rockscape, let the rocks out of water for almost 24 hours if not more, I put the rock in the tank, filled the tank with tap water, barebottom, put 4 pump in the tank and let them run at max in random directions for 2 hours, stopped the pumps, cyphoned out all the debris and 100% of the water, I put my rinsed dry aroganite sand in the tank, filled it with saltwater. I kept the salinity around 1.020 for 2 days, took some water out(around 10 gallons), replaced it with new salt mix with high salinity to bring tank Salinity to 1.024, tank has been running for few days. Skimmer off, I refugium or anything. Just return pump and wavemakers. I've been testing parameters for the past 2 days, ammonia is 0, nitrite is 0, nitrates are around 0.25.
I've also added some fish to the tank immediately, following Dr. Tims advise on keeping ammonia and 5ppm to cycle tank faster with fishes(or that's what I understood from it)
So the question is, did the bacteria in the liverocks survived all this?! Which is why my tank parameters are of a cycled tank, or am I missing something?! Could it take longer for ammonia and nitrite to actually show up?! Note that I've been throwing fish food in the tank from first day I filled it with water. Sorry for the long read, just couldn't find an answer anywhere.

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Impala67

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I would definitely remove those types of fish they get stressed out way to easy and will die with an ammonia spike. What you need to do is buy one Dalmatian molly there the best for cycling tanks keep him in there for two weeks over feed just a little then remove him as well. After that leave your tank alone and let nature take its course if you want even more ammonia put a frozen shrimp in a panty hose and put him in the tank for a month. And there you have it let your tank cycle
 

attiland

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So what is the issue? With dr time you will not see the ammonia only maybe on the first day. It is 0 you are good
I have not seen nitrites wit DR Tim’s ever. It is 0 so you are good.
The fact you have some nitrates means the bacteria works. If you are over 5 days you are cycled anyway.
enjoy your tank and go slow from here. Put your ammonia test away deep inside a drover and set an alert for the expiry date if you don’t want to bin it now. You will never need it again.
buy some decent alkalinity magnesium and calcium tests together nitrate and phosphate test.

My only concern is you have used cement and it has 2 weeks curing time so you have rushed it a bit.
 
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Supa

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True but he used DrTim’s so might killed bacteria but he is fine for nitrifying.
Yes and no. I would say just keep observing. I have heard many times dr.Tim and others alike are inactive or duds. I used dr.Tim too it’s good stuff but there is a chance could been a bottle of dead bacteria. I always think this when I think of living things in a bottle. Lol
 

MnFish1

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I appologize for my bad english to start with.
So.
I started my tank(2ns hand tank) last wednesday, I had loverocks from the same aquarium, I fully flushed the tank with tap water and cleaned it with sponge, tank sat dry for 24 hours. While liverock was out of the water, I used morter cement to make a rockscape, let the rocks out of water for almost 24 hours if not more, I put the rock in the tank, filled the tank with tap water, barebottom, put 4 pump in the tank and let them run at max in random directions for 2 hours, stopped the pumps, cyphoned out all the debris and 100% of the water, I put my rinsed dry aroganite sand in the tank, filled it with saltwater. I kept the salinity around 1.020 for 2 days, took some water out(around 10 gallons), replaced it with new salt mix with high salinity to bring tank Salinity to 1.024, tank has been running for few days. Skimmer off, I refugium or anything. Just return pump and wavemakers. I've been testing parameters for the past 2 days, ammonia is 0, nitrite is 0, nitrates are around 0.25.
I've also added some fish to the tank immediately, following Dr. Tims advise on keeping ammonia and 5ppm to cycle tank faster with fishes(or that's what I understood from it)
So the question is, did the bacteria in the liverocks survived all this?! Which is why my tank parameters are of a cycled tank, or am I missing something?! Could it take longer for ammonia and nitrite to actually show up?! Note that I've been throwing fish food in the tank from first day I filled it with water. Sorry for the long read, just couldn't find an answer anywhere.

Red Sea Reefer 425xl IMG_20210828_170830.jpg
I'm a little concerned with a couple things 1) When you used 'tap water' - does your water have chlorine or chloramines? - or did you treat it with a chemical? 2) you said Dr. Tims recommendation with 5 PPM ammonia - does that mean you added ammonia and Dr. Tims? And then Fish? 3) A lot of issues are coming into play here - Nitrifying bacteria do not necessarily do 'well' if they are dry - and definitely if soaked in chlorinated water. So - there is no way to completely know if your original bacteria were killed or not - my GUESS is that they were not killed completely.

If your tests are accurate - you're good to go. I wouldn't take out the fish. I would leave the rock (nice job) - and consider your tank ready. I would feed perhaps a little less than usual.

I would certainly not add 'extra ammonia' or things like that. If anything, I might re-dose some Dr. Tim's bacteria (WITHOUT ammonia)
 

MnFish1

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Yes and no. I would say just keep observing. I have heard many times dr.Tim and others alike are inactive or duds. I used dr.Tim too it’s good stuff but there is a chance could been a bottle of dead bacteria. I always think this when I think of living things in a bottle. Lol
There have been some fairly good experiments that they are very good at lowering ammonia/nitrite from Day 0. I.e., they are not 'dead bacteria'.
 

Supa

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There have been some fairly good experiments that they are very good at lowering ammonia/nitrite from Day 0. I.e., they are not 'dead bacteria'.
Yea lots of people have great success with it. I cycled my tank with dr.Tim’s…. No it’s not “dead bacteria” so to speak but I have read many times people use dr.Tim’s and other products…. Then see spikes weeks after, but like I mentioned before it works and people use it often and the bottle I used seemed to work great for me.
 

MnFish1

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Yea lots of people have great success with it. I cycled my tank with dr.Tim’s…. No it’s not “dead bacteria” so to speak but I have read many times people use dr.Tim’s and other products…. Then see spikes weeks after, but like I mentioned before it works and people use it often and the bottle I used seemed to work great for me.
One issue might be what they are adding (or what is dying) between the start and 'later on'.
 
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Hi guys, some updates, so after the initial post, I think some of you misunderstood me, when I said Dr. Tim says to keep ammonia around 5 when you're cycling, it was from a video I saw of him talking about secrets of cycling a tank, video was uploaded by BRS if I remember right. I did not use any Dr Tim's bacteria or ammonia source to cycle my tank, I planning to slow cycle the tank by adding fish food daily, but having some bacteria still being alive even after what I out them through, saved me a lot of time, I kept checking ammonia and nitrites for a while, always been zero, double checked with 2 different LFS, still zero.
Tank is doing great!!


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Supa

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Hi guys, some updates, so after the initial post, I think some of you misunderstood me, when I said Dr. Tim says to keep ammonia around 5 when you're cycling, it was from a video I saw of him talking about secrets of cycling a tank, video was uploaded by BRS if I remember right. I did not use any Dr Tim's bacteria or ammonia source to cycle my tank, I planning to slow cycle the tank by adding fish food daily, but having some bacteria still being alive even after what I out them through, saved me a lot of time, I kept checking ammonia and nitrites for a while, always been zero, double checked with 2 different LFS, still zero.
Tank is doing great!!


IMG_20211022_222005.jpg
IMG_20211008_185318.jpg
Yes you have lost us, i re read the Original post. So the question I have is….. did you put fish in then try to keep ammonia at 5? Or do you mean .5 as I’m pretty sure any fish that was in the tank with high levels ammonia was stressed and or hurt……… your tank looks good ….. I will add if you noticed ammonia spike and now test for ammonia and is 0 or .25 with API kit test, then your tank is cycled. Dr Tim products has great videos the only time I’ve seen them say add fish immediately is if you dose their product(I believe the product states on the back of the bottle to add fish immediately after). Anyways nice tank man! Happy reefing
 
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EAZi_Coral

EAZi_Coral

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Yes you have lost us, i re read the Original post. So the question I have is….. did you put fish in then try to keep ammonia at 5? Or do you mean .5 as I’m pretty sure any fish that was in the tank with high levels ammonia was stressed and or hurt……… your tank looks good ….. I will add if you noticed ammonia spike and now test for ammonia and is 0 or .25 with API kit test, then your tank is cycled. Dr Tim products has great videos the only time I’ve seen them say add fish immediately is if you dose their product(I believe the product states on the back of the bottle to add fish immediately after). Anyways nice tank man! Happy reefing
I added the fishes few days after I started the tank, when I noticed ammonia and nitrites were 0 and I had some nitrates, I knew that there would be bacteria still alive in there to keep ammonia and nitrite 0 for 4~5 straight days, so I went ahead and added the fishes, the video is actually of Dr Tim giving a talk about cycling tanks. I kept testing every other day or 3rd after that, ammonia and nitrites were still 0. Now I'm testing phosphates, Nitrates, and alk only, till I start dosing then I'll have to test for cal and mag.
 

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