40 gal cycling question

[RecSeven]

I started to cycle a 40 gal breeder 2 weeks ago today. I have been ghost feeding and dosing microbacter7 per the directions for those two weeks. For the last week, I have been getting the same results on my water tests. I am wondering if this is part of the process or if I need to be doing something else to get it over the hump.

Ammonia - .50
Nitrite - .25
Nitrate - Between 5-10

Open to any and all suggestions. Thanks

 

[Subsea]

Welcome to r2r. Is this your first marine tank? Please better describe your ghost feeding regime.

With those numbers, you should have discontinued ghost feeding. Did ammonia drop after discontinuing ghost feeding.

 

[RecSeven]

I have a 10 gallon tank at the moment with only a shrimp. The first week I was ghost feeding what I planned to be my normal feeding schedule. This last week I have ghost fed two times. I have not noticed ammonia dropping, it has been the same readings every time. I will discontinue ghost feeding though.

 

[RecSeven]

Since my last post, I just left the tank alone to cycle. I did a water test last night and I think I'm going backwards. Has my cycle stalled?

Ammonia - 1.0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0

 

[Sebastiancrab]

What is ghost feeding? Your ammonia should be zero to be cycled. Suggest you purchase better ammonia and nitrate test kits such as Salifert or Hanna. API will always give .25 for ammonia reading. I put in a pinch of flake food every day for two weeks.

 

[RecSeven]

Ghost feeding is just what you described. I did the same thing but now my nitrites and nitrates have disappeared.

 

[brandon429]

Your cycle is done, not stalled. It’s been done a while now.

How to unstick any seemingly stuck cycle

non digital ammonia test kit readings (api, Red Sea, nyos, seachem badges) make you think you aren’t cycled when indeed you are if you owned a $200 expensive seneye meter, you’d never be doubting your cycle status. since .01% of the reefing population owns these, we need a way to help the...

www.reef2reef.com

read just post #1.

 

[brandon429]

Your specific actions are now to do a full water change to export the rotting food which is algae fuel, and to study fish disease preps, concern no more over ammonia and don’t factor those test kits in any way for your cycle.

post #1 guides that entire 34 page work thread on identifying false stuck cycles. You’re well past day ten wait time. You didn’t provide the type of cycle that gets a strong up/down ammonia phase, yours was a wait time cycle, and you’ve waited plenty.

 

[RecSeven]

Thanks so much Brandon. Still trying to figure out how to search and navigate the site for answers. Thanks for providing the link!

 

[brandon429]

Here’s the specific match to your type of cycle

this thread is specifically a wait time cycle like yours, no testing factored, and you can see in eight pages he graduates the nano into an upgrade worth $$

he never got an ammonia spike either, if he did we wouldn’t know because he did testless cycling / counting the number of days instead but what we are doing comes from a cycling chart. Basic ammonia control by day ten. The other params don’t matter, in updated cycling science we only work with ammonia prediction.

thirty day cycle, feed only, no bottle bac (your use of bottle bac was extra assurance it’s all done)

Build Thread - My SPS Waterbox Peninsula Mini 15

Hi all. Long time member (I think I joined right around when R2R started or took off years ago) but got out of the hobby for about 6 years and now I am back! I don't see many build threads for the PM 15 (mostly the 25) so thought I'd share my journey here. This post will be a bit behind...

www.reef2reef.com

because he was done in thirty days off feed alone, you are done in thirty days off feed + bottle bac. The compound event can’t be not cycled.


your thread closes out another testless reef cycling thread. A man who is about to give a speech at macna says that can’t be done. Right up there is another. Looks like we are breaking rules/ worth mentioning because not all things found in reef forums are junk. Published scientists aren’t finding all the fun stuff, we can too.

 

[brandon429]

Rec


you can see in our testless cycling thread we do careful acclimation of fish as next step

don’t buy fish from a place that’s keeping them at .019 to suppress disease = 90% of sources. Take your salinity tester and test their water.
buy fish from a place that keeps them at .023 ish ideally



If it’s low and you can’t have another fish source, bring your receiving tank salinity down to match since there’s nothing in it

add the fish


bring up to reef salinity slowly over several days

do not bag acclimate

once fish are in your reef after the water change, salinity factored, you’ll be up and running and we can add your happy fish as another proof close.

only cycled reefs keep fish alive, uncycled reefs can’t

the post above in the link about stuck cycles is all happy fish because everyone who posted there was already cycled when they posted


acclimation stress and disease are your next to items to watch out for

post a tank pic here so we can see your surface area that’s been stewing a month

 

[RecSeven]

Rec


you can see in our testless cycling thread we do careful acclimation of fish as next step

don’t buy fish from a place that’s keeping them at .019 to suppress disease = 90% of sources. Take your salinity tester and test their water.
buy fish from a place that keeps them at .023 ish ideally



If it’s low and you can’t have another fish source, bring your receiving tank salinity down to match since there’s nothing in it

add the fish


bring up to reef salinity slowly over several days

do not bag acclimate

once fish are in your reef after the water change, salinity factored, you’ll be up and running and we can add your happy fish as another proof close.

only cycled reefs keep fish alive, uncycled reefs can’t

the post above in the link about stuck cycles is all happy fish because everyone who posted there was already cycled when they posted


acclimation stress and disease are your next to items to watch out for

post a tank pic here so we can see your surface area that’s been stewing a month

Here's a pic of my tank. It's a 40 gallon with a little over 20 lbs of limestone rock.

 

[brandon429]

Here’s the plan

you are into reefing choices

any way of fifteen varying ways can now run the tank. Adding fish now is almost a certain disease loss in eight months, even though after the water change the tank could carry the common clownfish folks add at the start.

it’s not limited on ability to carry corals, or a basic fish load after the cleanup water change but your best bet is to read, select and apply a disease protocol from jays forum before you add fish

the thread above from how aboutme directly shows how to mature our white rock systems into reefs. His thread provides a roadmap you could consult easily. Variation from that method produces unknown results, following his path likely produces similar results

here is the pic: