.5 ammonia .5 nitrite and 5 nitrate after 19 days

[FishPureLuck]

Like the title says, I have .5 ammonia .5 nitrite and 5 nitrates tested with API master kit. I'm only using that kit during cycle, I have salifert master reef kit and a few hannas coming for everything else. The tank was set up on 8/15/22 and I used aquavitro seed to start the tank. I used a bag of CaribSea live sand and CaribSea south seas base rock. There are 2 small ocellaris clowns and 10 blue leg hermits. The fish and crabs only went in because a friends tank crashed and they took it down. The clowns were in bad shape with tattered fins when I got them "4 days after setup", and now they are all healed up and looking good. They eat and swim around normally. This isn't my first reef tank, I previously had a 300 gallon all SPS tank. It was set up for 15 years and had basketball sized colonies in it. I took it down due to travelling for work and I couldn't care for it properly. Every tank that I've done "probably 20 over the last 30 years" have been started with mature live rock, so I didn't really have to worry about cycling. Does this look right, I'm hoping that I'm doing it correctly. I didn't want to add the fish and crabs, but I really had no choice. The parameters looked low enough that I didn't think that it would be a huge issue. I also added a bag of matrix that was sitting in a friends sump for a year or so, so I think that it's helping with the cycle. It's my first time with dry rock, any comments good or bad are welcome. Thanks, Jeff

​

 

[brandon429]

There are millions of successful fish-in cycles online, I expect this result. The bac made sure your fish were fine on day one, as so many have done for various reasons. The nitrite doesn’t matter, we don’t care about it in updated cycling science due to what Randy wrote about it, and the ammonia your kit approximates is ten times less than the .5 reading when converted to nh3 which is the form of ammonia we care about in reefing, Randy points out.


A large, large portion of testers in full running reefs report those same numbers using that kit, your cycle is fine or the tank would be dead now.

 

[Garf]

Like the title says, I have .5 ammonia .5 nitrite and 5 nitrates tested with API master kit. I'm only using that kit during cycle, I have salifert master reef kit and a few hannas coming for everything else. The tank was set up on 8/15/22 and I used aquavitro seed to start the tank. I used a bag of CaribSea live sand and CaribSea south seas base rock. There are 2 small ocellaris clowns and 10 blue leg hermits. The fish and crabs only went in because a friends tank crashed and they took it down. The clowns were in bad shape with tattered fins when I got them "4 days after setup", and now they are all healed up and looking good. They eat and swim around normally. This isn't my first reef tank, I previously had a 300 gallon all SPS tank. It was set up for 15 years and had basketball sized colonies in it. I took it down due to travelling for work and I couldn't care for it properly. Every tank that I've done "probably 20 over the last 30 years" have been started with mature live rock, so I didn't really have to worry about cycling. Does this look right, I'm hoping that I'm doing it correctly. I didn't want to add the fish and crabs, but I really had no choice. The parameters looked low enough that I didn't think that it would be a huge issue. I also added a bag of matrix that was sitting in a friends sump for a year or so, so I think that it's helping with the cycle. It's my first time with dry rock, any comments good or bad are welcome. Thanks, Jeff

​

I think you’ll find the ammonia and nitrite will drop Quite quickly, that bag of matrix may take a few days to ramp up with the other mitigation’s you’ve put in place. Nitrite needs to be undetectable before your nitrate test will make any sense as the nitrite interferes with the nitrate test.

 

[FishPureLuck]

There are millions of successful fish-in cycles online, I expect this result. The bac made sure your fish were fine on day one, as so many have done for various reasons. The nitrite doesn’t matter, we don’t care about it in updated cycling science due to what Randy wrote about it, and the ammonia your kit approximates is ten times less than the .5 reading when converted to nh3 which is the form of ammonia we care about in reefing, Randy points out.


A large, large portion of testers in full running reefs report those same numbers using that kit, your cycle is fine or the tank would be dead now.

So you're saying the cycle is done?

 

[FishPureLuck]

I think you’ll find the ammonia and nitrite will drop Quite quickly, that bag of matrix may take a few days to ramp up with the other mitigation’s you’ve put in place. Nitrite needs to be undetectable before your nitrate test will make any sense as the nitrite interferes with the nitrate test.

Brandon429 said that I shouldn't worry about nitrite, but you say it has to be gone before nitrate will make sense. I've cycled freshwater tanks with ammonia and watched nitrites go up, but before the nitrites went all of the way down, the nitrates shot up. Is salt the same? Like I said, this is my first time starting a salt aquarium without live rock, so I'm not sure what to expect. Thanks, Jeff

 

[Garf]

Brandon429 said that I shouldn't worry about nitrite, but you say it has to be gone before nitrate will make sense. I've cycled freshwater tanks with ammonia and watched nitrites go up, but before the nitrites went all of the way down, the nitrates shot up. Is salt the same? Like I said, this is my first time starting a salt aquarium without live rock, so I'm not sure what to expect. Thanks, Jeff

Yeah, same. Not all the nitrate kits act the same way though, some higher, some a lot higher. Nitrite itself is harmless at these levels in saltwater, not like freshwater in that regard. API nitrate test is a bit “iffy” for me but any time I’ve played with the ammonia and nitrite ones, they have been predictable.

 

[brandon429]

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

that thread has some useful data in it because its a collection of tanks just like yours, and we don't use test kits to keep the fish alive.

reason why: people bicker over what test kits read, and at page 38 we aren't losing fish so that testless method can't be all fail.

we have a 100% retention rate in fact, off these variables:

has the tank and rock stack had water in it for more than ten days

was a common cycling bottle bac used

if answer is yes, then we deem the cycle complete because it carries all those animals on file. You can see folks offer test kit pics anyway, though I nicely unfactor them in nearly every post and revert back to bioload carry ability (which your tank has) and # of days underwater with bac (which your tank has)

it sounds strange to eschew test kit readings in reefings I'm aware. but we did it because on a common cycling chart, ammonia drop happens at day ten. that's an X Y axis chart, a cycling chart, that allows you to solve for a parameter off the # of days axis just the same as you can read a param's level and chart up the # of days the tank had likely been running from the start. nobody can argue about a number of days count, they argue over shades of green in the api readout. ten days is objective, greenish yellow is subjective and causes frenemies.


that thread above is a test of the ten day window on a bazillion cycling charts, looks like the charts are good because everyone's fish lived, and a few seneye spot checks in there carefully logged nh3 in the thousandths ppm, a known safe zone.

bottle bac plus ten days plus ability to carry life the whole time are the signs of a cycled tank.

a not cycled tank crashes and dies in 48 hours because it can't filter waste, and marine animals won't tolerate that.

as long as outcomes stay this tight above we're not going to care about anyone's test kit, at any time, but we accept seneye audits heartily at any moment, please do.

 

[brandon429]

agreed on nitrite affecting nitrate reads

It wouldnt ever matter to me because I wouldnt recommend measuring or reacting to nitrate for the first six months anyway. in new reef tank cycles we need to be applying Jays disease preps, manually guiding out new tank uglies, feeding more than you planned to and changing water more than you planned to.

a busy, active phase vs sit back and let X invade it 100% is the plan. test kits for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate simply don't factor in that busy plan. on month 6, buy and calibrate a hanna digital no3 checker, then go to town all you want. nitrites are always compliant by month 6, any cycling chart shows