Am I cycled?

[reefscrub_]

Hello everyone. Started a reef tank exactly 2 weeks ago. I used 2 pieces of ruble rock that were cooking in a dark area of the sump of my LFS grow out tank. Guy said the bottom pieces were there 6 months or so. They looked mature and pest free. I have a 20 gallon cube bare bottom, 20 lbs of rock.

Anyway to this day I haven’t had a single trace of nitrite in the tank, it went straight to nitrate. Today I have a reading of 10ppm nitrate per salifert. My nitrite is 0. But my ammonia is reading about .25 ppm using api.

I noticed that the api gives a reading even when there’s the slightest amount of ammonium present. Basically .25 is the lowest the test can read and anything above absolute zero will register as .25. My ammonia went down pretty fast from 2ppm to .25 over the course of 2 days after I dosed a tiny bit of phosphate.(thought maybe the bacteria was phosphate limited) but I can’t seem to get it lower than .25

I will also add that I’m supposed to pick up my pair of harlequin shrimp on Monday from my lfs. I don’t want any fish, just a pair of halequins and coral.

Here’s a pic of my ammonia reading. I know harlequin are very sensitive to ammonia, so I’m not sure how to proceed. I feel like if I wait another week my reading will probably still be .25, but I also don’t want to kill my harlequins.

Thoughts?

 

[KQuillan]

How did you cycle? Did you ghost feed, add bacteria? I don't think two weeks is enough, but I know others with know more can answer better.

 

[KQuillan]

@Miami Reef ?

 

[reefscrub_]

How did you cycle? Did you ghost feed, add bacteria? I don't think two weeks is enough, but I know others with know more can answer better.

Hello! So I did the rubble rock pieces, microbacter start xlm, microbacter 7 every day twice a day, fritz zyme 9 - 16 oz bottle.

I used dr tims ammonium chloride for ammonia source, to 2ppm (I used 75 drops). One week later I dosed another 50 drops. That’s how I knew it was cycling because it went from 2ppm to .25 in two days and my nitrate went up. But like I said 0 nitrite the whole time.

 

[Miami Reef]

It takes over 8ppm total ammonia to kill fish.

0.25ppm, even if real, is completely safe.

Your tank is cycled. :)

 

[reefscrub_]

It takes over 8ppm total ammonia to kill fish.

0.25ppm, even if real, is completely safe.

Your tank is cycled. :)

Thank you!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Agreed. The drop from 2 ppm to anything at 0.5 ppm or less is cycled.

 

[reefscrub_]

For those who will read this thread and think we’re full of sh… These are my harlequin shrimp, 48 hours in. Reading .25 ammonia per api. They’re healthy and eating the chocolate chip. Nothing has died.