I set my tank up, (90 gal with 20 gal sump) about 3 months ago. To start my cycle I bought 96 oz of Fritz zyme 900 which is equivalent to 120 gallons of water and poured it in. The expiration date was not anywhere near when I poured it. As far as I know the bacteria has been taken care of in the bottle before I purchased it.
When I first dosed ammonia I overdid it and it was reading around 8 ppm because the doctor Tim's ammonia bottle is severely off. Over time I got it to go down to almost zero but have yet to read zero. It stays around 0.25
I was having ammonia issues up for about 2 months and I finally began to see some algae growing. Very little amounts but growing.
2 months in i noticed my tank had a slight crack in it from Manufacturing. I mean very slight. So I have the tank rma'd and I got the tank replaced in about 2 weeks. The entire time my rock work has stayed underwater. Even during the transferring process.
Cut to a month later, just to be safe I purchase 60 gallons worth of dr. Tims one and only and poured it in. Now I have been having ammonia issues where I have yet to read zero it will take about two days for 1 ppm of ammonia to break down into niTRITE. Although I'm always reading 0 NITRITE.
At this point I have poured in about 180 gallons worth of bacteria and I'm still having trouble with ammonia.
I have turned off all flow when I first poured it in. My skimmer has been off and removed from the tank, and when I first poured it, I had removed the filter sock.
My current tank is standing at:
Ammonia: .25
niTRITE 0
niTRATE: can't read until ammonia is gone
pH: 8.0
Using red sea coral pro salt
Rodi water
No fish no inverts
I will attach pictures as well.
When I first dosed ammonia I overdid it and it was reading around 8 ppm because the doctor Tim's ammonia bottle is severely off. Over time I got it to go down to almost zero but have yet to read zero. It stays around 0.25
I was having ammonia issues up for about 2 months and I finally began to see some algae growing. Very little amounts but growing.
2 months in i noticed my tank had a slight crack in it from Manufacturing. I mean very slight. So I have the tank rma'd and I got the tank replaced in about 2 weeks. The entire time my rock work has stayed underwater. Even during the transferring process.
Cut to a month later, just to be safe I purchase 60 gallons worth of dr. Tims one and only and poured it in. Now I have been having ammonia issues where I have yet to read zero it will take about two days for 1 ppm of ammonia to break down into niTRITE. Although I'm always reading 0 NITRITE.
At this point I have poured in about 180 gallons worth of bacteria and I'm still having trouble with ammonia.
I have turned off all flow when I first poured it in. My skimmer has been off and removed from the tank, and when I first poured it, I had removed the filter sock.
My current tank is standing at:
Ammonia: .25
niTRITE 0
niTRATE: can't read until ammonia is gone
pH: 8.0
Using red sea coral pro salt
Rodi water
No fish no inverts
I will attach pictures as well.