Another Thread asking about cycling...... Sorry in advance

Jget61

New Member
View Badges
Joined
Feb 10, 2021
Messages
16
Reaction score
8
Location
Orlando
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Hi everyone,

I have a quick quick question that I hope I don't get ripped about. I started my cycle on my 150 gallon aquarium about 5 weeks ago and currently running into a couple of issues. My nitrates and Nitrites aren't coming down. My ammonia is in safe levels. Please see below for specs:

Ro/di TDS 0
Tropic Marin Pro reef salt
170 gallons of dry rock
160lbs of ocean direct live sand
Total water volume is 143 gallons between the tank and sump minus the displacement.
Dosed with a bottle and a half of Aquavitro Seed.

Ammonia is .02
nitrates and nitrites exceed my Tropic Marin test kit.

I'm running dual 4 inch filter socks that were put in post initial 4 week cycle. And I've been a good boy and have swapped them every 3-4 days.

I can list my equipment as well if needed.

---But my main question for anyone is, do I wait it out, water change or what should my next course of action be to help bring the nitrates and nitrites down?

Thank you all in advance and sorry for another cycle question, but I've never had this issue before cycling a tank.

20210605_135426.jpg
 

WVNed

The fish are staring at me with hungry eyes.
View Badges
Joined
Apr 11, 2018
Messages
10,206
Reaction score
43,615
Location
Hurricane, WV
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Nitrates you can change out.

Nitrites require you to wait.

Adding more bacteria like the other half bottle wont hurt a bit
 

PanhandleReef

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 22, 2018
Messages
131
Reaction score
230
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
You should never have to be worried about getting ripped for asking a question.
No need to test your nitrates until your nitrites read zero.
if your nitrites get above 5 ppm you can actually stall your cycle and slow it down so be mindful of that. The bacteria that processes ammonia is faster than that which does nitrites.
you may need to add more bacteria to get your nitrites down to a manageable level if they are off the charts.
 

Dan_P

5000 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 21, 2018
Messages
6,573
Reaction score
7,031
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Hi everyone,

I have a quick quick question that I hope I don't get ripped about. I started my cycle on my 150 gallon aquarium about 5 weeks ago and currently running into a couple of issues. My nitrates and Nitrites aren't coming down. My ammonia is in safe levels. Please see below for specs:

Ro/di TDS 0
Tropic Marin Pro reef salt
170 gallons of dry rock
160lbs of ocean direct live sand
Total water volume is 143 gallons between the tank and sump minus the displacement.
Dosed with a bottle and a half of Aquavitro Seed.

Ammonia is .02
nitrates and nitrites exceed my Tropic Marin test kit.

I'm running dual 4 inch filter socks that were put in post initial 4 week cycle. And I've been a good boy and have swapped them every 3-4 days.

I can list my equipment as well if needed.

---But my main question for anyone is, do I wait it out, water change or what should my next course of action be to help bring the nitrates and nitrites down?

Thank you all in advance and sorry for another cycle question, but I've never had this issue before cycling a tank.

20210605_135426.jpg
@brandon429 might advise you on this.

I found that some bottled bacteria can quickly establish an ammonia oxidation capability very quickly while none that I tested will provide a nitrite oxidation quickly. The latter seems to take a long time. That is why your ammonia level is low and nitrite is high. As for the nitrate, it cannot be measured in a simple way when nitrite is present. You may find that once the nitrite level is very low, the nitrate level will be high and stay there.

By the way, the only time that I see folks get ripped on this forum, and then it is done rather politely, is when they challenge standard practices or dogma with little data to back up their position. Generally, folks on this forum are very helpful and polite.
 
Last edited:
OP
OP
J

Jget61

New Member
View Badges
Joined
Feb 10, 2021
Messages
16
Reaction score
8
Location
Orlando
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
@brandon429 might advise you on this.

I found that some bottled bacteria can quickly establish an ammonia oxidation capability very quickly while none that I tested will provide a nitrite oxidation quickly. The latter seems to take a long time. That is why your ammonia level is low and nitrite is high. As for the nitrate, it cannot be measured in a simple way when nitrite is present. You may find that once the nitrite level is very low, the nitrate level will be high and stay there.

By the way, the only time that I see folks get ripped on this forum, and then it is done rather politely, is when they challenge standard practices or dogma with little data to back up their position. Generally, folks on this forum are very helpful and polite.
You make a very valid point. I've always had great experiences on this forum thus far. I was just worried of "not another cycle thread" lol. I'm also a part of a few motorcycle forums which are the exact opposite of reef2reef. It's like the wild wild west! So I do apologize for that assumption.
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
View Badges
Joined
Dec 9, 2014
Messages
29,493
Reaction score
23,573
Location
tejas
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Ive been guilty of jerk moding but my blood sugar is ok now heh


really though in my opinion this tank was ready for use about four weeks ago



we keep compiling cycles exactly like this one in pattern threads for going on years now and they all carry a fish bioload the same, starting four weeks ago here or waiting another four for perfect three parameter compliance.


in my opinion it comes down to this:

option one: use antiquated cycling rules that keep us on the retail fear purchase mode, no cycle can have a set start date they all vary up to five months per api lol

or

optn 2: use updated cycling science that allows reef conventions to always start on time and nobody needs to show up six weeks early. It’s that simple of a choice, both methods keep fish and corals as long as we want to keep em.




Ike’s one day dry start tank below that is still running is a great example. That’s one day in duration, we are at six weeks here.
In my opinion it doesn’t matter that different brands of bac are used, we tracked fish in cycles with seneye across many brands and they all controlled ammonia if the bottle wasn’t shipped dead. After six weeks, even a reef that started with dead bac is ready/ the unassisted reef cycle timeline has been discovered and documented as well.

this reef tank today can begin reefing now because they’re past both the unassisted cycle timeline and the assisted one, we need to get reefing here :)


the cycle threads I run omit all testing and consideration for both nitrite and nitrate, and so do reef convention cyclers. If we ever lose a starting bioload to a bad cycle call I’ll stop cycling that way. If we get one single outlier event in the next ten years I’ll stop doing it that way. Track out any cycling thread for fish disease challenges, regardless of cycle duration.

the hidden secret is fish disease kills nearly all these initial bioloads.
 
Last edited:

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
View Badges
Joined
Dec 9, 2014
Messages
29,493
Reaction score
23,573
Location
tejas
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Also pertinent: I do believe some bottles are killed or mostly killed due to shipping issues, it’s been tested before using digital and non digital kits. We like to advise ammonia movement proof ability before adding bioload, but even above that we still have thousands of cycles on file where they didn’t test and to this day I can’t locate one single failed reef tank cycle such that new bioload didn’t feed and swim as normal compared to the most carefully dosed and tested four month BRS cycle.

in the cases where we may have lucked into a testless cycle I feel the overall dilutions we see factored against two common small clownfish + whatever portions of the inoculant weren’t totally dead still got the job done. all the consequence implied to us over the last 20 years of cycle training has not panned out, I cannot locate a true stopped cycle thread on the internet shown using convincing test means. Every haphazard cycle I’ve ever seen carried it’s original intended bioload, I’ve never seen an outlier and with animals this sensitive that’s an astounding pattern. Burnt, harmed, bad cycle- injured clownfish don’t just feed normally and swim normally every day….a stalled cycle kills it’s inhabitants as if we put them in a paint bucket with dry rocks and saltwater but no time nor feeding for a cycle. That test bucket setup won’t get past 48 hours before total wipeout after that first feeding




yet all stalled cycle posts are well beyond 48 hours, fed multiple times… heck nearly all are even older than a cycling chart which works so reliably our wastewater treatment plants in every city run off them. Only reef aquarists struggle in creating bacteria in water, not any other industry struggles with that :)


see how all our training makes us buyers by excluding the big picture? They tried to narrow us down to one species of nitrogen as the swing vote, and that conveniently causes buyers to hesitate and click buy for a reinforcement.

stalled cycle posts are usually api and red sea posts, a measured param issue not a lack of ability to run normally each day issue. That’s a stand out pattern as well.


I posit that since api is all we have for hobby nitrite data, only .25% of respondents are posting accurate data. <—- a reef joke

i love how in the hobby since api makes the sole tester for 100% of the nitrite data used in cycling, we all automatically accepted it as a real accurate test for the average user. Just like the api ammonia is known to be not a problem for the average tester ~
 
Last edited:
Back
Top