Bacterial bloom few weeks into cycling

[brandon429]

Is the starfish still alive here

 

[motortrendz]

What size tank?

About 100 gallons. There's dosing chart on the bottle

 

[Deep dive coral]

About 100 gallons. There's dosing chart on the bottle

Nice. As long as you follow you will be good.

 

[RevMH]

Welcome to R2R. And, to reefing. Yay! Looks pretty normal so far, we all go through an ugly start.

 

[Chefnate]

Is the starfish still alive here
[/QUOTE
Negative

 

[Chefnate]

Nice. As long as you follow you will be good.

Hi all, just a heads up, I’ve done water changes and added bacteria, my levels on all ammonia nitrites and nitrates are through the roof..... suggestions? Just want to know if that’s normal or if I have major problems. I know I added too much too soon and lesson has been learnt

 

[brandon429]

You have a very, very simple cycle going here it's not misbehaving, mis reading and test issues are happening and your cycle is done. Proving that takes a few posts is that starfish still alive is first in a series of proofs not using false test readings. Three more proofs are coming after linkia verif

No linkia can survive the slightest sustained free ammonia, you never had any if he's alive per the thread. Biological proofs vs API and badge tests.

I guarantee your tank is cycled we have covered your testing issue page one here

The microbiology of reef tank cycling.

You can skip your cycle. Ive been reefing online for twenty years and have never waited one second for a tank to cycle, because I buy rocks that are already cycled and move them home. Here's two: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/octo-high-end-sps-skip-cycle-build.713256/...

www.reef2reef.com

Now that nitrite and nitrate are removed from your tank assessment, we focus only on ammonia and number of days the tank has had water to call the cycle done. The bac bloom w fade if we quit dosing items and wait, also, must consider if unrinsed sand is causing the bloom it's not always a cycle issue

If Prime or any form of water conditioner has been added, that makes all titration testing invalid. If it hasn't been added, simple misreads we show for nitrite are next up in line, we linked about five examples of nitrite misreads on page one as well.

The thesis of that works thread is we can cycle any reef using no tests only pure biology and we are doing that currently with zero losses

 

[Chefnate]

You have a very, very simple cycle going here it's not misbehaving, mis reading and test issues are happening and your cycle is done. Proving that takes a few posts is that starfish still alive is first in a series of proofs not using false test readings. Three more proofs are coming after linkia verif

I guarantee your tank is cycled we have covered your testing issue page one here

The microbiology of reef tank cycling.

You can skip your cycle. Ive been reefing online for twenty years and have never waited one second for a tank to cycle, because I buy rocks that are already cycled and move them home. Here's two: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/octo-high-end-sps-skip-cycle-build.713256/...

www.reef2reef.com

Now that nitrite and nitrate are removed from your tank assessment, we focus only on ammonia and number of days the tank has had water to call the cycle done. The bac bloom w fade if we quit dosing items and wait, also, must consider if unrinsed sand is causing the bloom it's not always a cycle issue

You have a very, very simple cycle going here it's not misbehaving, mis reading and test issues are happening and your cycle is done. Proving that takes a few posts is that starfish still alive is first in a series of proofs not using false test readings. Three more proofs are coming after linkia verif

No linkia can survive the slightest sustained free ammonia, you never had any if he's alive per the thread. Biological proofs vs API and badge tests.

I guarantee your tank is cycled we have covered your testing issue page one here

The microbiology of reef tank cycling.

You can skip your cycle. Ive been reefing online for twenty years and have never waited one second for a tank to cycle, because I buy rocks that are already cycled and move them home. Here's two: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/octo-high-end-sps-skip-cycle-build.713256/...

www.reef2reef.com

Now that nitrite and nitrate are removed from your tank assessment, we focus only on ammonia and number of days the tank has had water to call the cycle done. The bac bloom w fade if we quit dosing items and wait, also, must consider if unrinsed sand is causing the bloom it's not always a cycle issue

Starfish is not alive. My water is clear, have diatoms and algae building. My current status is that all ammonia nitrites and nitrates are showing very high.

Sorry perhaps I’ve not understood what your saying . My cycle is done and I have incorrect readings??

 

[brandon429]

If he's dead then a spike did occur and that has passed bc ammonia cannot hold a constant level after this much time underwater. Presence of nitrate at all indicates bacteria too

Was any water conditioner like Prime used in the prep or in response to test levels here

For sure you have misreads like our examples. The fact you have now growths in the system further indicates being ready, as nitrifying bacteria are always deposited and built up long before plants and secondary colonial organisms can grow. If your tank was mine I would simply change out water and begin with light coral loading and be removing those growths in maintenance so they don't take over, you are past cycling and into tank cleaning phase to stop uglies now

If you can't change all the water then change what you can, wait until it clears up, then begin lightly. Post an updated pic from today when lights come on

The only test that matters now is ammonia but even that misreads unless you are using digital seneye monitor, so we can assess ammonia without the cheap test no prob. We would simply locate the source for the ammonia, it's something dead or the ammonia has been directly dosed. When is the last time you added ammonia here, and are there any other animals here in tank

 

[Chefnate]

If he's dead then a spike did occur and that has passed bc ammonia cannot hold a constant level after this much time underwater. Presence of nitrate at all indicates bacteria too

Was any water conditioner like Prime used in the prep or in response to test levels here

For sure you have misreads like our examples. The fact you have now growths in the system further indicates being ready, as nitrifying bacteria are always deposited and built up long before plants and secondary colonial organisms can grow. If your tank was mine I would simply change out water and begin with light coral loading and be removing those growths in maintenance so they don't take over, you are past cycling and into tank cleaning phase to stop uglies now

If you can't change all the water then change what you can, wait until it clears up, then begin lightly. Post an updated pic from today when lights come on

The only test that matters now is ammonia but even that misreads unless you are using digital seneye monitor, so we can assess ammonia without the cheap test no prob.

Yes I used prime. So the other morning my tank looks like this

 

[Chefnate]

Yes I used prime. So the other morning my tank looks like this

I will take pictures tomorrow morning

 

[brandon429]

Hey that is great those pictures show 100% cycle complete those rocks are full of bac. Prime caused all the test issues we now have another entry for the cycle ump section on page one with ten others. No cycle stalls, ever, when sand and rocks are used.

However you want to deal with the algae is subjective, we are done with cycling. To lessen algae growth turn down white intensity and up the blues, take out rocks and scrape pick the algae off with a steak knife tip and debride the plants off it, rinse off and put back. After breaking ranks with the masses on what completes a cycle, we can then break ranks with them telling us to let our rocks fill with algae, then we'll have a cycled clean reef

 

[Chefnate]

When you say deal with algae? What do you mean? Vac sand, clean glass and scrape rock,??

How does prime affect readings? Especially all that high? Just don’t wanna out stuff in for it all to die

 

[Chefnate]

Oh

When you say deal with algae? What do you mean? Vac sand, clean glass and scrape rock,??

How does prime affect readings? Especially all that high? Just don’t wanna out stuff in for it all to die

there are still two hermit crabs live and kicking. Forgot they were in there, they blend in well as the have algae on their shells

 

[brandon429]

Gotta read page one of the linked thread above for misread examples and explanation. This one below is for algae options

Regarding algae, see this but it’s not required. You can keep the algae if you want

Reef2Reef Pest algae challenge thread hydrogen peroxide

What you are really in for: Hand cleaning, hard work siphon and rasp-removing of accumulations and invasions outside the tank and doing massive water changes is 90% of this thread, peroxide is 10%. We almost never dose peroxide into the tank water, this is a you-work-physically-hard as catch-up...

www.reef2reef.com

Two threads with two hundred live tank examples to change the course of your tank, and money about to be spent. The price is a one hour read you have a nice reef it will do great

 

[motortrendz]

The tank looks fine. Clear and has a post cycle diatoms on the sand and rocks. It's normal. Means the cycle finished up. The agae on the rocks you can do 2 things, let it ride out, pull the rocks and scrape them off (right away while its still wet) and put it back in. That's a personal choice. Your testing is being either done wrong or like thread previously, the adding of so many things like prime will affect the readings. Do a water change and again... relax and enjoy the tank. Ita supposed to be relaxing an peaceful. Not make you pull your hair out.

 

[brandon429]

I read in a prior post the prime doesn’t remove ammonia it binds it up safely then still indicates as free ammonia though it’s not free any more after binding by prime

One use of it makes the titration testing off, though it’s a great product for safety. Just messes w readings and sends us on goose chases.

 

[brandon429]

The old information about testing for nitrate nitrite and ammonia simply doesn’t account for adulterants nor misreads, so we have to quit using that way if we want consistency. Just like sandbeds, what was the rule in the nineties vs now about sandbeds? (Keeping detritus vs cleaning it out / no sandbed option setups)

Cycling evolved too but nobody made the updated articles lol we’re still on 1978 cycling advice, using faulty gear, so it rarely works accurately.

to make sense of the cycle here we can apply visual biology cycling 2019 using known submersion time frames for substrate + benthic life presence, which is reliable and free and observes natural order of operations from nature. Bacteria are the first to come, last to go, and toughest communal organisms we keep

Cycles never stall out, that’s a notion invented solely by api testing. The only factor needed to know if a set of rocks are cycled is how long they’ve been underwater. If we must test, ammonia is all that matters, and how you wield that test kit matters...they have to be calibrated for true zero before a non digital ammonia tester can be used accurately among ten people for example

 

[Chefnate]

So whT

The old information about testing for nitrate nitrite and ammonia simply doesn’t account for adulterants nor misreads, so we have to quit using that way if we want consistency. Just like sandbeds, what was the rule in the nineties vs now about sandbeds? (Keeping detritus vs cleaning it out / no sandbed option setups)

Cycling evolved too but nobody made the updated articles lol we’re still on 1978 cycling advice, using faulty gear, so it rarely works accurately.

to make sense of the cycle here we can apply visual biology cycling 2019 using known submersion time frames for substrate + benthic life presence, which is reliable and free and observes natural order of operations from nature. Bacteria are the first to come, last to go, and toughest communal organisms we keep

Cycles never stall out, that’s a notion invented solely by api testing. The only factor needed to know if a set of rocks are cycled is how long they’ve been underwater. If we must test, ammonia is all that matters, and how you wield that test kit matters...they have to be calibrated for true zero before a non digital ammonia tester can be used accurately among ten people for example

so what sort of corals should I be looking at? Can I add some cuc too or just corals first?

 

[motortrendz]

I'd start with cuc. And maybe a small fish. I personally dont like adding corals for the first few months of running a new tank.