Brute Container Cure/Cycle? Maybe

[teamfreddy]

After about 10+ years revisiting salt water again.

I think my Brute container has Cycled/Cured not really seeing a real Ammonia or Nitrite Spike and Nitrates haven’t really gotten too high but two weeks in I did a water change for sanity.

Brute Container has 15 Gallons of water, ~15 lbs of what was dry rock from a tank that was torn down. The rock was pretty clean but I figured I’d put it in the Brute container add an dr Tim’s ammonia and some Dr Tim’s waste away as an extra safety measure to clean the rock before I setup the display tank.

I’ve seen some post from Brandon429 post about testless cycle which has me wonder if I speed through the cycle using dry rock from a torn down tank, if adding ammonia and waste away really sped things up or if I haven’t seen the spike yet.

Quick summary below. Let me k ow what your thoughts are.

March 4th
started with fresh RODI and Salt
dry rock
Added 3 caps full of waste away
Added 15 gallons worth of Ammonia drops = 2ppm

March 6th
Highest Ammonia reading 0.15 (Salifert Test Kit)

March 10th
Highest Nitrite reading 2.5 (Salifert Test Kit)

March 17th
Highest Nitrate 2.5 (Salifert Test Kit) followed by a water change.

A part of me thinks I’m cycled/cured … figured I’d ask. I am still about a month out before I setup.

Either way TIA

 

[Jekyl]

If showing nitrate then the cycle has been completed. Still take things slow at the start.

 

[slingfox]

Assuming the rocks are not exposed to light you will likely have to nuisance algae which may be a good or bad thing. If you want to get the rocks extra clean you may want to scrub them now or before adding them to you tank. For rock scrubbing I use the Rubbermaid electronic grout brush (sold on Amazon). It is waterproof, powerful, and is much less laborious to use than a toothbrush or small manual brush.

Have you considered shining a light into the bucket? This would be akin to running an empty tank with some lights on. Some people do that for months before adding any livestock. I believe BRS did this with some of its tanks in its new 52 week tank build series.

 

[brandon429]

Hey thanks for posting

Waste away isn’t what we use for cycling but it might work.


I’ve never seen anyone cycle with it.

Testless cycling has a time/wait factor compared to the ammonia line from a common cycling chart (10-12 days) using bacterial sources we’ve already verified in tested cycles. You’ve met the timeline for sure but since the inoculation source is unknown in practice what I would do is add one pinch of finely ground up fish food to a small cup of water, stir it in good then add to the setup. Wait ten more days then it will pass being able to carry bioload

Reason I feel this customized approach will work:

you’ll be at twice the calculated wait time by then, fish food brings on powerful initial strains of bacteria that remove ammonia and this will be in addition to the minute bacterial slicks already in place from the rehydrated organics / complexes from used rock and the feed/bac already in place, though we haven’t cycled with that type of bacteria before.

That kind of bac is for cleaning tanks, and it didn’t work at all when tested for getting cleaner tanks. But since it’s a liquid, from a bac maker, it’s not a stretch to think it has some bacteria in it

Testless cycling came about to handle the confusion created by the use of non-seneye testers in tank cycles. Misreads are so common and expected, they create outcomes ranging 3 weeks to 90 days in some tanks using the old cycling science ruleset of believe any test kit, have zero ammonia, zero nitrite and some nitrate to be ready.


Given the fact that every seneye cycle I’ve ever seen using one of the common bac mixes + some ammonia and ten days was completed, it’s a fine bet outcome for others when they copy the exact same setup just minus the seneye to prove readiness. We don’t need the kit ran on every tank when the setup conditions are repeated each time

 

[teamfreddy]

If showing nitrate then the cycle has been completed. Still take things slow at the start.

I was thinking this as well. Definitely taking it slow the DT is going into my office which is still about a month out from being ready. In the meantime I’m collecting parts.

 

[teamfreddy]

Assuming the rocks are not exposed to light you will likely have to nuisance algae which may be a good or bad thing. If you want to get the rocks extra clean you may want to scrub them now or before adding them to you tank. For rock scrubbing I use the Rubbermaid electronic grout brush (sold on Amazon). It is waterproof, powerful, and is much less laborious to use than a toothbrush or small manual brush.

Have you considered shining a light into the bucket? This would be akin to running an empty tank with some lights on. Some people do that for months before adding any livestock. I believe BRS did this with some of its tanks in its new 52 week tank build series.

The rock is not exposed to any light and was pretty clean to start with but also know that doesn’t mean much. I’ll take a peek at the scrubber.

 

[teamfreddy]

Hey thanks for posting

Waste away isn’t what we use for cycling but it might work.


I’ve never seen anyone cycle with it.

Testless cycling has a time/wait factor compared to the ammonia line from a common cycling chart (10-12 days) using bacterial sources we’ve already verified in tested cycles. You’ve met the timeline for sure but since the inoculation source is unknown in practice what I would do is add one pinch of finely ground up fish food to a small cup of water, stir it in good then add to the setup. Wait ten more days then it will pass being able to carry bioload

Reason I feel this customized approach will work:

you’ll be at twice the calculated wait time by then, fish food brings on powerful initial strains of bacteria that remove ammonia and this will be in addition to the minute bacterial slicks already in place from the rehydrated organics / complexes from used rock and the feed/bac already in place, though we haven’t cycled with that type of bacteria before.

That kind of bac is for cleaning tanks, and it didn’t work at all when tested for getting cleaner tanks. But since it’s a liquid, from a bac maker, it’s not a stretch to think it has some bacteria in it

Testless cycling came about to handle the confusion created by the use of non-seneye testers in tank cycles. Misreads are so common and expected, they create outcomes ranging 3 weeks to 90 days in some tanks using the old cycling science ruleset of believe any test kit, have zero ammonia, zero nitrite and some nitrate to be ready.


Given the fact that every seneye cycle I’ve ever seen using one of the common bac mixes + some ammonia and ten days was completed, it’s a fine bet outcome for others when they copy the exact same setup just minus the seneye to prove readiness. We don’t need the kit ran on every tank when the setup conditions are repeated each time

The man myth and legend! I’ve read so many of your post after I started the container wish I would have read it before I got started. I didn’t want to call it cycling because I was using waste away as my original goal was to clean off the rock but at the same time with the ammonia and nitrates present I thought it might of kicked off the process.

With the pinch of food approach any preference in brand . I’m happy to throw some in there and let it keep sitting for another two weeks.

 

[brandon429]

Any type is fine its the phosphate, carbon and protein that becomes the universal starter. I do agree household inputs of bacteria plus whatever is in the bottle plus leftover rock organics + these past days likely have the base cycle in place. We're just doing a for sure extra step

 

[teamfreddy]

I will have to make a trip to the store and pick up some food for the fish I don’t have yet

 

[teamfreddy]

So Tuesday I put a pinch of fish food. Today for kicks I tested to see if anything was happening.

One thing I have observed the first two weeks when Ammonia is added PH drops for a day or two then gradually climbs back up. Since adding the fish food PH dropped and has been steady but hasn’t came back up. Not a big deal. Just an observation which made me wonder if I should test.

I tested today (Salifert)

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite 4ppm
Nitrate 100ppm

I’m guessing the Nitrate is testing wrong because of high nitrite being present?

 

[teamfreddy]

Finally got the office redone last weekend and got everything moved in kind of sort of. Still have some cable management that needs to be done for no the the desk and the tank but a week in and things seem to be going well.

Found a Lightning Maroon with a print I couldn’t pass on so he gets to break in the tank. Also the Cat found something to stare at… Lid is on its way to hopefully prevent the cat from messing with the tank and prevent jumpers.