Confused ! Tank has not cycled in 7 months !!

Snake132

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Any one with experience please help me .
My tank is 7 month old, I added fish after the first month.
all my fish are very very healthy and happy .

————————-Info——————————
So since month one my levels have been

Ammonium 0.025
Nitrite.
Nitrate
Ph. 8.0-8.3
Salinity 1.024
Temperature. 26.c


I feed them very well no food touches the bottom sandbed or rock
my fish eat it all up before .
I do waterchanges once every 3 weeks 40% to 50%
Filter is big 2000 l per hour
Skimmer is a reef octopus
Flow is a gyre 250
Lights aqua illumination hydra 52


————What I have done to fix it —————
Added two bottles of seachem matrix to increase biofiltration
(The amount I added is sufficient for a tank 4x the size )
Added stability 4x including when I added the matrix . (A month ago )
I added two more peices of sone dead rock I had kept from an old tank ........

All this to no avail
What I would like to know is what next ? What should I do this freakin ticks me off
I started a nano 3 weeks ago for my inverts because I’m treating the dt with cupramine and even that bare bottom had a
(nitrate reading of 2 )
So is more cycles than my main tank ...

So main tank is 7 months old !!!!!!!!!!

Pleas help feel free to ask anything I will take pictures of my test results as well as my ammonium allert it might be 0 and I’m misreading because my test kit is not the best
any ways experts and everyone help my tank please !!!!!
 
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Snake132

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mahindra.dev

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Thing that come to mind

A. What are you using to test ammonia
B. Did the test kit expire?
C. Did you add anything new like rock or sand?

To me the left section looks lighter than the rest, but doesn’t mean it’s new rock. For me the ammonia alert didn’t change color after w/c in the QT. Everything looks good. So id check for test equipment first before fixing more.
 
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Snake132

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Thing that come to mind

A. What are you using to test ammonia
B. Did the test kit expire?
C. Did you add anything new like rock or sand?

To me the left section looks lighter than the rest, but doesn’t mean it’s new rock. For me the ammonia alert didn’t change color after w/c in the QT. Everything looks good. So id check for test equipment first before fixing more.
Jbl test lab marine I am using for testing .
Test kit is brand new
Sand was added month 4
Rock as I said was slowly added I added some month 4 and month 6
 

Jerett83

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Im sure there are more experienced people here than me that will chime in but my first guess with the ammonia reading is a bad test kit. What brand are you using and have you tired another to compare readings?

Also you said your treating your dt with cupramine. Im pretty positive that you will never be able to keep inverts in that tank again. The rock with be saturated with copper now and kill anything you add that is sensitive to copper.
 

mahindra.dev

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Yeah I just read your post again. You do mention about dead rock being added. That can be causing a mini cycle.

I’d wait for more to chime in. But that’s what I’m thinking.
 
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Snake132

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Before I moved the inverts . It puzzles me I haven’t seen livelier fish anywhere ... so why isn’t this thing cycling

7B40BEA2-A1ED-4C4B-B312-81E35E747FCA.jpeg


C689BBC7-B088-48AD-9381-5C635E67666F.jpeg


2CC8DF0B-4DFD-449F-A4E5-B4373650A2E6.jpeg


1A99C6EE-F35E-4C0E-83F9-08A18E2B0BBE.jpeg
 
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Snake132

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Yeah I just read your post again. You do mention about dead rock being added. That can be causing a mini cycle.

I’d wait for more to chime in. But that’s what I’m thinking.
Good to know ,
I hope I haven’t been mini cycling my tank over and over hhhhhh
I chose to add rock slowly 4 peices then 1 then 2
 
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Snake132

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Im sure there are more experienced people here than me that will chime in but my first guess with the ammonia reading is a bad test kit. What brand are you using and have you tired another to compare readings?

Unless

Also you said your treating your dt with cupramine. Im pretty positive that you will never be able to keep inverts in that tank again. The rock with be saturated with copper now and kill anything you add that is sensitive to copper.
Jbl testlab marine ...and don’t worry I’m going to achieve it !!!!!!!
 

Daniel@R2R

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My guess is that it has already cycled. I'd get a basic saltwater test kit and test for nitrate. I'll bet you will find zero ammonia, zero nitrite and acceptable amounts of nitrate.
+1. With fish in the tank there's no way it doesn't have the beneficial bacteria produced in a cycle. My guess is that either you added enough bottled bacteria that you never saw the cycle, or it happened and you missed it. Some tanks (my first 3 for example) when started with live rock and/or enough biological filtration in it already never actually show a detectable cycle.
 
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Snake132

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+1. With fish in the tank there's no way it doesn't have the beneficial bacteria produced in a cycle. My guess is that either you added enough bottled bacteria that you never saw the cycle, or it happened and you missed it. Some tanks (my first 3 for example) when started with live rock and/or enough biological filtration in it already never actually show a detectable cycle.
Interesting . Thank you
 
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Snake132

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My guess is that it has already cycled. I'd get a basic saltwater test kit and test for nitrate. I'll bet you will find zero ammonia, zero nitrite and acceptable amounts of nitrate.
I think you are right must be the test kit .i know it’s not related but I have lots of copepods and other critters and on the glass there are like lots of baby shrimp of sorts. The tank certainly seems like it’s doibg great . Anyway I’m planing to buy an api master test kit when I get back from my trip . Don’t really have the extra cash at the moment . Then it’ll be good
 
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Snake132

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Sorry I’m not good at taking pictures on the tank but it looks amazing so clean and everything looks healthy

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100AE8D6-0886-401C-9E57-E6F628315151.jpeg
 
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Snake132

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A 40 - 50% water change every 3 weeks is a bit excessive in my opinion. Scale that back to 10 - 20% every 4 weeks and see what happens.
Alright . I was doiong a waterchange just in case. Every 3 weeks the tank usually still looks perfect . But I just did them to be on the safe side .
 
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Snake132

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A 40 - 50% water change every 3 weeks is a bit excessive in my opinion. Scale that back to 10 - 20% every 4 weeks and see what happens.
Anyways that will save me a lot of effort last time it was 16 buckets for the 40% z
I had to mix 16 times and fill it into my water holding tank before the water change :(
 

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