Started cycling April 14th with the Waterbox Cube 20, 15lb dry rock, bare bottom. Used the Brightwell Dry Rock Cycling kit that came with start xlm, the ammonia, and microbacter clean. According to the box, it would cycle in about a week if following the directions. Tested every day for ph, ammonia, and nitrite and took awhile for ammonia to cycle down to 0 but it finally did. The problem that for about 6 weeks the nitrite will not come down to 0. It was at 1ppm for almost that entire 6 weeks until the last couple of days it’s at 0.2. We’ve done water changes, bumped up the heater to 80, added a Nero 5 powerhead. What else should I try?
Cycle issues
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tsouth
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You should try letting it run t's course without disturbance until you see nitrates. Can you confirm whether or not you have?
It is not recommended to perform water changes until your nitrates are at their peak. Once they are present, and in the near 50+ range is when you are to perform a large water change. (50% will cut down to 25ppm).
What may be happening is that the recurring water changes are constantly stalling the cycle. You are effectively removing nitrifying bacteria with water changes.
Set your heater to your desired temperature, leave the powerhead, and let it run for another week or two while the bacteria colonize without outside disturbance. Don't worry about testing for a week.
In the meantime, there's plenty of material on the nitrogen cycle if you're interested in the why's behind my messaging. I'll add that if you're interested. Best wishes to you
It is not recommended to perform water changes until your nitrates are at their peak. Once they are present, and in the near 50+ range is when you are to perform a large water change. (50% will cut down to 25ppm).
What may be happening is that the recurring water changes are constantly stalling the cycle. You are effectively removing nitrifying bacteria with water changes.
Set your heater to your desired temperature, leave the powerhead, and let it run for another week or two while the bacteria colonize without outside disturbance. Don't worry about testing for a week.
In the meantime, there's plenty of material on the nitrogen cycle if you're interested in the why's behind my messaging. I'll add that if you're interested. Best wishes to you
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I wouldn't worry about your nitrite level dropping after 6 weeks. Sometimes our hobby grade test kits aren't fantastic at low levels distinugishing between low and 0. Assuming you followed directions and saw your ammonia drop and your nitrates rise, unless you have some funny parameters we don't know about, your tank is probably cycled!
You can confirm for good measure by dosing 2ppm ammonia and seeing that the tank can process it in 24 hours. If it can, you're good to go. You can probably get away without this step, but it's usually best practice to confirm for your particular ecosystem and not rely on the average findings of other hobbyists
You can confirm for good measure by dosing 2ppm ammonia and seeing that the tank can process it in 24 hours. If it can, you're good to go. You can probably get away without this step, but it's usually best practice to confirm for your particular ecosystem and not rely on the average findings of other hobbyists
You are fully cycled, nitrite has no bearing in a reef cycle.
im aware of videos that says it is, but it’s not. All you do here is change out your water and begin, it was ready first week per directions and per the many, many starts I have handy on file.
im aware of videos that says it is, but it’s not. All you do here is change out your water and begin, it was ready first week per directions and per the many, many starts I have handy on file.
Additional helpful confirmation you’re done: at no time in reefing has anyone’s ammonia cycle taken longer than a standard cycling chart shows. even if you source from different websites, ammonia compliance happens on the date shown for a reason. There are no fifty day ammonia cycles possible, you’re set.
but why did they say nitrite matters? Don’t know. It helps to sell bottle bac, am sure of that bc I intercept people about to buy bottle bac based on nitrite and redirect, plus document the tank outcome and keep the links handy.
somehow nobody fails to start a Macna reef convention tank on time, skip cycles for 500 reefs, when the motivation is right. Nitrite isn’t a gateway to that ability for 20 yrs running. Cycle rules are simply evolving and only ammonia control matters. You can put up the nitrite tester it will never factor in any tank decision, its a neutral param in reefing. Cycles do not stall in reefing, only the testers we use report all over the place it never matches what seneye shows which is fully different from api, Salifert and Red Sea ammonia
but why did they say nitrite matters? Don’t know. It helps to sell bottle bac, am sure of that bc I intercept people about to buy bottle bac based on nitrite and redirect, plus document the tank outcome and keep the links handy.
somehow nobody fails to start a Macna reef convention tank on time, skip cycles for 500 reefs, when the motivation is right. Nitrite isn’t a gateway to that ability for 20 yrs running. Cycle rules are simply evolving and only ammonia control matters. You can put up the nitrite tester it will never factor in any tank decision, its a neutral param in reefing. Cycles do not stall in reefing, only the testers we use report all over the place it never matches what seneye shows which is fully different from api, Salifert and Red Sea ammonia
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