Cycle Levels Help

THN4AU

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Can someone help me make sense of these levels? Am I way off on reading them? Could I be color blind? Who knows. Thanks in advance.

To me, it looks like I should be able to do the Ammonia 2ppm 24 hour test soon.

Also, Salifert ammonia test is garbage in my experience so far.
 
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THN4AU

THN4AU

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Is there an image missing?
E5E8AED0-F141-4448-B373-D2E9533D58B8.jpeg


Dang it, I’m THAT guy!
 

blaxsun

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I’m not entirely sure what I’m looking at. Was the tank previously cycled (there’s mention of a fish) or are you still cycling? (there’s a note indicating ammonia was added)
 
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THN4AU

THN4AU

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@blaxsun Still cycling. When I set up the tank I added 4oz turbo start with a three spot damsel. He ended up getting sick and dying so I continued with ammonia. I just haven’t seen the prominent rise in ammonia, then nitrite, then nitrate like I expected. Is the 2ppm ammonia going to nitrate in 24 hours still the best test for cycling a tank?
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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When the fish was added did you add liquid ammonia too or just the fish
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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Your cycle is ok by the way

to fit the context of reefing your ammonia readings need the decimal moved over one tenth to the left that’s why your cycle is ok


that report above is for freshwater context not marine. we don’t expect zero ammonia, biosystems keep low levels it’s not zero

it runs thousandths when sand and rock surfaces are present


the kits you as using can’t TAN convert down to thousandths, which is what Fritz commands, so the fact they say hundredths ppm above is as close to thousandths as you’ll get. Lastly, and regardless of what your non digital kits read, Fritz implants onto surfaces in one day—-regardless of what your non digital tests may report

Fritz won the big bottle bac contest, it’s expensive, is why your cycle is ok it’s not a guesstimate eval, the cycle is done, a water change doesn’t unstick it.

you have to get the disease out of the tank see fish disease forum fallow and quarantine posts. Your cycle has been 100% unstuck, added link to page twenty of the unstick all cycles immediately thread.


** as you can see these fish show up from pet store carrying all kinds of unfriendlies it’s gotta be undone before you re stock
 
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brandon429

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I didn’t really understand or care too much about nh3 vs nh4 until Dan showed me some examples of the impact differences. It means your test levels above match what full running reef tanks run at 90% of the time on those test kits/ nondigital


nitrite is neutral we don’t care if it’s here or not

source for nitrite info: nitrite in the marine aquarium, Randy Holmes Farley
 

Dan_P

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Still looking for input.
Is the history sorta like this:

Added 4 oz Fritz Turbo Start (recommended amount?)
Added fish
Fish died
Ammonia level low
Added Ammonia
Ammonia level low
Added Fish
Fish died
 
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THN4AU

THN4AU

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Is the history sorta like this:

Added 4 oz Fritz Turbo Start (recommended amount?)
Added fish
Fish died
Ammonia level low
Added Ammonia
Ammonia level low
Added Fish
Fish died
Added Fritz and fish, fish died, began adding ammonia to finish. Current levels as of last night are above.
 

Dan_P

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Added Fritz and fish, fish died, began adding ammonia to finish. Current levels as of last night are above.
As you noticed, the low end colors of the ammonia test are difficult to call. If you graphed the first three days data, it would convince you that your ammonia has bottomed out in 3-4 days. You are ready for a light bioload. I think @brandon429 called it this was too,
 
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THN4AU

THN4AU

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As you noticed, the low end colors of the ammonia test are difficult to call. If you graphed the first three days data, it would convince you that your ammonia has bottomed out in 3-4 days. You are ready for a light bioload. I think @brandon429 called it this was too,
No need for a 24 hour 2ppm ammonia test?
 

brandon429

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That test comes from the concern that the cycle won’t complete if we don’t do something to prove it = not needed


The secondary concern is that if we withhold feed the bac won’t implant but thats not the case we show below.

I have never seen a failed bottle bac cycle. Failure to verify one at bodybuilding levels of ammonia doesn’t matter.



Even if no liquid ammonia added at all time spent with that velvet fish putting doubt in my claim :) was the setting period…bac were well fed at this interval and they implant onto surfaces fast and don’t fail to do so.


the need for two ppm movement proof will endure in the hobby for a while longer as we continue to use evaluation tools that aren’t very consistent tank to tank, doubt in completion will remain as nondigital testing remains.

The best way to see outside the scope of no-tan ammonia reports and highly subjective api and red sea ammonia tests is to purposefully search out seneye measurement logs posted online here by owners. We can direct message them to see their logs from start cycle date and they’re all hundredths nh3 or lower, right off the bat.

they will tell you in message they didn’t need to move that much ammonia they could see the compliant ability to manage ammonia precisely and without the huge spike test. Once we see enough startup seneye logs on display tanks the pattern of compliance is apparent, and it applies in timing even to nonseneye tanks such as this one here today.


This isn’t a flippant ignorance of the rules either; we specifically test the claims for twenty pages now in this thread. We turn out twenty pages of complete cycles never doing that spike one single time.
 
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brandon429

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Non seneye tests simply can’t reflect the true motion down from that test. Their kit gets overwhelmed and takes days to report a drop that seneye shows happens in fifteen minutes, we don’t collectively have the testers that can work at that level, we should stop doing that boost test.
 
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THN4AU

THN4AU

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That test comes from the concern that the cycle won’t complete if we don’t do something to prove it = not needed


The secondary concern is that if we withhold feed the bac won’t implant but thats not the case we show below.

I have never seen a failed bottle bac cycle. Failure to verify one at bodybuilding levels of ammonia doesn’t matter.



Even if no liquid ammonia added at all time spent with that velvet fish putting doubt in my claim :) was the setting period…bac were well fed at this interval and they implant onto surfaces fast and don’t fail to do so.


the need for two ppm movement proof will endure in the hobby for a while longer as we continue to use evaluation tools that aren’t very consistent tank to tank, doubt in completion will remain as nondigital testing remains.

The best way to see outside the scope of no-tan ammonia reports and highly subjective api and red sea ammonia tests is to purposefully search out seneye measurement logs posted online here by owners. We can direct message them to see their logs from start cycle date and they’re all hundredths nh3 or lower, right off the bat.

they will tell you in message they didn’t need to move that much ammonia they could see the compliant ability to manage ammonia precisely and without the huge spike test. Once we see enough startup seneye logs on display tanks the pattern of compliance is apparent, and it applies in timing even to nonseneye tanks such as this one here today.


This isn’t a flippant ignorance of the rules either; we specifically test the claims for twenty pages now in this thread. We turn out twenty pages of complete cycles never doing that spike one single time.
Not sure this fish had velvet. Had a case of Petcotitis at least.
DD5BD8EB-4E83-4A66-A86B-D716EF29A625.jpeg
 
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THN4AU

THN4AU

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As you noticed, the low end colors of the ammonia test are difficult to call. If you graphed the first three days data, it would convince you that your ammonia has bottomed out in 3-4 days. You are ready for a light bioload. I think @brandon429 called it this was too,
What’s considered a “light” bioload? Would two clowns in a 40b suffice?
 

brandon429

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Hey your pic lends a neat clue it’s why I value pics above test reads


that rock looks live, was it wet or dry when you brought it home

Post a full tank shot
 

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