Cycle stopped during fallow?

[SaltwaterGuruNeeded]

Here are my Parameters...I've had an ammonia reading for about a month or so now... How can I fix this? I have snails and a shrimp in my tank. Day 46 of fallow.

Ammonia (API) 0.5 - 1ppm
Ammonia (Salifert) 0.5ppm
Nitrite (Salifert) 0.05ppm
Nitrate (Salifert) 2.5ppm
Phosphate (Salifert) 0-0.03ppm

P.s. I had a recent bacterial bloom last month from dumping the left overs from a biospira bottle into the fallow tank. If your interested this may help aswell.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/tank-cloudy-during-fallow.858580/

 

[jskidds2294]

You could add more bacteria in a bottle. But you would need to add dying stuff like food for it to stay alive which creates more ammonia. Honestly your ammonia and nitrate are so much lower then your nitrates, it looks like you haven’t been feeding the bacteria enough or did something for the nitrate part of the bacteria to die. If you add bacteria and feed more it should be fine. Clearly you still have a cycled tank as nitrates are mostly dominate.

 

[brandon429]

Your cycle is 109% fine, not damaged, react in no way

cycles cannot be starved in a home an open topped tank, fallow didn’t remove the packets of organic stores throughout the system (bacteria food)

dose nothing, post a full tank picture. We never add cycling bacteria after a cycle in updated cycling science


in old cycling science threads, your cycle is dead, tank about to die any second, add three bottles of oxygen sapping aerobes. Stat.


new cycling science will directly take you off the retail doser dependents list.

since you don’t have a seneye to post the readings simply put down the kits you have and continue on, do a big water change to export the chemical soup. Never dose cycling bacteria to the tank, its not needed, they have no where to attach as you can see.

 

[brandon429]

We have a three year fallow test on file, immediately passes oxidation test loading with no ramp up time. The bac werent dormant they were active the whole time

It’d go twenty years…cycles cannot be starved in an open topped home reef

resist the temptation to react further, it only needs a big water change

Fallow as long as you want, add the fish. your cycle is then instantly ready as it was fed from within and without the whole time. No display tank cycle has ever been starved out and documented. Not one time.
You’ve likely also fed the inverts but if not, still no harm to the cycle.



don’t use the api ammonia test on your reef anymore. to harm the ability to carry fish again you’d have to reduce live rock surface area 99%, starving bacteria isn’t the risk.
If you have the same rocks in there the whole time then the bioload carry ability doesn’t change and doesn’t get weaker, ask any seneye owner if their display filter system ever got weak/ ask to see the logs if so.

B

 

[UnrealReefer]

TLC Start Smart for saltwater aquariums could help

 

[SaltwaterGuruNeeded]

Well I added Seachem prime and my ammonia badge is now showing yellow which is good I think I just needed to give the bacteria a chance to repopulate. I would think it's stressful on the bacteria when the ammonia levels are high. It's not super yellow, but I can definitely tell that the ammonia levels went down.