Cycle stopped, should i do something?

[Lyngsaa]

Hi,

I started cycling my red sea nano almost 3 weeks ago. Been using aqua forrest bio s and been dosing amonia but have not dosed it the på at week. I have below data

Amonia 0.2
Nitrite above 4
Nitrate above 100

My tests for nitrite and nitrate are off the chart so cant Say for sure. Only developmen i have seen this week is amonia going from 1 to 0.2 not seen anything for nitrite and nitrate.

Should i do something to get the cycle moving or just wait ?

 

[brandon429]

its done
your testing makes it hard to see since its not seneye ammonia.

all you do is change your cycling water (its algae feed) and begin. your animals wont die, due to being cycled. we'd be concerned if you reported all ammonia and no nitrate. in updated cycling science, merely this long underwater + nitrate means you're cycled and we dont expect anything shy of seneye ammonia to report that accurately. (on a regular cycling chart, where is ammonia at on week 3 and those are unboosted charts written before bottle bac was avail)

nitrite and nitrate wont factor in updated cycling science, but in this case nitrate is a handy confirming read for nitrifying bac in place. *we get cycles that dont show any nitrate due to testing issues/dilution etc and those are still cycled too after three weeks, we just have to run a non-seneye ammonia test in a certain way to get it to work (a way different than the directions)

in your case the timeframe, boosters used, and confirming nitrate means its done/can reef right now. change water, begin. post your starting with fish pics and Ill update this thread into stuck cycle threads we study. (no cycles stick, ever, not any we have ever seen)

we spend our time being amazed that no cycle stalls, we can't find any that have, not ever. Looking for the first.

 

[Lyngsaa]

Thanks a lot for the answer and clear guidance. My confusion was that i thought nitrite should be zero as well since its part of the cycle, but guess since i have no shortage in nitrate something is happening. I will do some water changes and maybe add some nitrate/phosphate remover to get my nutriens under control before tossing in a few fishes.

 

[brandon429]

what i typed is very new info and not always agreed by others, new stuff has a gate to go through lol.

but we arrived there by much toil, for example check this thread out. if nitrite was a true concern as stated, we'd have trouble brewing here with these + nitrite starts. I feel that its ok to make claims against the greater rule if such work is at least in place, for scrutiny, and when counter claims for rules have no such proofing work:

We should use the collective power of the chem forum to prove or deny the possibility of sustained .25 ammonia in reefing

Why does it matter if reef tanks can have stuck cycles? Because when you move homes you don't want to lose animals, cycling science needs precision and predictability in order to protect our tanks. perhaps an emergency setup is needed, no wait time permitted or If you are invited to show...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[andrewey]

Your cycle is likely done. It's a fair assumption for many reefers. If you wanted to be safe, you could confirm by testing this yourself by dosing a known quantity of ammonia into the tank (e.g. 2ppm) and seeing that your biological filter could eliminate it in 24 hours. If it can, you're cycled.

As a new reefer, I would just make sure you understand what we mean when we say a tank is "cycled". There's a lot of misinformation out there, so it's always good to try and understand it yourself so you don't have to rely on good or bad advice

 

[Lyngsaa]

Thanks a lot for the comments both of you. Think i Will try dosing amonia and see what happens in 24 hours. If it drops to current levels then i will do a series of water changes.

Then I can start the fun and stock the tank slowly.

 

[andrewey]

Absolutely! Sounds like a fantastic plan! Enjoy your new slice of the ocean!

 

[brandon429]

Hey one question


liferock from caribsea is 100% purple no skipped spots

but I see pigmentation differences above, areas not purple

there’s no chance that’s fully cured live rock wet before you got it, is it? Reason asking: we don’t dose ammonia to known live rock where applicable, that burns pods. Pods, real coralline, attached living algae, all prove cycle completion where true live rock was only moved tank to tank.


it wouldn’t be possible for you to have nitrate, 3 weeks underwater and not be able to control ammonia, thats why first post didn’t ask for more oxidation proof, we have that. Ammonia cycles cannot stall, they all complete and nobody has a single seneye ammonia test to show otherwise. Google does have however one million stuck cycles claimed by non seneye tests...


if your rocks aren’t live, dose away there’s nothing to burn. You’ll be lucky if your tester ever shows zero, most wont. Accurate cycling advice always takes time to discern rock status before dosing a burning fluid. Your tank here is exactly like the several we’ve collected above

it would seem to follow your tank will do what those did above...handy stats for comparison.

 

[Lyngsaa]

The rocks i have in the tank is dry rock (real reef rocks). I used carib life sand thought.

 

[brandon429]

Ok no prob can proof.
but if you want to make non seneye work right, you need to do it this way: don’t look for zero ammonia next day

That’s why seneye vs non seneye ammonia tests never agree, there is no zero ammonia in reefing


its all thousandths ppm turnover, below non seneye detection limits...they read slight positives etc

adjusted testing:
take a new ammonia pic for today’s calibrated levels, keep handy

dose liquid ammonia absolutely not to 2 ppm

dose it until a re test shows the slightest change up from current, the slightest change a second pic will show. Do not go higher, take second pic of a small increment up free ammonia shown.

in 24 hours take third pic let’s see em. If can’t move by 48 hours back to calibrated zero (today’s first pic) I’ll be amazed. those tests should be able to register this change, you couldn’t have nitrate at all if this mechanism was broken or incomplete.

 

[Lyngsaa]

Just to conclude. I did an amonia test. Before dosing i had 0.1 Amonia and 1 nitrite. I dosed to 1.5 amonia and after 24 hours i testet again and got following result.

Amonia 0.1
Nitrite 2

So think my amonia is being converted as i could hope for. Nitrite bit slower it seems, but will test it over the next few days to see how the nitrite develops. But guess my cycle is complete so just need to get my nitrate down form crazy amount to something sensible for fish.

 

[brandon429]

thats the correct way to use the testers, its not the zero we're looking for its the move down and in this case + nitrate reading was double conf. well done troubleshoot, using these tests for low level is tricky. *even if you got no movement it'd still be cycled (nitrate can't appear wo nitrifiers) but we got lucky here he he. accepted.

 

[andrewey]

Just to conclude. I did an amonia test. Before dosing i had 0.1 Amonia and 1 nitrite. I dosed to 1.5 amonia and after 24 hours i testet again and got following result.

Amonia 0.1
Nitrite 2

So think my amonia is being converted as i could hope for. Nitrite bit slower it seems, but will test it over the next few days to see how the nitrite develops. But guess my cycle is complete so just need to get my nitrate down form crazy amount to something sensible for fish.

Congratulations! Your thoughts are spot on!

 

[Lyngsaa]

Thanks a lot for the help and feedback. The learning curve in this hobby is quite steep but reef2reef proves to be a Very valuable ressource

 

[Darbna]

how is it looking now?

 

[Lyngsaa]

Tested the water today and got following:

Amonia 0.1
Nitrite 0 (Yay!)
Nitrate 100+

Seems as i'm almost good to go, just need to get my nitrate down and get a test for phosphate.

 

[andrewey]

Fantastic! Good job on staying the course and enjoy your new ecosystem! Can't wait to see your reef take shape

Good idea on lowering the nitrate before progressing Many reefers try and skip this step to "save time", but they tend to play "catch up" rather than starting on a solid foundation for their reef.

 

[brandon429]

you are ready now, those other steps are not needed and wont change the start date. aquaforest seems like legit bac.

 

[brandon429]

did you get any pics of the dosing for us to see

 

[Lyngsaa]

Thank you for the comments. Can't wait to get some life into the tank. Stangely i do not have any algea growth yet, so will not toss and cuc in yet.

Sorry did not take a picture of the dosing. Used a liquid amonia cloride from a local hardware store. Danish brand so would not make much sense on the 'other side og the pond'. But seems to do the trick.