Cycling a Fishless cycle

[masja205]

Hey! I have just started a saltwater aquarium with dry rock and sand substrate (Seachem Meridean) and started up the tank using Ro/DI + Pro Marin salt to get the water salinity to 1.0015 sg and teamperature set to 29deg cel.

I am using Bio-S by aquaforest to add nitrifying bacteria to start the cycle after the addition of Dr tims ammonium chloride.

I have been testing using the Red sea starter test kit.

I havent got a reading for nitrites yet, my ammonia has shown up at 4-5ppm and its been a week... Any advice on what i can do to kick start the cycle to show nitrites? I am starting to see some initial signs of a film of algae growing on one of the sides of the glass panel. there was a tiny spec of what i think is red cyano/ unsure at this stage...

My rear sump has bio balls and filter wool for water filtration.

Any suggestions or advice is much appreciated

 

[jabberwock]

Can you get real ocean live rock?

 

[masja205]

Can you get real ocean live rock?

unfortunately not where I am, I have seen reviewers online try adding live rock to seed bacteria... unsure if whether I could add another brand of bacteria, my lfs suggested to add food, but unsure as I haven't heard that in instructions to set up a Fishless cycle using the ammonia chloride by Dr Tims

 

[jabberwock]

unfortunately not where I am, I have seen reviewers online try adding live rock to seed bacteria... unsure if whether I could add another brand of bacteria, my lfs suggested to add food, but unsure as I haven't heard that in instructions to set up a Fishless cycle using the ammonia chloride by Dr Tims

Can you get wet live rock from your LFS or a reefer friend? Dry rock is garbage, so is bottled bacteria IMHO. The Dr. Tims ammonia chloride adds the waste for the bacteria to feed on. No need to ghost feed or add a dead shrimp if you have the Dr. Tims. What you need is microbiome diversity. It will all happen naturally over time with out bottled bac. Getting wet live rock from a couple sources will help things go faster. You don't have to over do it. Get some rubble from one LFS and some rubble from another.

 

[masja205]

Can you get wet live rock from your LFS or a reefer friend? Dry rock is garbage, so is bottled bacteria IMHO. The Dr. Tims ammonia chloride adds the waste for the bacteria to feed on. No need to ghost feed or add a dead shrimp if you have the Dr. Tims. What you need is microbiome diversity. It will all happen naturally over time with out bottled bac. Getting wet live rock from a couple sources will help things go faster. You don't have to over do it. Get some rubble from one LFS and some rubble from another.

Thank you! I can try asking some facebook community groups and see if the LFS could potentially help.

Would there be an alternative if I didn't manage to source wet live rock?

 

[jabberwock]

I don't think so, but you don't need much, a chunk the size of a golf ball introduces bacterial diversity to your system.

 

[Dmmz]

You just have to be careful because getting live rock because you can bring in unwanted things at the same time. Just do your research and decide how you want to cycle your tank because it can be different than someone else.

 

[CO2TLEY]

You’re getting down towards hypo salinity if your salinity really is 1.015. You want 1.025 and your temp is a little high. 25.5c recommended

 

[jabberwock]

You just have to be careful because getting live rock because you can bring in unwanted things at the same time. Just do your research and decide how you want to cycle your tank because it can be different than someone else.

You speak the truth.
Du Du DUNNNN!

 

[masja205]

You’re getting down towards hypo salinity if your salinity really is 1.015. You want 1.025 and your temp is a little high. 25.5c recommended

Thanks for the advice, I was following a thread to keep the salinity at that level of 1.0015 and temp at 29 deg as it promotes nitrifying bacteria growth for the nitrogen cycle.. Would you know what is the risk of keeping those parameters?

 

[masja205]

You just have to be careful because getting live rock because you can bring in unwanted things at the same time. Just do your research and decide how you want to cycle your tank because it can be different than someone else.

would you expect to wait a while with the current setup? its what i am now imagining...

 

[Naekuh]

Your ammonia is really too high.
You want to keep within 2-4ppm at start of cycle.

If you hit 5ppm, then you may have stalled your cycled, and it will take longer to cycle your tank.

Just remember there is no instant cycle, unless you have alot of doner bacteria from an already established tank.
And even then depending on the size of the seed colony that can still take time.

For example, on my 150G i took a my old bacteria seed from my brightwell ceramic bricks on my established 24G which i was upgrading, and the complete cycle still took 8 weeks.

I was using all dry rock and dry stand at the start, as i did not want to deal with any of the pests my existing system had. I wanted to see if i could control the nuance pests by slowly introducing it with the proper preditors my eco system could handle now.

The key thing is patience.

 

[masja205]

Your ammonia is really too high.
You want to keep within 2-4ppm at start of cycle.

If you hit 5ppm, then you may have stalled your cycled, and it will take longer to cycle your tank.

Just remember there is no instant cycle, unless you have alot of doner bacteria from an already established tank.
And even then depending on the size of the seed colony that can still take time.

For example, on my 150G i took a my old bacteria seed from my brightwell ceramic bricks on my established 24G which i was upgrading, and the complete cycle still took 8 weeks.

I was using all dry rock and dry stand at the start, as i did not want to deal with any of the pests my existing system had. I wanted to see if i could control the nuance pests by slowly introducing it with the proper preditors my eco system could handle now.

The key thing is patience.

Hey thank you for your helpful response. I hadn't realised it was too high. Perhaps it has stalled? would a water change be appropriate or would you recommend leaving it as is?

Happy to patiently wait also learning so much as I progress

 

[marinesnow]

It took my tank two weeks to show nitrites. If I were to start over, I'd seed the tank with rock/media from another reefer.

 

[masja205]

It took my tank two weeks to show nitrites. If I were to start over, I'd seed the tank with rock/media from another reefer.

Thats great to know, and hopeful to remain patient. I will try my best to get live rock from a potential local

 

[Peair]

Hey! I have just started a saltwater aquarium with dry rock and sand substrate (Seachem Meridean) and started up the tank using Ro/DI + Pro Marin salt to get the water salinity to 1.0015 sg and teamperature set to 29deg cel.

I am using Bio-S by aquaforest to add nitrifying bacteria to start the cycle after the addition of Dr tims ammonium chloride.

I have been testing using the Red sea starter test kit.

I havent got a reading for nitrites yet, my ammonia has shown up at 4-5ppm and its been a week... Any advice on what i can do to kick start the cycle to show nitrites? I am starting to see some initial signs of a film of algae growing on one of the sides of the glass panel. there was a tiny spec of what i think is red cyano/ unsure at this stage...

My rear sump has bio balls and filter wool for water filtration.

Any suggestions or advice is much appreciated

Definitely get all parameters in range and use FritzZyme Turbo Start 900 Saltwater if you want to put your live animals in faster.

 

[Peair]

I had real good success with FritzZyme Turbo Start 900 Saltwater, I think it is similar to your Aquaforest product, I was able to put fish and corals in my tank earlier with no problems, it's gets that bacteria cycle moving faster, and it gets ammonia down.

 

[Dan_P]

Hey! I have just started a saltwater aquarium with dry rock and sand substrate (Seachem Meridean) and started up the tank using Ro/DI + Pro Marin salt to get the water salinity to 1.0015 sg and teamperature set to 29deg cel.

I am using Bio-S by aquaforest to add nitrifying bacteria to start the cycle after the addition of Dr tims ammonium chloride.

I have been testing using the Red sea starter test kit.

I havent got a reading for nitrites yet, my ammonia has shown up at 4-5ppm and its been a week... Any advice on what i can do to kick start the cycle to show nitrites? I am starting to see some initial signs of a film of algae growing on one of the sides of the glass panel. there was a tiny spec of what i think is red cyano/ unsure at this stage...

My rear sump has bio balls and filter wool for water filtration.

Any suggestions or advice is much appreciated

Some thoughts

I assume your salinity is 1.015 not 1.0015

I assume you bought Bio S nitrifying bacteria, not probiotic bacteria

The typical starting total ammonia concentration is about 2 ppm. Very high ammonia concentration might interfere with bacteria growth. Not sure that 5 ppm is a problem,

29 C seems high for an aquarium.

As for no ammonia reduction after a week, many products seem to start very slowly. Only Fritz Turbo Start and BioSpira show ammonia reduction within days.

 

[Dmmz]

It took my tank two weeks to show nitrites. If I were to start over, I'd seed the tank with rock/media from another reefer.

I bought live rock from my lfs and had to deal with more bad than good so I won’t do that again

 

[Freenow54]

You just have to be careful because getting live rock because you can bring in unwanted things at the same time. Just do your research and decide how you want to cycle your tank because it can be different than someone else.

You can buy so called live rock that never saw the ocean. That is what I used. Plus I used pure ammonia which you can buy at any hardware store for cheap. I added starter bacteria once only. Yes it takes a while to start. As to algae I can assume you have the lights on. Turn them off