We are just starting the cycle on my son's tank. I am making him read this article. Thank you for this.
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Fantastic! I'm glad you are finding it helpful!We are just starting the cycle on my son's tank. I am making him read this article. Thank you for this.
I'm not a big fan of transferring sand. While it can be done safely I've also seen it cause a lot of problems.Hello, all. Great thread here! I combed through it but did not find a situation exactly like this one so thought I would get some feedback.
I have a 12 gallon nanocube that is about two years old and doing very well. I bought a 29 gallon tank today that I want to start up in the next couple of weeks. I am keeping the 12 gallon in use so it will not be an "upgrade" so much as an "addition" of a larger tank.
As far as setting up and cycling, it's a no-brainer to use some of the rock and sand from the 12 gallon in the 29, correct? Will this speed things up? Establish quicker? Just wondering how this may affect the set up and cycling different than starting completely fresh with "other" live rock or other means. If that makes sense. Appreciate any and all feedback, thank you.
Ok folks, wanted to get your opinion on my cycle up to this point.
Im on Day 8
Started with Dr Tims and dosed the ammonia per the bottle. 4 drops, per gallon. This equated to 8ppm initially and later read that I wasnt the only one that dosed per the bottle and ended up with the ammonia way to high.
Caribsea Life Rock
Tropic Eden Substrate
100 gallons, RODI
79 deg throughout
7-8 dKh throughout
8.2-8.4 PH throughout
1.025 sg throughout
As of today (day 8)
2 ppm Ammonia
1 ppm Nitrite
10 ppm Nitrate
Ammonia has dropped heavily from the 8ppm initially (thank god) and Nitrite and Nitrate has risen sharply in the last 2 days. Im hoping the ammonia drops soon.
I feel like the cycle isnt totally conventional but my gut tells me to stay the course and im feeling a tad lost. What do the experts think? #reefsquad
Thanks for the input. As of now (day 12) my ammonia has dropped to 0.25. Nitrite is way high, between 2.5-5 on the color scale with an API test and maxing out at 1+ on the Red Sea test.
So unless you say otherwise im going to do this....
1. Hold off on the ammonia dosing and kick back until the nitrites drop. Maybe a week?? Then ill monitor nitrates.
2. Lets say I get to the point where I have no ammonia and nitrites. Dose up to 2ppm? See if they both drop in 24 hours and call it a cycle?
3. 25% water change?
4. Drink a beer(s)
Sorry for all the questions. Im just trying to map things out to some degree.
Thanks!
Personally, I would wait and do it one more time. The reality is that unless you add 10 fish and feed heavy you aren't going to get 1ppm of ammonia in a day. So can you add 1 or 2 small fish and feed lightly in a humane manner? Absolutely. Just because I wouldn't do it doesn't make it wrong or even a bad idea.DAY 25 - 100 gal, Dr Tims, Carib Sea Dry Rock, Tropic Eden substrate
As of yesterday,
pH 8.2
KH 6.5
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20
So I decided to dose up the ammonia to 1ppm to "test the system" and see if the ammonia drops to 0 in 24 hours.
Right now, almost a day later I still have ammonia at about 0.8ppm and a hint of nitrite.
I feel like im close but I want to make sure the system can safely and humanely support life before I put hearty livestock in.
My question is this. Because im not able to "zero out" my ammonia and nitrite in 24 hours does that mean my cycle isnt ready? Assuming so. If so after I finaly "zero out" should I re attempt a small dosing again?
Thanks, glad you liked it!Nicely written !!
Personally, I would wait and do it one more time. The reality is that unless you add 10 fish and feed heavy you aren't going to get 1ppm of ammonia in a day. So can you add 1 or 2 small fish and feed lightly in a humane manner? Absolutely. Just because I wouldn't do it doesn't make it wrong or even a bad idea.
I like the idea of bumping it up to 4ppm before you leave but letting it go would be just fine, too.I'm cycling my 120G tank with Microbacter7 and ammonium chloride, but I'll be gone for vacation from 9/13-9/22. I'm worried the progress of my cycle could be affected without dosing any ammonia for 9 days. I was contemplating:
1. leave it be, 9 days should be fine for the bacteria
2. dose 4ppm ammonia the day I leave and that should continue the cycle while I'm gone
3. add a table shrimp the day I leave to continue the cycle.
Thoughts on the best plan? My initial thought is when I get back, my nitrates should be high, do a water change and turn on the lighting schedule to begin the ugly phase of cycling.
Once I get some algea/muck started, seed pods and some CUC to the DT. This will allow me to QT the CUC in the DT alone for 76 days before adding fish. I was also planning on adding Chaeto to my refugium to take advantage of the extra nitrates after the water change. This all revolves around when the tank has completed the Ammonia/Nitrite cycle of course.
Your situation really is odd. I wonder if something in your DT is causing a false positive on an ammonia test.well that's the thing I have QT (100L) and it has no ammonia - seachem sticker is forever yellow.
it has a bit of macro algea (i put them in a small washing bag- to stop from blowing around) a few matrix pieces,
it hosted chromis for 3 weeks,
then clown and fire fish for a week (yes I know, that is not a qt, but these guys were 'scraping the bottom of the barrel' at LFS - they were there for at least a month and in Copper)
Now, under hypo salinity, it hosts a no longer sick hippo tang (my guess it was Ick, 4 days in hypo - looking good little fellow , back in full colour, no longer scratching, not so shy anymore, just a couple of brown spots where worst of ick like white tufts were)
Ammonia alert is yellow all day everyday and QT got fed way more than dt - a lot more gets sucked into hob filter... it does have Po4 and No3 though.
And the water is crystal clear !.. well once you scrape the brown stuff from the glass that is
It will be fine if you want to add clowns. Just feed them lightly for the first week or two.Day 40 of cycling my reefer 250. Nitrites finally plummeted overnight from off the charts to virtually zero; what do you think of my parameters? Ok to add a pair of clowns tomorrow?
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0.3
Nitrate 20
Alk 7.5
Ph 7.8
Salinity 1.026 / 35
Your situation really is odd. I wonder if something in your DT is causing a false positive on an ammonia test.
I'm sorry about the fish but thank you for sharing. I've never even considered dosing N and P to a tank that is this new. I'll have to remember this!Well ... got ICp results in .. everything is fine - dK a bit low ( same as as my hanna opinion) - fixing it.
Iodine low - also got AF iodine for that this weekend.
Well ... I specifically used Prodibio's SafeSalt set (bacteria + food/additives for bacteria) and not StartUp set (bacteria + ammonia binders).
Good news: since I started dosing No3 and PO4 (ATi Nutrition N and P bottles) water did clear up, also scumm from regugiums water surface is gone also - happend in 24 day
Bad news: 1 chromis - the biggest - dropped dead - started breathing very fast at ~12:00, at ~1900 noticed that it was gasping at the surface and was dead 15 min later. No other symptoms. Found big worms in gut - gills seems fine and pink (according to my mother - I have no clue)