Cycling an Aquarium

[Mayerlyn A]

We are just starting the cycle on my son's tank. I am making him read this article. Thank you for this.

 

[Brew12]

We are just starting the cycle on my son's tank. I am making him read this article. Thank you for this.

Fantastic! I'm glad you are finding it helpful!

 

[Whitey26]

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.

 

[Brew12]

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.

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.

Transferring rock is a no brainer. How effective it will be is determined by how much rock you move. If you would move all of it, your new system would be ready for as many fish as your current system can handle. If you move a few piece of rubble, it will help but not nearly as much.

The other variable is how "clean" the rest of the rock you add to the system is. Some dry rock hold dehydrated biologics that break down when soaked. This can cause an ammonia spike without any other source added to the tank and can overwhelm the capability of any live rock you add.

 

[Reefer_Rob]

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!

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?

 

[Brew12]

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?

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.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Nicely written !!

 

[Brew12]

Nicely written !!

Thanks, glad you liked it!

 

[Reefer_Rob]

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.

Completely understood. Thank you for the perspective. I didnt know what 1ppm really was relative to bioload. By doing it 1 more time I assume im building my bacteria to higher levels that can combat more effectively. Im in no rush so thats what ill probably do.

 

[Bruno_Soares]

Thank you for this piece of info. As you said, keeping it simple, helps new hobbyist understand it better. For more info anyone can search more specifically. It is almost the same as in freshwater... the principle is the same, only the places where the bacteria thrive are different. New to saltwater but I think I got it. Simple and direct.

 

[NorthernReefer]

Thanks for the Share, very informative.

 

[Unthinkable]

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.

 

[Brew12]

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.

I like the idea of bumping it up to 4ppm before you leave but letting it go would be just fine, too.

 

[DancingWind]

Would like some ideas - have persistently stable ammonia level in new tank:
~500l display tank + ~150l in sump(100l refugium)

Ammonia 0.25ppm for 3 weeks since I added some fish (started with 5 chromis. Since last week the stock is 5 chromis + 4 cardinals + 1 clown + 1 wrasse + 1 diamondback watchman goby + 1 royal gramma + 2 firefish + 1blood red fire shrimp + 2 hermit crabs) all fish are very small

I cycled tank for 1 month and 2,5 months prior to that rock was 'cycling' in a barrel, my cycle was very .. unfortunate.
Barrel: dry AF syntehtic rock, +prodibio, EasyStart, AF bio S bacteria, +heater, +power head, +air pump + ammonia + month latter dead shrimp. Ammonia spiked to 8+ppm and stayed there the whole time ... ****** salifert test kit was giving me ~1.5ppm reading, not until I got APi test kit that I knew I severly overdosed it with ammonia.. so .. barrel was a total waste of time.
I put that rock into DT, also 2l of Seachem matrix, 2 plates of maxspec ceramic media in return pump's bubble trap.
dry aragonite 15kg. even if AF dry rock is **** I have enough other biofilter media/area for a tabnk 10 the size (according to specs). Add prodibio biodigest + bacteria nutirients (their Safe Salt package), EasyStart, and AF Bio S.
this time I raised ammonia carefully to about 3.5 and cycle started but was slow slowly took 2weeks to get from 3.5 to 2 ppm with last coupel of days it seems to stall. So then I bought 8kg of live sand ... can you guess from the chart when? I put a sponge across bubble trap to filter out some junk mechanically (dont have filter socks)


Anyway cycle defintely resumed but I never seem to get it to fall to 0 it would fall to 0.25 but then it would linger - I would spike it to 1ppm in the evening and it would fall to 0.25 next day .. O think I managed to get it down to 0 after a few days and then did a 80% water change. And let in 5 chromis I had in quarantine for 3 weeks.
I gave 2 salifert ammonia testkits, 1 api test kit and a seachem badge. Badges give nonsence readings but They do work for one thing is there amonnia yes no and I do know they work my QT cycled like a champ and I swaped thso badges back and forth. And when I mean it cycled like a champ I mean like a champ ... after I did a 95% water change. I started cycling it along with the barrel, did same methodology just no rock - it has overhang filter with 2 sponges and got same **** as barrel then as DT was close to delivery I restarted QT and barrel - QT cyled in 2 weeks, barrel was still dead though its amonia did was higher cause I did not change all the water ~75% (got to ~2ppm ammonia). I got QT to the point that I would raise to 2ppm in the evening and in the morning it would be nothing.

So anyway ... I did a water change in dt and started adding fish ... and ammonia almost instantly came back up to 0.25 and stayed there like nailed in. (all tests agree - there is some ammonia ... how much hard to tell - around minimum values so let's say its 0.25).
funny thing is my nitrates and phosphates are 0. (I cross checked with QT and it does have some po4 and no3).
There is some brown algae growing - but very little. No green algae or red slime, definitely no coraline. Mostly it looks like every other grain of sand on the surface is holding a ~0.5mm brown balloon - very cute. QT brow and now a small patch of green algea grows quite nicely/. ANd DT ... well there a little bit on the glass ... i wipe it once a week ... but defintely no infestation(I do have 6 trochus snails and 3 nesscesarius.
I have a lot of whie cloudiness for the last 2 weeks.
White cloudy stuff is not sand - got water to settle in a clear glass cup - no precipitation .. though just after an hour with some light I did get some brown stuff growing on the cup's bottom
there is a lot flow in tank 1 jebao gyre + 3 sw-15 power heads. Sand is not blowing but almost
oh yea remember that sponge across the bubble trap .. I removed it 3 weeks ago since it was interfering with my skimmers water level.
My sand is around 2-4 cm (its in no way what I would call flat) and .. there are bubles traped in the sand (very visible in piles that lay agaisnt glass) . .there were no bubbles in the sand when I tried to flatten it. Nitrogen? S2H? it would kind of explain where No3 goes.
I feed a lot .. probably... 3 times a day - alternating hikari pellets and brine shrimp. Food is gone within 2 minutes - and chromis eat everything instantly if I don't do a good dose.
In refugium is growing 4 types of algae (cheto, 2 types of caulerpa and .. codium?) ... well half is growing some is die-ing ... and I guess there is slime in the refugium - I skimm brown foam of the top of the water every other day but last couple of days there were less of it.
ORP is low ... my new salt water freshly mixed is ~175mV. DT is very slowly creeping from 180 after the 80% water change to 244 (today).
Did some experimental small dosing of nitrates and phosphates at noon today, and measured in the evening (ATI nutrition N and P bottles dosed according to instructions on the bottle, unfortunately there i no hard numbers on concentration) everything is still 0. I use Hanna LR checker for Po4 and Salifert and AF no3 test kits.
I also added 2l of carbon media reactor last week - did not help with cloudiness.
I dumped 1l of zooplancton mix and 1l phytoplancton mix into refugium last week for some extra biodiversity .. cant say that pods are swarming in
Thoughts?

 

[Brew12]

It is very hard to have meaningful amounts of ammonia in a system that has macro algae growing. Every tank will have small amounts of ammonia as the algae and bacteria break it down. You may want to feed a little lighter but otherwise it sounds like your tank is going through the new tank uglies.

 

[DancingWind]

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

 

[DanH86]

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

 

[Brew12]

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

Your situation really is odd. I wonder if something in your DT is causing a false positive on an ammonia test.

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

It will be fine if you want to add clowns. Just feed them lightly for the first week or two.

 

[DancingWind]

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.

Your situation really is odd. I wonder if something in your DT is causing a false positive on an ammonia test.

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)

 

[Brew12]

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)

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!