Cycling first tank with Microbacter 7. What to expect?

[kilnakorr]

Thats fair, no harm in extended wait.

cant blame me though for wanting specific start times in reefing, we have several times where a predicted safe cycle is needed such as setting up emergency tanks for main breaks, or home moves, or tank upgrades, all things that require a deliberate process.

you can understand how I like to apply that to all tanks, new ones are not using a different system than we do when full reefs depend on an accurate cycle. New reefs just have it rough because the old rules are all they’ve seen to use

it is indeed ok to wait a few more weeks but there’s one hidden cost: this thinking on bacteria stifles future action from you that can mean the difference between loss or retention. A notion of weak bacteria means we do something partial vs complete in the future, and that’s a loss risk

bacterial hesitation has future implications for sure, best to square up now in my opinion. Change water, add life that you know matches the degree of surface area, and see the bacteria as trustworthy and predictable 100% and see your test kits never agree the whole time, and that now lines up with the myriad false test readings threads you can search out for your kits

I do agree. This thread also started with my 'slimy' observation with mb7.
I'm also quite confident that If I do my waterchange, and add 2 clowns, I wont be running into problems.

It was never my intention to do another 'cycled stalled' thread, just the discussion seemed to go that route.

I'll do some water changes (can only do about 30% at a time), and look for a couple of clowns.

 

[Adamantium]

I do agree. This thread also started with my 'slimy' observation with mb7.
I'm also quite confident that If I do my waterchange, and add 2 clowns, I wont be running into problems.

It was never my intention to do another 'cycled stalled' thread, just the discussion seemed to go that route.

I'll do some water changes (can only do about 30% at a time), and look for a couple of clowns.

I really do think you just got a bad bottle. When I was adding my bio brick, I used a 250ml all at once, and it definitely added beneficial bacteria. It actually took my NO3 down from 15ish to 3ish in a matter of days.

 

[kilnakorr]

I really do think you just got a bad bottle. When I was adding my bio brick, I used a 250ml all at once, and it definitely added beneficial bacteria. It actually took my NO3 down from 15ish to 3ish in a matter of days.

2 bad bottles then
I also wasn't trying to reduce nitrates, so impact here is unknown

 

[brandon429]

One thing was a standout, you sure didn’t rush. On the chance your bottle was bad, no fish were risked that’s for sure. The majority of posters following common cycle trends would have started with 2 or 3x fish on day one, certainly no harm was done in the works nice one. it’s fun as a cycling nerd to nit pick start dates and try and streamline us vs them reef convention practices, at least we did it with test kit battles here nothing living on the line.

for the rare times a bottle is bad, I agree fish-in cycling will lose fish. They’re rarely bad is how society keeps lucking into successful fish-in cycles

Dr Reef did find some dead bottles as companies mailed him samples for testing in his big thread on bottle bac timing.

pre verifying ammonia control (ability to move down, not zero) is how we verify bottle bac before adding fish in the updated rule set


most will still want zero ammonia, zero nitrite and + nitrate on a single set of tests though and that’s where the nit picking resumes ha nice

 

[kilnakorr]

One thing was a standout, you sure didn’t rush. On the chance your bottle was bad, no fish were risked that’s for sure. The majority of posters following common cycle trends would have started with fish on day one, certainly no harm was done in the works nice one. it’s fun as a cycling nerd to nit pick start dates and try and streamline us vs them reef convention practices, at least we did it with test kit battles here nothing living on the line.

for the rare times a bottle is bad, I agree fish-in cycling will lose fish. They’re rarely bad is how society keeps lucking into successful fish-in cycles

pre verifying ammonia control (ability to move down, not zero) is how we verify bottle bac before adding fish in the updated rule set


most will still want zero ammonia, zero nitrite cycling though and that’s where the nit picking resumes ha nice

Yes. I also had a few things needed doing, plus the covid 19 lockdown etc. so being in a hurry wasn't an option anyway XD
I believe this thread, and all the testing was partly just an excuse to do something with the tank.

Salt is mixing as we 'speak', and will see if it's even possible to get a pair of clowns.

 

[Adamantium]

2 bad bottles then
I also wasn't trying to reduce nitrates, so impact here is unknown

Hmm, that is unlikely then. How did you get them? Is it possible they froze, or got very hot? That’s all I can think.

 

[brandon429]

I like to pull the rug on cyclers by hammering out solid ammonia control and then quickly recommending reasons they should not add fish lol

its digital locker rooming, strong bonds are formed there.

crypto, brook, uronema, fish disease forum


to test our awesome nh3 proof we indeed could use fish, but that means we just opted out of today’s best disease preps which specifically require waiting eighty more days for fallow

the fish disease forum is that busy every day with new entrants due to proving ability to control ammonia, ironic

if we do not quarantine and fallow, adding fish to a dry rocks system results in near certain losses by month eight.

so what fun is cycling then if we cant work the engine

stack it with corals and clean up crew and feeding and busy gardening so you don’t have the uglies, then when you’re ready for fallow stop adding stuff and just care for it eighty days, then add prepped fish (quarantined) and you’re set.

 

[kilnakorr]

I like to pull the rug on cyclers by hammering out solid ammonia control and then quickly recommending reasons they should not add fish lol

its digital locker rooming, strong bonds are formed there.

crypto, brook, uronema, fish disease forum


to test our awesome nh3 proof we indeed could use fish, but that means we just opted out of today’s best disease preps which specifically require waiting eighty more days for fallow

the fish disease forum is that busy every day with new entrants due to proving ability to control ammonia, ironic

if we do not quarantine and fallow, adding fish to a dry rocks system results in near certain losses by month eight.

so what fun is cycling then if we cant work the engine

stack it with corals and clean up crew and feeding and busy gardening so you don’t have the uglies, then when you’re ready for fallow stop adding stuff and just care for it eighty days, then add prepped fish (quarantined) and you’re set.

No uglies here...yet.
I'm sure they'll show up shortly after running with a couple of fish and light.

 

[brandon429]

No plans for disease control?

Fish Disease Treatment and Diagnosis

A forum for discussing treatment and diagnosing saltwater reef fish.

www.reef2reef.com

notice the degree of activity from similar setups

the degree is 100%

 

[brandon429]

Most nano reefs with a goby and two clowns don’t run any

but tanks that go beyond the common mix, eight mos max till they post there, or just don’t say anything as the fish die off

so opposite from freshwater, where we select the healthy specimens and they do fine at home. In marine tanks we kill the healthy specimens not by nh3 issues but by...

 

[kilnakorr]

Most nano reefs with a goby and two clowns don’t run any

but tanks that go beyond the common mix, eight mos max till they post there, or just don’t say anything as the fish die off

so opposite from freshwater, where we select the healthy specimens and they do fine at home. In marine tanks we kill the healthy specimens not by nh3 issues but by...

You kinda lost me. It'll take awhile to go through all the threads in the disease sectio find similar setup.
The 2 clowns I'll start out with, has been running at a small private own 'store' for a few months already - other fis down the road, will go into qt tank.

 

[Garf]

You kinda lost me. It'll take awhile to go through all the threads in the disease sectio find similar setup.
The 2 clowns I'll start out with, has been running at a small private own 'store' for a few months already - other fis down the road, will go into qt tank.

Put a few pinches of flake fish food in and simulate fish feeding every couple of days. I’ve always cycled this way and never failed.

 

[kilnakorr]

Your logic seems to go only one way

Where did all these nitrates come from then if one for one is the logical answer?

I know if you wait for your nitrites to zero out your nitrates will be showing less than they are now.

Seems chemistry and my logic aren't agreeing on this matter

Just to clear this up for any future readers.
Nitrites was around 1ppm 2 days ago (haven't tested afterwards). I just did a nitrate test, and it reads somewhere close to 5 ppm.
So 5ppm nitrites will read much more than 5 ppm nitrates.

 

[Reef.]

Seems chemistry and my logic aren't agreeing on this matter

Just to clear this up for any future readers.
Nitrites was around 1ppm 2 days ago (haven't tested afterwards). I just did a nitrate test, and it reads somewhere close to 5 ppm.
So 5ppm nitrites will read much more than 5 ppm nitrates.

That’s good going, no big water changes needed...I have more nitrates than that now!