Cycling Help - Different Tests giving different results

[DarkReefer]

Yeah no reason not to. What kind of fish you putting in once its ready? Have you been looking?

Not too sure in the long term, but the first fish will be some Clowns (maybe 4 or so?). Also want one or two of those sand sifting blennys (the ones that spit the sand out of their gills), from there, I'm not sure what else at this stage.
Gf saw a yellow box fish on the weekend and quite liked it but after looking it up I need a much bigger tank and apparently they're for 'experts'.

 

[CrimsonTide]

I like clowns. They are very weird. Easy to care for but they will scare you when they do weird things. The yellow watchman goby and pistol shrimp pair are cool if you like the idea of something on the bottom in the sand. You could do more than 1 pair of clowns if you did they would have to have their own separate spaces in the tank.

 

[CrimsonTide]

I like wrasse as well 6lines are pretty. That would work in your tank just fine.

 

[DarkReefer]

I like clowns. They are very weird. Easy to care for but they will scare you when they do weird things. The yellow watchman goby and pistol shrimp pair are cool if you like the idea of something on the bottom in the sand. You could do more than 1 pair of clowns if you did they would have to have their own separate spaces in the tank.

I didn't realise it's a thing to not have more than a pair in a tank. Seeing the 2 LFS have plenty of them in a couple of their tanks.
1 had a big anemone in there and at least 10-20 fish at one stage, the other just a plain empty tank which had probably the same. Will have to take that into consideration some more then.
Yeah the Wrasse is quite a nice looking fish too.

 

[Garf]

I didn't realise it's a thing to not have more than a pair in a tank. Seeing the 2 LFS have plenty of them in a couple of their tanks.
1 had a big anemone in there and at least 10-20 fish at one stage, the other just a plain empty tank which had probably the same. Will have to take that into consideration some more then.
Yeah the Wrasse is quite a nice looking fish too.

If you’re considering this, I would post a thread on the fishy forum here;

Fish Discussion

Discuss all topics related to salt water aquarium fish. Angelfish, Anthias, Basslets, Blennies, Butterflyfish, Clownfish, Damsels, Dottybacks, Eels, Gobies, Jawfish, Lionfish, Pipefish, Puffers, Rays, Seahorse, Tangs, Triggerfish, Wrasse, and more.

www.reef2reef.com

 

[CrimsonTide]

When they are young and small they can be together without any issue and at the LFS they tend to not stay very long and in that group they don't become territorial. I got 2 recently from a tank about about 50 and there was probably 30 of them in one huge carpet anemone. When they get bigger 1 becomes female and 1 becomes a breeding male the rest stay prepuberty males. If anything happens to the female the big male turns female and the next of the prepuberty males becomes a male. Most people call these Harems. But they don't usually do well like that in community tanks. Theyre are people though who do clown only harem tanks with anemones.

 

[CrimsonTide]

You have time to keep looking though and you can make a thread on a stocking list to get peoples opinions if you want. I was just intrigued bc you have a pretty good size tank.

 

[DarkReefer]

Cheers guys, yeah will look at setting up a stocking list thread at some point.
I did initially want a Blue Tang too, but that's been marked off as tank isn't big enough. Also considered a Yellow Tang, but I think I've got the same issue with tank being too small for them.

Definitely need to work out what other fish I want to keep though. Hoping I can eventually have a nice little reef going that's full of life in both fish, corals and whatever else

 

[DarkReefer]

Day 19

Salifert Ammonia - Looks like it's about 0.5 still

API Ammonia - to me looks 0.5-1 IRL.

Nitrite - This one has moved, Now seeing 0.5 - 1ppm

Nitrates - Possibly slightly darker tinge, maybe 5.0ppm?

 

[Garf]

Moving in the right direction

 

[CrimsonTide]

Day 19

Salifert Ammonia - Looks like it's about 0.5 still

API Ammonia - to me looks 0.5-1 IRL.

Nitrite - This one has moved, Now seeing 0.5 - 1ppm

Nitrates - Possibly slightly darker tinge, maybe 5.0ppm?

That nitrite movement is what you want to see. It should get darker and then some day in the next couple of days it will probably be gone completely. These are good signs!

 

[DarkReefer]

That nitrite movement is what you want to see. It should get darker and then some day in the next couple of days it will probably be gone completely. These are good signs!

Was really happy to see the Nitrite darker as I knew something positive was happening.
I've dosed Stability again today (I'll likely keep this up a few days or maybe the 7 days it recommends), so we'll see what tomorrow brings.

 

[CrimsonTide]

I would say until your cycle is truly done or the bottle runs out whatever is first keep dosing after testing. Then when you eventually do a waterchange and put in new fish dose again just incase. The bacteria that breakdown nitrite to nitrate take a little bit longer to grow and double in population size than the ammonia eating bacteria. So expect the nitrite to continue to get darker before it plummets. But it will probably plummet very quick unlike your Ammonia.

 

[DarkReefer]

I would say until your cycle is truly done or the bottle runs out whatever is first keep dosing after testing. Then when you eventually do a waterchange and put in new fish dose again just incase. The bacteria that breakdown nitrite to nitrate take a little bit longer to grow and double in population size than the ammonia eating bacteria. So expect the nitrite to continue to get darker before it plummets. But it will probably plummet very quick unlike your Ammonia.

Yeah will likely do so. Can't hurt it as you and Garf have pointed out previously.
Can't wait to get it finally going, it's been such a long wait. Especially considering I added Dr Tims which is supposed to speed things up a bit.
Appreciate the input as always @Garf and @CrimsonTide , been very helpful. Thankyou

 

[CrimsonTide]

Yeah will likely do so. Can't hurt it as you and Garf have pointed out previously.
Can't wait to get it finally going, it's been such a long wait. Especially considering I added Dr Tims which is supposed to speed things up a bit.
Appreciate the input as always @Garf and @CrimsonTide , been very helpful. Thankyou

No problem seems like every tank is a little different. They are their own little biome and environment. I feel you are comfortably on your way to finishing sooner rather than later. Still might be a couple of days lol

 

[DarkReefer]

Day 20 update

Looks like we're getting more movement (yay!)

Salifert Ammonia 0.25

API Ammonia 0.5

Nitrite 2.0

Nitrate 20

pH 8.0

 

[CrimsonTide]

Day 20 update

Looks like we're getting more movement (yay!)

Salifert Ammonia 0.25

API Ammonia 0.5

Nitrite 2.0

Nitrate 20

pH 8.0

See that looks much better.

 

[DarkReefer]

See that looks much better.

Definitely. Things are actually happening and visible now and testing reflecting it accordingly.
I'm glad I didn't go dump any livestock in there prematurely.

I wonder though, once the Ammonia drops completely, do I add livestock from that point once Nitrates are dropped or do I dose some ammonia chloride again (albeit a lesser amount as last time I might've over done it) and see how quickly that drops?

 

[CrimsonTide]

It should be good as long as you aren't adding a bunch of fish at once

 

[CrimsonTide]

With new tanks you should take your time with the bioload at first. Will it be able to handle a pair of clowns? Yes