Cycling help

[brandon429]

Wiz is presenting a nice by the rules mode to keep in mind, im operating off the assumption you can barely skip cycle this tank and proceed (next time move over much more purple live rock lol) and he's stating caution, not able to be verified so quickly and reconsider timing of things. this is a necessary balance so that people don't go all crazy on tank setups, I like the counterbalance we provide and the reader picks the happy medium.

owing to Wiz's side of things, if you are unsure of ammonia situations in your tank then simply reducing the fish bioloading until a little more time passes will work...reintroduce them as your ammonia test kits allows.

if as of now you are truly seeing zero on ammonia, then its ok to not factor nitrite at all for reasons mentioned and you barely made it man LOL next time buy or move over much more cured purple surfaces

 

[themadman]

are you doing a fishless cycle

Yes but with live rock not ammonia dosing. Had a good amount of die off in the live rock that resulted in ammonia spike past the darkest color on Red Sea test of 2 for 5 days. Ammonia has been 0 since day 6 and this is day 20. Had the big nitrite spike followed by plummet and nitrate spike. But my nitrite testing has fluctuated between .2 and less than .05 since it's significant drop on day 12. Haven't ever gotten a 0 reading on nitrite but have had it almost clear. Then it will go back up to .2 and then down to almost clear. Nitrate has been over 50 on every test since it spiked.

 

[samdizshiz]

sounds like yur just cycling thru bud make sure to keep your ammonia up otherwise your benifecial bactieria will die ammonia =food sice there is no waste in the tank theres no food that why i like to add my own ammonia so that i can control all aspects

 

[themadman]

Wiz is presenting a nice by the rules mode to keep in mind, im operating off the assumption you can barely skip cycle this tank and proceed (next time move over much more purple live rock lol) and he's stating caution, not able to be verified so quickly and reconsider timing of things. this is a necessary balance so that people don't go all crazy on tank setups, I like the counterbalance we provide and the reader picks the happy medium.

owing to Wiz's side of things, if you are unsure of ammonia situations in your tank then simply reducing the fish bioloading until a little more time passes will work...reintroduce them as your ammonia test kits allows.

if as of now you are truly seeing zero on ammonia, then its ok to not factor nitrite at all for reasons mentioned and you barely made it man LOL next time buy or move over much more cured purple surfaces

Yes I am very confident that there is zero ammonia from test to test. I have had nothing even close to reading any ammonia since day 6 and I have tested every day. I am certainly not a person who will go throw 10 fish in the tank now with this information. Lol. I would do 1 fish and some CUC and proceed with caution certainly. And I will do some more significant water changes to get nitrate down before putting 1 fish in as well.

 

[samdizshiz]

so basicly you need to add some type of ammonia

 

[themadman]

sounds like yur just cycling thru bud make sure to keep your ammonia up otherwise your benifecial bactieria will die ammonia =food sice there is no waste in the tank theres no food that why i like to add my own ammonia so that i can control all aspects

Yes this is one reason I raised these questions today. I am not knowledgable as to whether I needed to feed the bacteria now that it has been so long since ammonia has been registered on a test. But thought there may still be enough decay going on in the tank to feed it but it is processing so well that I continue to read 0? I did put a few fish food pellets in yesterday and still 0 today. Don't know how much food I would need to put in to be sufficient? I don't have any pure ammonia on hand and don't know if it would be smart to go that route at this stage anyways since I have not done that from the start I think it may complicate things for me.

 

[themadman]

That makes percent sense.

This was supposed to say "perfect" obviously. Lol. I was in the drive-through when I responded with this.

 

[brandon429]

I strongly think you made it and Wiz is right to not push it next time ha

 

[samdizshiz]

you might be right on the might complicate it more but u can try just adding some blood worms or flake food till u see and increse in ammonia and in 24 hrs if it gose down then you should be good to add fish my best thing would to get a bottle of pure ammonia add some little by little test until you get a reading and check tomarrow if its gone your good

 

[themadman]

I strongly think you made it and Wiz is right to not push it next time HA (pusing it being move no waste man and move more lr ha !!)

Ha! I am definitely an admitted newbie but certainly trying to learn and do it right! One other question would be when do you recommend I start running the UV sterilizer? I've got an emperor aquatics 25 watt set up and ready to go but had read many differing opinions on running during cycling and thought I would wait.

 

[themadman]

you might be right on the might complicate it more but u can try just adding some blood worms or flake food till u see and increse in ammonia and in 24 hrs if it gose down then you should be good to add fish my best thing would to get a bottle of pure ammonia add some little by little test until you get a reading and check tomarrow if its gone your good

I did have several worms deteriorating in there until just a few days ago, definitely less than a week ago. I was watching the process happen so I do know there was some waste still in the tank being processed for sure.

 

[themadman]

And seriously thank you all for taking time to help me out!

 

[brandon429]

the UV will harm nothing no matter when you run it, day 1 or day 3000

it will either act on an intended water invader, or not. that's the risk. if you have no invaders and the UV is running strong, all the better, it might help keep things that way. I would use one if I had a large tank.

the nuances of whether to use or not use are part of what we all debate, my take on them comes from personal use, use in hundreds of tank correction threads where they worked well when sized and flow is correct, and from actual lab testing in my microbiology lab we did with UV in the 90s

based on that, I choose to like them. but the fact remains whether they are used for algae control or not, you aren't going to stall a cycle with one.

 

[themadman]

the UV will harm nothing no matter when you run it, day 1 or day 3000

it will either act on an intended water invader, or not. that's the risk. if you have no invaders and the UV is running strong, all the better, it might help keep things that way. I would use one if I had a large tank.

the nuances of whether to use or not use are part of what we all debate, my take on them comes from personal use, use in hundreds of tank correction threads where they worked well when sized and flow is correct, and from actual lab testing in my microbiology lab we did with UV in the 90s

based on that, I choose to like them. but the fact remains whether they are used for algae control or not, you aren't going to stall a cycle with one.

Thanks again. Your knowledge is very impressive and helpful!

 

[brandon429]

it is a fair disclaimer that I weave in strong opinion into my types and the only balance for that in this world is someone with an opposite take willing to post. batteries need a + and - to work, and extracting any useful info about reefs off web poster shpeels also need the push pull of varying takes and approaches to keep accountabilities and accuracies in line heh

readers have to get all this bulk info and then pick a method and run it...add their own follow ups in a few mos, circle continues for next reader. fun~thanks for posting your thread is a good example for our cycling thread

 

[themadman]

it is a fair disclaimer that I weave in strong opinion into my types and the only balance for that in this world is someone with an opposite take willing to post. batteries need a + and - to work, and extracting any useful info about reefs off web poster shpeels also need the push pull of varying takes and approaches to keep accountabilities and accuracies in line heh

readers have to get all this bulk info and then pick a method and run it...add their own follow ups in a few mos, circle continues for next reader. fun~thanks for posting your thread is a good example for out cycling thread

That's awesome and I will definitely post a follow up to how this turns out!

 

[brandon429]

all the stuff I mentioned about Wiz above is from another cycling thread lol, just clarifying confusion I was thinking it was this thread lol busy cycling day.

 

[samdizshiz]

I did have several worms deteriorating in there until just a few days ago, definitely less than a week ago. I was watching the process happen so I do know there was some waste still in the tank being processed for sure.[/https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/n...d-cocktail-shrimp-live-rock-no-shrimp.214618/

 

[samdizshiz]

That's awesome and I will definitely post a follow up to how this turns out!

read this thread and u will be an expert haha:)

 

[themadman]

Just a little update: I'm glad I listened to the advice given or I would still be sitting here twiddling my thumbs. Nitrites continue to read between .05 and 0.1. Not sure if it's my test kit or what. I have since added some micro hermits and some snails. Also got a bicolor blenny named Ragnar and two cleaner shrimp. Pretty awesome to see Ragnar already let the cleaner shrimp clean him off. That in-and-of itself was cool enough to make getting into this hobby worth it. He also went to town on what hair algae was left and made quick work of that. They have all been in the tank since Friday and all doing very very well. All of them were eating like pigs by the next morning after adding them to the tank. Ammonia has continued to read zero on daily tests. Nitrates are still high at over 4 PPM. I've got some red macro and some chaeto in the sump now so hoping that will help with nitrates. I've done several water changes ranging from 5-15 gallons and haven't seen a significant drop yet. I've got some worms and nassarius snails coming from inland aquatics tomorrow. I have a 4 inch sandbed and haven't seen any signs of life in it yet. Hoping adding them to the tank will help with that. I do see a ton of the little tiny white bugs or whatever they are all over the glass in tank and sump. Anyways I'm excited to say the shrimp and blenny adapted very well and look great after almost a week in.