Cycling - High readings

[surik]

Hi,

I am in week 4 of the cycling with live sand and dry rocks. (lights off, temp 78f)
I used dr tims ammonia towards of second week and dosed ammonia to 2ppm. A week ago I purchased dr. tims one and only solution as the ammonia level was not lowering. now I have ammonia slowly going down but still reading 1ppm. However now I have high nitrites and nitrates. PH is at 8.8. Please advise if I need to do some water change or just be patient? Thanks

 

[Dan_P]

Hi,

I am in week 4 of the cycling with live sand and dry rocks. (lights off, temp 78f)
I used dr tims ammonia towards of second week and dosed ammonia to 2ppm. A week ago I purchased dr. tims one and only solution as the ammonia level was not lowering. now I have ammonia slowly going down but still reading 1ppm. However now I have high nitrites and nitrates. PH is at 8.8. Please advise if I need to do some water change or just be patient? Thanks

Something is happening because nitrite level is up.

What live did you use? It does not seem to be very active. Dr Tim’s can also be very slow.

 

[BanZI29]

Be patient for just a little longer. Keep dosing the one and only, your nitrite will continue to lower and nitrate raise. when that happens you can do a 20% water change.
You may also want to get a different type of bacteria to add like Microbacter7. That may help you along.

 

[surik]

Be patient for just a little longer. Keep dosing the one and only, your nitrite will continue to lower and nitrate raise. when that happens you can do a 20% water change.
You may also want to get a different type of bacteria to add like Microbacter7. That may help you along.

Do I dose one and only with ammonia again?

 

[Troylee]

Do I dose one and only with ammonia again?

No! Let the tank settle with what it’s got and you’re good to go.

 

[jda]

I would stop adding anything and just step away from the test kits for a while. Maybe test again next Monday. Seriously, have a loved on hide your test kits until then.

pH does not matter. Ignore it until photosynthetic stuff starts to grow. You will get a pH boost when this happens and things will get more stable. Even then, the pH will be a byproduct of the amount of co2 in your home/office/whatever and less to do with what is in the tank.

 

[DIFish]

Stop dosing ammonia, do a water change or two to get the nitrates down and you are good to go.

 

[surik]

that is sad. was really hoping to finish the cycling as there is a coral fest this weekend and was looking forward to it , I guess will be doing window shopping

 

[jda]

Your tank will not be cycled for many more months - as in done. It soon will be in a place where it can handle some fish waste and you can start to progress, but it will still be cycling and developing. The tank will not be able to handle a dynamic event or an overload. Just be patient and be smart and you can enjoy your tank and progress along with it. Having the idea that you are done with something can be an issue.

Go an enjoy the coral fest, but I would not buy anything. Even if your tank can handle some ammonia from fish waste, it will still probably be in too much flux for most corals. If you see some established live rock there, feel free to get some of that.

 

[brandon429]

All you do is a large water change and it will work fine. it’s been stewing well past ten days. It’s not required to process that particular wastewater down to zero, that’s old cycling science. The new way is any approximate arrangement of common bottle bac and feed, stewing that long in a particular mix, can just be water changed and what’s left behind on the rocks is attached cycling bacteria.
your new additions will be fine, no more testing is needed because that’s sat for a long time with feed and bottle bac in place. Change the water, can proceed.

 

[brandon429]

With very little effort it’s possible to find that api reading on two year matured reef tanks with nothing wrong, it’s why nobody trusts API. The timeframe you’ve waited is what’s important, bacteria attach to rocks just fine in that time frame. Owing to problems with the kit easily searched, we needed a new way to gauge cycle readiness


case in point. one of twenty search returns with that color

Quick Color HELP

This Thread is meant for those with Good-Great Color Vision to offer some quick Help to Reefers in our community with poor or deficient color vision. Whether it be a photo of a test result, coral, or fish they own or wish to purchase, etc. The goal in Trying to keep it focused on quick help &...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[surik]

Me being color blinded doesn’t help read the tests correctly lol

 

[Dorking It]

Me being color blinded doesn’t help read the tests correctly lol

I feel ya. I'm in the same boat.....Nagging the wife for help

 

[brandon429]

Curious

where did you read in cycling preps to delay adding bottled bacteria / run ammonia alone at the start?

usually, all instructions have you add it with the bacteria on day one

can you post a tank pic let’s see your rock setup. Dr. Tim’s one and only is the most used fish-in cycling bac of them all, literally a million times used and posted where they use fish in the tank safely on day one. That’s why I wasn’t worried you’ve only had the bac in a week. Fish-in cycles aren’t waiting a week, they’re using the system right at the start. If you’re using a normal small bio load after your water change your results will be like the other ones on file

 

[surik]

I didn’t read that. I didn’t want to use it at all. but decided to speed things up after two week. I ordered both and the shipping of one and only got delayed.

 

[brandon429]

Looks great. Plenty of attachment space for the bac/ looking good

 

[surik]

Started to prepare for the water change. Do you think 50% will be enough?

 

[brandon429]

I do. If you have any Dr Tims left add another dose into the clean water and you're set. And even if you don't, in ten years on the board I've never seen a bottle bac cycle in any configuration fail to carry its initial bioload. Acclimate any animals you get carefully as lfs often hold fish in very low salinity to mask diseases... if we then bag float them or skip acc and pop them in the tank that's very stressful having nothing to do with the cycle at all. The right acclimation for fish per the disease forum is from a receiving tank set with matched low salinity then brought up to reef levels over three days before going into the tank display

Corals and inverts aren't usually an issue since they're held at normal salinity

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

0 ammonia and 80 nitrates is a cycled tank. Do a major water change to bring the nitrate down to around 10, then go get your first fish.

 

[surik]

Did 50% water change and poured what was left from one and only (not a lot). Tested the params today:
Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrite: 1
Nitrate API: 80
Nitrate Salifert: between 25 and 50