Cycling issue

itsjustb0866 · Jul 31, 2022

I have returned to the hobby after 3 year hiatus. I had a few successful nano tanks in the past. It’s taken a bunch of research to remember everything. Glad to be back, however it seems I’ve made a rookie move.

I discovered an issue cycling my new IM 30L. I went slow, and used live sand (unfortunately no LR), dosed Turbostart, and watched the tank cycle until I tested 0 ammonia 0 nitrites and a small amount of nitrates. Added 2 fish (Pygmy angel, damsel). A few snails and blue legs. Tested fine. I felt after 90 days since the setup it was ready for a few easy LPS.

I stupidly tested after I bought the LPS (birds nest, basto, zoa, and a favia) before going in the tank and saw massive 0.5 ammonia spike. I retested and received the same result. 0.5 ammonia, 0 Nitrates, 0 Nitrites. I didn’t have a choice but to put the corals in the tank anyway.

Was I fooled by Turbostart? I never used it before but figured I’d use it because I had no LR to cycle with.

So I panicked, did a small one gallon water change (that’s all I had), and put chemipure blue in the filter media rack. Everything seems to be fine. I don’t want to loose what I have in the tank. I’m ticked and need some advice. Thank you guys.

brandon429 · Jul 31, 2022

this is cycled, and what cycled tanks run at. the old rules said zero ammonia was required, they're wrong, about what you're posting is always what red sea or api shows in any cycle. you can't have an uncycled tank carrying that much life, it'd be dead. your cycle is fine, no further inspection needed.

brandon429 · Jul 31, 2022

cease testing for ammonia and nitrite for the life of this tank, those two params will never drift out of spec. i'll never even own the kits, not needed start to finish. we run large cycling threads, hundreds of pages combined, of testless cycles where we use # of days underwater to set the start date.

you're far, far beyond the start date for a fritz cycle. one aspect of new cycling science is that doubt and hesitation don't apply, there isn't a post cycle reef that fails to cycle at month three carrying all that life.

you're seeing an nh4 level which reefing doesn't factor.

convert that reading to nh3: what does that read then when we see the scale of ammonia toxicity as it presents in reef tanks (nh3)?

the real levels of ammonia are not just ten times lower than what you're seeing, they're likely a hundred times lower if you owned the right digital nh3 meter. what you're seeing as a reading is exactly why folks don't trust api, there's too many ways to foul or misread the kit. the readings rarely, rarely, match tank presentation (pure health evident, a pic will show a perfectly fine working reef)

brandon429 · Jul 31, 2022

Its not just the test kits causing false ammonia alert posts, it's the old cycling rules stating zero ammonia is required or a crash is impending. that's 100% false, opposite of truth.

I plan on making this the largest thread on the web of false ammonia alerts over time, I back edit examples of false stalls in here.

Sustained Ammonia spikes are misreads

The reason you think your reef tank can’t control its ammonia is due to false training from old cycling science. That and you don’t own a seneye on the tank in question: if you did, you wouldn’t ever think your ammonia was out of control...

www.reef2reef.com

literally every single post there is someone determined to be stalled, doom impending we must accept, and me telling them nine reasons they're not about to have a crash. they provide hecka kickback lol look how mad they get when you just remind them their tank has been running ok for two years because it's cycled, not because it's uncycling.

we can then click on any name badge from ANY entrant in that thread, select see content, and see if they posted about a tank crash

they never do. it's all false, thanks to nh4 readings from non digital brands-name brand of kit doesn't matter. that's 90% red sea fails above. and in not one case has a calibrated seneye unit ever showed a single display tank unable to rapidly convert extra test load ammonia (because they report in nh3 to thousandths ppm level)

your cycle is set, cease verifying it forever and aim all concerns into fish disease prevention using tricks from Jays forum that require hard work and implementation planning. turbo start is the top cycling bac if you keep it cool in storage, look how well it's worked is how I see this thread vs whether or not it's broken.

the end point: you have a fully running reef tank looking sharp, that means cycled, always.

brandon429 · Jul 31, 2022

I gotta be honest with the chemistry crew

remember that show Tanked, Wade and Brett
(whom I like vm/fanster lol)

those guys got a lot of flak online about practices, I'm sure we've all read the standard accusations of shortcomings.

well it just so happens that failing to cycle correctly, and exposing 26 tangs to 'certain ammonia burn' is the #1 accusation

and it's false, it's a false charge from the crowd who has no permission to know how to control a cycle or choose a terminable end date for one before the tank is built. only sellers can do that. they have the unspoken rule.

any common bottle bac does what they do, ammonia carry is the easy part.

enter stage left: cryptocarion
their challenge is sourcing pre quarantined fish.

adding them into displays that don't require fallowing is rather genius, we owe them failed credit due as a public. now pay up

heh

They were not violating any laws of updated cycling science

they have a disease control + maintenance challenge. moving over established biomedia plus using bottle bac is a laughably easy cycle, it's hilarious the public didn't know that while scrutinizing their show. I'm busting the public, Wade and Brett did well. the market certainly isn't going to support 50 yellow tangs anymore in a tank, supplies will adjust accordingly to demand. they're providing skip cycle biology that would pass a seneye audit, and was apparent in all the fish behavior + feed and waste control (cycled) that all the setups presented. fish disease was and is the ongoing challenge. ATM colony bac, what they sell, is active enough we use it testless in my cycling threads and they always turn out great.