Cycling my First Saltwater Tank

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j90ramos

j90ramos

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Man, people on here make this so much more complicated than it needs to be. If you have a friend with a tank or a reputable tank to get a bit of live rock rubble from, just pop that in your sump and you are good to go
Don’t have any friends that have tanks. Only way I can get live rocks is from lfs or online.
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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J

Your cycle has been done for a while now

I'm just watching each day to see how long it takes peers who've already seen the 40 page cycle analysis thread to refer you to it :)

Reason you're not being referred to it: people love overcomplicating even simple bottle bac cycles

There's not a single thing you need to test, verify, dose, feed or concern about regarding this cycle.

One hint: your api reading is what any five year old fully stocked reef would read for ammonia.
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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New fork in your path:

Two choices, old cycling science vs new

If wants old cycling science, continue the cycle troubleshooting + retesting + reverification galore, then repeat it again in May just to make sure

But If you want new cycling science, cease testing for any cycling parameter, do a water change to export some of the algae feed old cycling science has had you add, and select a fish disease protocol from the disease forum, enact it, then add fish. Your tank cannot be made safer for fish by doing anything cycle related

It can only be made safe when you choose and enact a disease protocol from Jay's forum. You used the best cycling kit available, it worked, ur done a while ago. Well before today, it's just your kits have that long of a lag time to reveal partial truths about your cycle status
 
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j90ramos

j90ramos

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J

Your cycle has been done for a while now

I'm just watching each day to see how long it takes peers who've already seen the 40 page cycle analysis thread to refer you to it :)

Reason you're not being referred to it: people love overcomplicating even simple bottle bac cycles

There's not a single thing you need to test, verify, dose, feed or concern about regarding this cycle.

One hint: your api reading is what any five year old fully stocked reef would read for ammonia.
Appreciate the advice and breakdown.
How about the nitrates? nothing to worry about that.
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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Agreed, nitrates simply don't matter

Very much cycled tanks on the site show both zero nitrate and some show 160ppm

It's level isn't factored

You used fritz known to adhere to submerged surfaces in under three days

This whole time you've been dealing with api test kit guessing but the cycle was done by day three ish max. At that point the tank was as safe for fish as it is now, or next month

That's a barren tank with no biome other than basic ammonia control, you'll need disease preps for your fish to make up for the non live rock start. Even if you did use live rock you'd still need disease preps, no getting around that for sure
 

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal

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You don’t need much, maybe 0.5 lb more or less. All this is doing is seeding established bacteria to your current tank
I don't disagree with adding live rock, but wouldn't bottled bac do the same thing at this point?
 

FlowGod

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I don't disagree with adding live rock, but wouldn't bottled bac do the same thing at this point?
The end results are the same if you use the correct bacteria, but adding live rock is so much easer than buying another product to dose and keep an eye on. I think you are getting a lot more than nitrifying bacteria with a little live rock as well (sponges, pods, etc.) Especially if this is a first tank being set up for J90, why not keep it super simple and not have to worry about certain dosages, if the cycle is completed, etc. Just toss it in and let nature do its work.
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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I don't recall seeing a single live rock-included cycle that wasn't instantly done/skip cycled/on the entire site for all the years I've been here.

now if someone only puts a ping pong ball amount of live rock in a 120 and wants to house 3 queen angels that's not normal

but even if someone puts 10-15 lbs of quality cured live rock in a display, and 100 pounds of totally dry rock, that's still a skip cycle. 15 lbs of live rock runs any starting bioload in reefing, including a few queen angels if pressed lol
 

hexcolor reef

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Any suggestion I need to do to get it higher
Throw in some food. Reef roids will spike nitrates quick. And you won’t have to worry about the uneaten food in the substrate but any food will spike your nitrates. Get it around 10PPM no higher than 20ppm. I push 40ppm with no harm, while keeping phosphate levels 1.0ppm
 

brandon429

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The reason you wouldn't do that J is because you're two weeks past being done, we don't just load up tanks with reef roids when there's nothing to eat them, you're going to become an algae farm soon if you keep adhering to old cycling science

When lights hit= algae comes by redoing your cycle well past the done date

*you're being trained to ignore disease preps and focus on redundancy for water bacteria that have weeks in place. Old cycling science refuses to look at and consider that by day ten on any cycling chart, ammonia drops and is safe.

Here's the thread you're being withheld from: old cycling science only knows how to teach ammonia control fear over and over and over



Your cycle can't be starved at this point even if you stopped feeding for three years. You've packed in organics bigtime, enough food to fallow until 2026 no joke- that long.

You're simply done

You don't need to feed, test for anything or help the cycle at all says big thread

If you add fish they will live, but they'll infect your tank with disease. Choose and implement a disease protocol says big thread
 
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brandon429

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Why does it even matter if you're done or not:

Because having a clearly defined start date/ end cycle date/ tells you when you can carry fish and that's when you move away from cycling and into disease preps: you're there

you don’t need to worry about bacteria any more as long as this tank has water in it

if you were concerned about ability to handle ammonia, which you shouldnt be, you’d add more rock/attachment area for the copious bacteria already in place. Old cycling science never factors surface area or discusses it: old cycling science only focuses on bacteria and what non digital test kits say

the reason you know you have plenty of surface area already is because threads for 400 reefs scaped like yours exist already, their ammonia carry is fine

your bacteria have been given 3x the required amount of attachment time, your surface area copies already running reefs, = cycle is done
 
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