Cycling Q.

[lissailor]

Hi All,

We have water in the tank! Currently we are 3 days in with dry rock, live sand. I added a few small crabs, snails, and two little shrimp. I hope these will produce enough ammonia to get the cycle started in conjunction with doses of Tim's One&Only.

Today, I took my second test for NH3, N02, and N03. Still not reading any ammonia, but seeing .1 nitrite both days and 10 nitrate on day 2 and 20 nitrate today. I understand the nitrate is probably what is being added with the Tims.

My question is should I not continue to dump Tim's into the tank as recommended on the bottle until I see some ammonia for it to combat? It's quite a lot. Will these critters produce any significant amount of ammonia to begin the cycle? At the recommendation of my LFS, we decided on a few inverts instead of one clownfish. Thoughts? Should I consider dosing a little ammonia?

 

[Peace River]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!!!

 

[P-Dub]

WELCOME!!! Hold the course. They survived in a bottle without food, so...

 

[Ippyroy]

Don't add ammonia. Just add some fish food. Fish food will add the ammonia and this will feed the nitrifying bacteria.
Welcome to the club!

 

[lissailor]

Yes, thank you all! I should have said that I am adding about 10 pellets of food a day. So I figured ghost feed, or feed the crabs, is probably all the same. I'll keep the testing and use the tim's to mitigate the ammonia when it comes.

 

[CMMorgan]

Welcome to the fishy family!! Ghost feed.... stay the course. Remember that this is a marathon, not a race. If you want things to happen fast then reefing and baseball are out. Hang in there... good things come to those who wait.

 

[Fred2482]

Welcome!

 

[Jeffcb]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

 

[lissailor]

Thanks all. This place is great!

 

[FishSmyth]

Welcome!

 

[VG30DE-TT]

How big is your tank and what test kit are you using?

 

[Weasel1960]

Welcome to R2R. Stay the course and good luck.

 

[lissailor]

How big is your tank and what test kit are you using?

Reefer 350. So ~90gl total. I am using the Salifert kits. Skimmer is running with cup off and seems to be settling in. I added a biobrick in the cump and also installed a clarisea (I am an tinkerer). Have the bypass open as not to remove anything from the water. Here is a quick and dirty pic from this morning.

 

[Salty Rambler]

Welcome to R2R! You've already received some great advice to stay the course. Your tank setup looks great so far!

 

[VG30DE-TT]

With a tank of descent size like yours you may have missed the ammonia "spike" If your getting Nitrate (No3) then you have Nitrifying bacteria consuming things and the cycle is going, you just need your bacteria to become more mature and established. Nothing wrong with taking your time. I'd add a fish long before I added ammonia.

 

[lissailor]

With a tank of descent size like yours you may have missed the ammonia "spike" If your getting Nitrate (No3) then you have Nitrifying bacteria consuming things and the cycle is going, you just need your bacteria to become more mature and established. Nothing wrong with taking your time. I'd add a fish long before I added ammonia.

I was not under the impression the ammonia would spike and subside much later and also I thought the Dr. Tim's was adding the Nitrate directly. I plan and want to go slow, but my daughters REALLY want to know when we can add fish. lol.

Would it be possible to add two clowns in a week or so and continue to add Dr. Tims + water change to mitigate any adverse conditions?

 

[VG30DE-TT]

I used dr Tim's when I stared mine, that it's a bottle of nitrifying bacteria, what's in that bottle consumes ammonia and turns it into No3. I've only been doing this a few years, but that's the understating that I have and why we use the "bacteria in a bottle" to get things kicked off.


I just think if your contemplating dosing ammonia, it may as well be from a fish, just my novice opinion

I think your probaly ready for a significant water change and a fish.

 

[maceto]

Welcome!

 

[G Santana]

Welcome to R2R

 

[BaysEndReef]