Cycling Question. Am I doing this right?

[ReefDreamz]

I dosed Nitrocycle to my new 200 gallon dry rock/dry sand system. They say 1 mL per gallon of Nitrocycle gets you to 3 ppm ammonia. I dosed about 135 mL. I tested ammonia using a Red Sea test kit which only goes up to 2 ppm and it was at least 2 ppm probably higher. I then dosed the recommended amount of Fritz Turbostart 900 (236 ml). It has been 3 days and my ammonia level hasn't changed, still testing at 2 ppm or higher since day 1. When should I expect my ammonia to start dropping? Should I dose more Turbostart?

Also, my alkalinity is being consumed which I think is a good sign.

 

[Dan_P]

I dosed Nitrocycle to my new 200 gallon dry rock/dry sand system. They say 1 mL per gallon of Nitrocycle gets you to 3 ppm ammonia. I dosed about 135 mL. I tested ammonia using a Red Sea test kit which only goes up to 2 ppm and it was at least 2 ppm probably higher. I then dosed the recommended amount of Fritz Turbostart 900 (236 ml). It has been 3 days and my ammonia level hasn't changed, still testing at 2 ppm or higher since day 1. When should I expect my ammonia to start dropping? Should I dose more Turbostart?

Also, my alkalinity is being consumed which I think is a good sign.

Ammonia should have declined by now. Did you try measuring nitrite?

Could your bottle of Turbostart have been frozen or over heated?

 

[Uncle99]

Bad ammonia test likely.
Some kits don’t read well at all.
You’ve done nothing wrong, give it a couple of days and your cycled enough for a fish or pair.

 

[ReefDreamz]

Ammonia should have declined by now. Did you try measuring nitrite?

Could your bottle of Turbostart have been frozen or over heated?

Yes my nitrite was 1.5 ppm on day 2 and 3. Today is day 4 and I haven't tested it yet. I was worried about my bottle of TurboStart. It arrived with the cold pack completely warm. It did smell like sulfur though.

 

[brandon429]

Team I’m seeing in private chat a truly strong response rate for carbon boosting vs dead bacteria


please run this test, it’s from Dr. Reefs thread

take two large pinches of flake food fish food any brand and pulverize in the palm

add to tank, in three days I bet that ammonia moves down and don’t add any more ammonia.


facts from all cycling threads: we see stalls claimed nearly daily on red sea and api, but never seneye, this isn’t a seneye post. I have a seven page thread of Red Sea convincing all entrants their fully stocked and running reef wasnt cycled

so it’s not a stretch your tank could be false testing for whatever reason theirs were. The fact is we have never seen Fritz fail to carry a bioload not one time posted to the site. The chances you have the first example tank = mighty slim

all indicators and precedence show if you add fish now, they live breathe and act fine. In the end, nobody loses fish to a cycle and no fish added show ammonia poison symptoms, post any threads to the contrary here / a cursory search shows how hard true loss is to find. A Red Sea false ammonia alert? Daily, eight times a day

 

[brandon429]

Even though I don’t believe this cycle isn’t ready right now, going off sheer precedent alone, the reason to add the carbon is because for five times in a row in chat adding the food/carbon actually made their test kit comply. We saw a sharp drop in the registered ammonia

Anytime a non digital test kit agrees, the keeper will feel much better about trusting the cycle. Heck who doesn’t have three days to wait…dose the carbon and in three days I bet that ammonia moves. And if it doesn’t, that doesn’t mean your cycle is broken lol or we wouldn’t be up to seven pages of incorrect Red Sea reads in our ammonia alerts are misreads thread. I won’t believe a cycle is broken until someone posts some dead fish in a claimed broken cycle thread. They’re all test reading posts, not loss posts.