Cycling question !!!

[Ruben's Reef]

I got the QT running since Sunday with Dr.Tims the one and only bacteria. Now, following Dr.Tim procedures I did my first test yesterday night (24 Hours) and this is what I got on Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate. I will give until later today to do another test. What's your opinions or recommendations?
I also have a bottle of Stability that I also use on my freshwater Mbunas tank after water changes.
Thanks

 

[Palyzoa]

Keep watching for ammonia to fall and nitrate to rise and fall followed by nitrate. You will want to make sure you to keep feeding the bacteria with an ammonia source to keep the cycle going. Looks like a good start tho ;)

 

[enveeRF]

You are on the right track. I've used higher amount of ammonia when I cycled, but you don't have to.

 

[tankstudy]

Wait till ammonia and nitrite zero out. During that time, you can add more ammonia, however, do not add any more till ammonia and nitrite zero out. If nitrites get near ~ 5ppm, your cycle will greatly slow or come to a complete stop.

 

[Ruben's Reef]

Keep watching for ammonia to fall and nitrate to rise and fall followed by nitrate. You will want to make sure you to keep feeding the bacteria with an ammonia source to keep the cycle going. Looks like a good start tho ;)

Thanks.

 

[Ruben's Reef]

Wait till ammonia and nitrite zero out. During that time, you can add more ammonia, however, do not add any more till ammonia and nitrite zero out. If nitrites get near ~ 5ppm, your cycle will greatly slow or come to a complete stop.

So, just leave it for now until Ammonia and Nitrite gets zero. What about Nitrate? Did I have to watch that too?
Thanks

 

[tankstudy]

What about Nitrate? Did I have to watch that too?

Since you have nothing other than bacteria in the tank you do not have to worry about nitrate till after the cycle is done.

I generally prefer to keep about 10 ppm nitrate after ammonia and nitrite hit zero. If its higher than that, I usually do a water change to bring it down to where I want it before stocking the tank.

 

[brandon429]

that tank is too low on surface area to run a typical fishless cycle, your numbers are going to be way off even when it is cycled. are you going to add extra support filters to the setup or more surface area? if not, then don't go to 2 ppm ammonia like the directions say, go to 1/2-1 ppm max

you could remove the upcoming headache bigtime (assuming no more additions are coming, this is the surface area we're working with) if you would not test for anything at all and just use 30 days time as your cycling goal.

There are online calcs that tell you exactly how much ammonium chloride to add to make any volume of water 1/2-1 part per million, we don't need a tester that reads inaccurately too unhelp us (heh/api slant)

all you do is add your bottle bac, add the ammonium chloride estimate from those charts, and circulate the system two weeks. hit it again at that point

circulate two more weeks, a total of 4, and two doses of ammonia and bottle bac.

at the end of 30 days, do a full water change, you are as cycled as possible for that amnt of surface area.

no test cycling is amazing and cannot fail, cycles don't vary. surface area and boosts do, and we just accounted for all that. its ok to test too, all 3, but simple searches show the API madness therein, and that's on tank with normal surface area in tow. That's a special confound for your cycle to consider.

We do not need testing to cycle any aquarium at any time, they all follow the same path which is why online cycling charts don't vary much other than a handful of days. After your full water change, the system will be able to digest 1/2 ppm in 24 hours, but only if you are using salifert ammonia.

api will give ya the permanent .25 we can see from searches. 2 ppm ammonia is too high for that setup to use as the final digestion proof test. time to ditch the directions and do microbiology instead

 

[Ruben's Reef]

Since you have nothing other than bacteria in the tank you do not have to worry about nitrate till after the cycle is done.

I generally prefer to keep about 10 ppm nitrate after ammonia and nitrite hit zero. If its higher than that, I usually do a water change to bring it down to where I want it before stocking the tank.

Got it.Thanks

 

[Ruben's Reef]

that tank is too low on surface area to run a typical fishless cycle, your numbers are going to be way off even when it is cycled. are you going to add extra support filters to the setup or more surface area? if not, then don't go to 2 ppm ammonia like the directions say, go to 1/2-1 ppm max

you could remove the upcoming headache bigtime (assuming no more additions are coming, this is the surface area we're working with) if you would not test for anything at all and just use 30 days time as your cycling goal.

There are online calcs that tell you exactly how much ammonium chloride to add to make any volume of water 1/2-1 part per million, we don't need a tester that reads inaccurately too unhelp us (heh/api slant)

all you do is add your bottle bac, add the ammonium chloride estimate from those charts, and circulate the system two weeks. hit it again at that point

circulate two more weeks, a total of 4, and two doses of ammonia and bottle bac.

at the end of 30 days, do a full water change, you are as cycled as possible for that amnt of surface area.

no test cycling is amazing and cannot fail, cycles don't vary. surface area and boosts do, and we just accounted for all that. its ok to test too, all 3, but simple searches show the API madness therein, and that's on tank with normal surface area in tow. That's a special confound for your cycle to consider.

We do not need testing to cycle any aquarium at any time, they all follow the same path which is why online cycling charts don't vary much other than a handful of days. After your full water change, the system will be able to digest 1/2 ppm in 24 hours, but only if you are using salifert ammonia.

api will give ya the permanent .25 we can see from searches. 2 ppm ammonia is too high for that setup to use as the final digestion proof test. time to ditch the directions and do microbiology instead

Thanks. That makes sense. Also, in the filter I have a media bag with Seachem Matrix to add more surface area for beneficial bacteria.

 

[brandon429]

that alone would probably bring all 2 ppm levels up to par. that's huge sa

From our cycling thread, the handiest takeaway is that the -within 30 days- tanks are the ones we need to test, for ammonia only, a true cycle is when surfaces do all the work vs bacteria added to the water. max time on that all conditions ideal is about 12~ days

suspension cycling is why a 4 day old fishless cycle tank registers some mixed nitrate and nitrite. Those two levels simply don't matter, not even the nitrite, they always perform the same post 30 days and post water change if testing is to be ran, its universal and that stood out as a neat workaround for predicted challenges here. We've shown that elevated nitrite doesn't matter either, something totally oppositional to the directions on the bottle. Single param cycling is unbeatable in repeatability.

its neat that only time and submersion was needed, not ever the hand of the aquarist if we aren't in a particular pre-30 day rush. From that, we were able to build gigantic tank cleaning threads which is only furtherance of bacterial testing...ie how to clean a cruddy 200 gallon system all at once and lose nothing, mini cycle nothing. 100% of both those threads is based on how long bacteria take to adhere to something wet, and how hard it is to get them off once adhered/bioglued. nice qt setup real clean looking

nitrate testing is clearly handy, post cycle, for algae tuning and coral coloration tuning.

nitrite, wont even own the test.