Cycling question

[AB Corals]

Cycling question! I just setup my new 230 gallon tank. Used dry macro rock and live sand and dumped in some Fritz Turbostart. Following morning I added in Dr. Tims Ammonia. My levels are currently....
8+ ammonia levels (was aiming for 2-4) and not even sure how this happened because I didn't have the recommended amount of ammonia and was going to order more.
After 2 days my nitrates are 80+

Did not test for Nitrites because I currently don't have a test kit for them.

What I'm worried about is stalling the cycle because of the high ammonia levels. I heard it makes your bacteria "sluggish"

Should I just wait out the cycle? Will the bacteria eventually "eat" all the ammonia even if its that high? Or should I do a water change? I really don't want to do a water change on the system since its so large and I just put the water in it 2 days ago.

 

[brandon429]

You can’t stall a cycle, Fritz will work fine. Do a water change after a few days and you’re set.

 

[brandon429]

How to unstick any seemingly stuck cycle

non digital ammonia test kit readings (api, Red Sea, nyos, seachem badges) make you think you aren’t cycled when indeed you are if you owned a $200 expensive seneye meter, you’d never be doubting your cycle status. since .01% of the reefing population owns these, we need a way to help the...

www.reef2reef.com

your tank will follow exactly what we’ve been tracking there


first post in the thread, a claimed 8 ppm stall that wasn’t stalled.

230 gallons is a big water change we usually do this on nanos, to avoid having to do that simply wait one week from today and begin. Add any test animals you want in a week, they’ll be fine as we show. Reason your tester says eight: it’s not a seneye. You do not even have 1 ppm free ammonia much less eight. Never buy a nitrite test kit.


dont add more ammonia you can see conversion is happening merely a week and you’ll be past done. Bottle bac works well, the entry level ammonia test kit sure does not.

 

[Lasse]

Do not feed any more ammonia. Your skyrocket nitrate is in reality a nitrite spike - not real nitrate. Please see here and here

Yes - high ammonium levels have been reported (scientifically) to some times block the second stage (NO2 -> NO3)

In this situation - your only way out is to wait for the NH3/NH4 to going down - according to these two - see here - in your case - no living organism - WC is not needed but may speed up the process (not sure of that)

Keep on with adding nitrification bacteria. Have not used Fritz by my self but I think it is pure nitrification bacteria.

The backside with this is that when all thing is cycled - you will have an unusual high level of nitrate in your system. I prefer to start with very low adding of NH3/NH4 or start with a fish as ammonia producer.

You have conflicting answers here - use your own head to judge what´s right and what´s wrong.

Sincerely Lasse