Cycling questions

[Quintz]

So, I started my cycle on the 7th and it’s now the 25th. Based off of the tests I have taken today it seems like the tank is still cycling. I think the ammonia is reading very close to zero. While the nitrite is reading around 0.25 ppm. As for nitrate it’s most likely sitting between 20 ppm - 40 ppm. Probably closer to 40 ppm. This is just a update on the cycling process and it might be a few more days till the cycle is complete, but I’m looking forward to the future possibilities of the tank. Also could I perhaps do a water change considering the test are reading so low when it comes to ammonia and nitrite? Also the ammonia test is pretty shady, but it was yellow. I can take another test and post if needed.

 

[brandon429]

if you used any type of bottle bac this cycle is already done. those tests can't be used to get the pinpoint date you need, a cycling chart is more reliable

a cycling chart shows ten days to ammonia compliance, and you're way past that wait time. the other two params no longer matter in reef tank cycling, only the ammonia one. the chance this cycle was done a while back is 99.99999%

 

[brandon429]

missing from your cycling troubleshoot: the bottle bac used, the kind of rock, and how you initially fed the system. you likely did what most reefers do in this instance though it's unstated, so you're done. awaiting closing details

 

[Quintz]

missing from your cycling troubleshoot: the bottle bac used, the kind of rock, and how you initially fed the system. you likely did what most reefers do in this instance though it's unstated, so you're done. awaiting closing details

On my other thread I believe you recommended 2 pinches of fish food and waiting two weeks. It’s been a couple days after that, but I used live sand, live water, and dry rock. I didn’t use any bottled bacteria at all on the tank. If the cycle is complete I’m going to go pick up some copepods and phytoplankton tomorrow to seed the tank.

 

[brandon429]

hey neat, agreed after that much contact time with food in place, which degrades into ammonia via protein digestion from resident bacteria inherent in all homebound bodies of water (deamination) plus phosphate, plus carbon, you have a ready start.

can do your plan, it will work. that type of cycle isn't one you can test very well on those kits it's a counted number of days cycle/looking good to go.

fish food is a fine, fine cycle feed method. mighty cheap, doesn't pollute your setup requiring the common 100% water change several ppm of liquid ammonia needs. this is the method I'd use if I was upcycling a 500 gallon reef tank, who wants to do a big water change on one of those/no way.

 

[_cpate3_]

On my other thread I believe you recommended 2 pinches of fish food and waiting two weeks. It’s been a couple days after that, but I used live sand, live water, and dry rock. I didn’t use any bottled bacteria at all on the tank. If the cycle is complete I’m going to go pick up some copepods and phytoplankton tomorrow to seed the tank.

I did 1 pinch of food, 10 days, and it was all done and has been, I’m now 2 weeks strong with not a single ammonia spike yet

 

[Quintz]

hey neat, agreed after that much contact time with food in place, which degrades into ammonia via protein digestion from resident bacteria inherent in all homebound bodies of water (deamination) plus phosphate, plus carbon, you have a ready start.

can do your plan, it will work. that type of cycle isn't one you can test very well on those kits it's a counted number of days cycle/looking good to go.

Thank you Brandon! Can’t wait to get started now. I’m definitely going through with my plan stated above and your lessons on cycling helped out a lot. I just need to pick up some carbon while I’m at it and with time makes small upgrades.

 

[Quintz]

hey neat, agreed after that much contact time with food in place, which degrades into ammonia via protein digestion from resident bacteria inherent in all homebound bodies of water (deamination) plus phosphate, plus carbon, you have a ready start.

can do your plan, it will work. that type of cycle isn't one you can test very well on those kits it's a counted number of days cycle/looking good to go.

fish food is a fine, fine cycle feed method. mighty cheap, doesn't pollute your setup requiring the common 100% water change several ppm of liquid ammonia needs. this is the method I'd use if I was upcycling a 500 gallon reef tank, who wants to do a big water change on one of those/no way.

Oh and one last thing. Is it safe to do a water change now to lower my nitrate?

 

[Quintz]

I did 1 pinch of food, 10 days, and it was all done and has been, I’m now 2 weeks strong with not a single ammonia spike yet

That’s what’s up! Hopefully I have the same luck. I’m going to seed the tank and wait a week before adding fish. So hopefully that helps with the biome of the tank.

 

[brandon429]

you can do any degree of water change you like and the cycling bac will stay adhered to the rocks.

 

[Garf]

@Quintz Great, your tank can now process 2 pinches of flake food, every three weeks. Time to ramp that up.

I did 1 pinch of food, 10 days, and it was all done and has been, I’m now 2 weeks strong with not a single ammonia spike yet

memory loss?

 

[Quintz]

@Quintz Great, your tank can now process 2 pinches of flake food, every three weeks. Time to ramp that up.

memory loss?

By adding copepods and feeding phytoplankton. It should feed the beneficial bacteria in the tank. Also I’m not adding fish for at least 2 more weeks. Same thing when it comes to coral. So, that should be plenty of time to further grow the beneficial bacteria and seed the tank. Hopefully it helps, but only time will tell.

 

[brandon429]

that's true it will feed them as well as bring in more cycling bac. all copepods have cycling bac adhered to them physically as well as the water they came in on has the cycling bac in suspension on little rafts always associated with reef water. this will also start a little bit of the uglies phase in the tank as trophic successions begin but that was inevitable. there isn't much to eat phyto currently, it will mainly just degrade and perhaps feed some of the copepods/no harm either way.

 

[Garf]

By adding copepods and feeding phytoplankton. It should feed the beneficial bacteria in the tank. Also I’m not adding fish for at least 2 more weeks. Same thing when it comes to coral. So, that should be plenty of time to further grow the beneficial bacteria and seed the tank. Hopefully it helps, but only time will tell.

Sounds like a plan

Oh and one last thing. Is it safe to do a water change now to lower my nitrate?

your nitrate isn’t really that high, that’s the nitrite interfering with the nitrate test, I see no reason for a waterchange tbh.

 

[Quintz]

that's true it will feed them as well as bring in more cycling bac. all copepods have cycling bac adhered to them physically as well as the water they came in on has the cycling bac in suspension on little rafts always associated with reef water. this will also start a little bit of the uglies phase in the tank as trophic successions begin but that was inevitable. there isn't much to eat phyto currently, it will mainly just degrade and perhaps feed some of the copepods/no harm either way.

Yeah, I was preparing myself for the ugly phase. I’m just hoping that by adding copepods and starting the ugly phase the copepods will lessen the effects. At least help manage it a bit.

 

[Quintz]

Sounds like a plan

your nitrate isn’t really that high, that’s the nitrite interfering with the nitrate test, I see no reason for a waterchange tbh.

I never knew that could happen. I wonder how much the nitrite messes with the nitrate test.

 

[brandon429]

thats exactly why the other two params aren't factored at this stage, interference + chemically neutral impact of both params on reefing even if they were accurate.

even if your tank was 90 days old (where nitrite is always compliant via wait times)...if you search out nitrate test kit comparison threads they range up to 100 ppm per sample per brand per test taker. so that means a reading of 10 on your kit might be zero true, or 150, until you're dealing in calibrated digital meters and a tank roughly 60 days old it won't matter one iota what your nitrate says.

the reason I haven't tested for nitrate in 24 years of reefing is because it's not necessary to do so, and i keep a lot of corals.

your ammonia test isn't particularly helpful here because there's no load in place, and even when one is in place that kit is likely to show .25-.5 which many interpret to be uncycled, when indeed it's cycled due to wait times already on file. testing with those kits will bring pretty much only confusion, but trusting the ammonia line from a cycling chart lends a clean predictable start date each and every time.

 

[Garf]

I never knew that could happen. I wonder how much the nitrite messes with the nitrate test.

With API, a lot. All of these hobby kits are affected to different degrees. Long and short of it is your nutrient levels are already low due to the limited food source used up to now.

 

[Quintz]

thats exactly why the other two params aren't factored, intereference

even if your tank was 90 days old...if you search out nitrate test kit comparison threads they range up to 100 ppm per sample per brand per test taker. so that means a reading of 10 on your kit might be zero true, or 150, until you're dealing in calibrated digital meters and a tank roughly 60 days old it won't matter one iota what your nitrate says.

the reason I haven't tested for nitrate in 24 years of reefing is because it's not necessary to do so, and i keep a lot of corals.

Wow, I never knew color chart tests could be that unreliable…. Hmmm, Hanna checkers could be the way to go instead and just keep the other tests to compare my results. Also it seems a lot of people take nitrite and nitrate into consideration. Considering a lot of YouTube channels always fixate on numbers and I get most of my information from brs. Maybe I should step back and continue to get my information from reef2reef.

 

[Quintz]

With API, a lot. All of these hobby kits are affected to different degrees. Long and short of it is your nutrient levels are already low due to the limited food source used up to now.

I see. I’ll take your information and Brandon’s then change my perspective of reefing. Moving forward I’ll still seed the tank and continue with my livestock plan. The only thing I won’t be doing is testing for nitrate and nitrite until it’s been 60 days of feeding. Then check to see if anything has changed majorly. Also move away from using api test kits for now on.

Do you guys know of any good digital checkers for nitrite and nitrate levels? Possibly for all parameters.