Cycling stage problem. Please help!

[Radoi Florin]

Hi! I’ve started a saltwater tank on 14th August and I have some strage problems with it. I’ve added 25kg of live rock and 20 kg of live sand and some nitrifying bacteria. I didn’t added any amonnia source after that because I thinked that some of the organic stuff on those rock will break down. So after 9 days my readings were 0 amonnia, 0 nitrite, 50 nitrate. So I thought my cycling stage was finished so I’ve made a 30% water change.
After that I have bought 4 shrimps 1 clown fish and 1 damsel fish. After one day in the thank they were hard breathing and red gills, the shrimps looked ok. So I thought omg, I still have amonnia in my tank. So I tushed to the fish store and bought Sachem prime with sachem stability. I saved the livestock in my tank with those 2 but the readings for ammonia are 2.0, nitrite 0 and the nitrate 50!!! So the cycling stage is not finished, right? I have high nitrates because of the salt I use? Redsea coral pro? I have a refugium in my sump but the algea is to small to consume those nitrates. I can’t add NOPOX because my skimmer didn’t arrived yet. Even if I change 50% of the water in 5 hours the readings will be the same.
How can I cycle the tank in this stage? I’m adding 10ml of sachem stability every day. And how can I lower the nitrates. Those can’t come from the nytryfing bacteria because my amonnia is too high so my cycling stage is not done.
And Some green algae started to build on the back glass of my aquarium
Can you help me? I really want to save my livestock. The look ok only because I use Sachem products everyday

 

[brandon429]

It’s fish disease from skipping fish disease preps as most likely stressor, not a cycling issue, post pics of the tank not of the misreading ammonia test kit.


clues we are looking for:

cloudy water vs totally clear, laser clear water which a crashing tank with free ammonia killing animals won’t have


we are looking for the placement in the pic of the non diseased fish, do they all hover at the top vs space out normally, showing they’re not struggling to breathe which ammonia poisoning will cause


we are looking for evidence the massive amount of live rock added was truly live, which skip cycles any reef, regardless of your bottle bac which itself allows skip cycling (total ammonia control)


the reason you show free ammonia is a test misread from adding in reactive dosing agents, any form of water prep like prime or others will cause the false reading spike, we have a big study thread for these events it’s where the checklist above comes from, all based on pics of your tank— not pics of a nine dollar cheap ammonia test kit.


now if you had seneye calibrated giving these levels, I’d get out my notepad and take notes. Preparing for api or Red Sea false ammonia reading #34,657 post a full tank pic.

any set of rocks and or sand that has sat in water long enough to grow algae is fully cycled, and there are no partial ready cycles they’re either done or not done. In your case, the rocks sat in water long before you bought them so they brought in that potentiation for algae, meaning they're pre cycled and ammonia never was an issue at all. This was a skip cycle setup.

 

[homer1475]

I would agree with brandon, if only this one time.

 

[fachatga]

Nitrates are still coming from converting ammonia from what I can see. Just because you have some ammonia doesn’t mean none had been concerted to nitrate. When the cycle is done do a big water change. 50 won’t hurt the fish. Ammonia is what to be concerned with. Not the nitrates.

 

[brandon429]

The ammonia read is false, from adding prime, be sure and don’t skip over that assessment portion. It’s important in reefing not to instantly doubt cycles and ammonia on every posted whim, it teaches doubt to others falsely. If this was a real ammonia report, which none ever are, he’d be reporting death and loss and gray water, but his report centers solely around api or red sea false ammonia reading as 100% of all stuck cycle threads do.


nobody can assess ammonia until we see tank pics (cue the api pic anyway lol, forget about the prime interference, prepare for total cycling doubt though the entire tank is already predicted above)


when someone using seneye that has been proofed on a running reef for accuracy reports free ammonia in another tank using the meter, we listen up and expect for pics of the tank in question to show wreckage.

But when the reports are api and Red Sea, you never ever ever ever believe the reporter because it’s not seneye, thats how ammonia troubleshooting works.

post one full clear tank pic here. Then we can start the api madness for nine pages, pics of a normal skip cycle reef with infected LFS clowns come first.

it’s very rare for anyone to list that they’ve used prime causing the false reading. Mostly they omit the info, all the cycle umps believe the posted test pic and they never ask about interferences at all. Peers falsely train each other on cycling facts.

 

[DrZoidburg]

From how I am understanding this. Your tank was cycled only to the limit of the ammonia you dose. Maybe that adding 2 fish and 4 shrimp exceeded what your bacteria could do. By adding the ammonia reducer it is not being used as much by bacteria this is why you see it still on test kit. If adding too much ammonia reducer it will continue to work even after a water change and show high test results as well.

 

[brandon429]

what does set the ammonia control bioload limit is the degree of surface area, and he’s not lacking. You’re trying to validate a compromised test, earlier above we mentioned how peers never discover or care about prime causing false readings


we got merely lucky he mentioned using prime, most omit the info totally, and cycle umps fully believe the kit because they always doubt the bacteria not the test kit.

post a clear tank picture quickly, before this thread goes sideways. The pic is going to be a normal, skip cycle reef. Even if live rock is directly mis stated, and it’s dry white rock, bottle bac is why the pics are of clean water and not gray, smelly, crashing water with dead fish



can fish be fed and kept with live shrimp two weeks in an uncycled tank?

 

[DrZoidburg]

I see what your end goal is here I have been reading all your other threads, and following what your interested in.

 

[DrZoidburg]

It comes at the expense in some cases like this individual.

 

[brandon429]

his tank meets one of these two proof threads

1.

A thread tracking pure skip cycle instant reefs, no bottle bac

THE GOLDEN EXAMPLE OF A SKIP CYCLE DAY 1 REEF https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/octo-high-end-sps-skip-cycle-build.713256/ read that entire thread before you read ours. that's the heart of skip cycling. Everything we do going forward in this thread reflects on that ability above, in the #1...

www.reef2reef.com

we need only one clear tank pics to know which of these two apply to his reef, either way he’s done cycling.


2.

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

after a pic of this reef is shown we will pick the large work set from above that best matches the pic posted.


if you have another set of examples to add Dr. Zoidberg, before he posts a pic based on your cycle work, add it now so we can see where his example falls in your work experience.




Here is a link from Dr. Zoidberg, in case he doesn’t post any other examples we can match to coming tank pics

My thoughts on nitrite.

chloride through the chloride cells in the gills In saltwater fish - the chloride cell operate the other way - transport out chloride - this is maybe a reason why nitrite uptaken by the digestive tract do not accumulate in the body. But this cost energy in the long run. however - one of the...

www.reef2reef.com

we now have three clear links to match upcoming tank pics to.

 

[Radoi Florin]

the water looks a little bit cloudy… but idk, i just cleand up the tank so maybe is sand in the water.

 

[brandon429]

Well done, your tank is cycled fully. Quit testing for ammonia, especially nitrite, and nitrate can come later when you buy a digital nitrate test kit.


as you can see, your cycle is done. Study the two links above, the top two from the prior post. Your rock indeed was live skip cycle rock. Nice tank! The damsel brings in powerful disease that will affect other fish coming up, though


disease risk is the issue, not cycling.


your reef is fully up and running, no water changes are needed simply stop testing for ammonia and nitrite and begin reading the fish disease forum to fix the issues the damsel has brought in.

agreed unrinsed sand does that, it’ll settle in a few hours. If it was ammonia issues, all your tank would be dead last week.