Cycling using Aquaforest products

Aezeeazil

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Dear reefers,
Just a short introduction, I'm new to reefing and I'm from Singapore.
Currently I'm running a reefer 250. I started my cycle on 15 April '20.
Started off with caribsea shape rocks and Fiji pink sand as substrate. For the past 2 weeks, I've deligently dose 2 drops of bio s and fed the tank with Dr Tim ammonia chloride.

As of now my nitrates are at 0.2ppm and have maintained at that level for the past week. Wondering about ammonia? I bought the salifert kit and all I see in the vial is some cloudy water hence I Got no reading from. Iy. Yesterday I just purchased the seachem ammonia badge to roughly gauge the ammonia in the tank. Able to read about 0.2ppm(not total ammonia).

Any reefers out there able to help this poor soul out? Singapore is not known for our reefers to run reefer tanks and solely on AF products.
 
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Aezeeazil

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Hi reefers! I'm new to reef keeping and I'm from Singapore.
Currently I'm running a reefer 250 and planning to run fully on AF products.

Ive started cycling my tank since 15 April and diligently dose 2 drops of bio s and Dr tims ammonia chloride.

Till date there's only 0.2ppm of nitrate and no ammonia detected using the salifert test kits. I feel that the test kits for ammonia is a dud. Haha

So yesterday I bought a seachem ammonia badge to give me a rough idea if there's ammonia present in the tnak. And it read 0.2ppm of. Ammonia. Not total ammonia tho.

So my questions is. How do I proceed with the cycle as I've passed the 2 weeks of bio s dosing as recommended by AF.

I know that patience is the key to cycling. But I don't really see any progress with the tank.
 
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Aezeeazil

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Just to share some pics of my tank

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UNCFAN

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I have the same tank and just completed my cycle. I used AF ProBioS as instructed with daily doses for 14 days. The only time I dosed Ammonia was the first day just enough to get the Ammonia at 4ppm. I did not dose Ammonia again. At the end of two weeks - No Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate. I used Salifert test kits.

I tested my water chemistry every other day during the 14 day cycle.
 
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Aezeeazil

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You mean bio s? I didn't dose up to 4 ppm. Based on the instructions I did dose 2 drops per gallon. So right now it's just a waiting game?
 
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Aezeeazil

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Currently with this pandemic all lfs in Singapore are close till June. So I have all the time on my hands. Lol
 
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Aezeeazil

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Hi reefers. I just tested for ammonia earlier today.
Ammonia 1.5
Nitrate 15

This morning I dose 15 drops Of ammonia.

I'm wondering my tank have been cloudy for 4 to 5 days. I've stop dosing bio s.

Don't know what's the cause of the cloudiness. Bacterial bloom?
 
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Aezeeazil

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Morning to all!
Just tested some parameters yesterday night.
Ammonia: should be zero base Don the chard
Nitrate: between 25 and 50

Is it normal to. Still have the tank be this cloudy? Been more than a week.
I've not dosed any more bac or ammonia. At this point should I run the skimmer?

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Tastee

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Yes, quite normal. More likely a small algae bloom than a bacteria bloom. I would increase skimming levels a little at this point as the bacterial and/or algae will start to die as it consumes the initial burst of nutrients. As long as you don’t keep ghost feeding it should settle down in a week or two.
 
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Aezeeazil

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Thanks!
How do you differentiate an algae or bac bloom?

Oh and yes I've not dose any more ammonia. Just waiting for I'm the cloudy tnak to subside first.

So it's fine for me to Run the skimmer first? And cna I hold off the large water change before adding the first livestock.
 

Tastee

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Algae will be just in the water column. Bacteria will show elsewhere, on the glass, sand, rocks etc. exactly where depends on the bacteria strain. Bacteria blooms in my experience are more brown, algae more green. These are very broad descriptions so consider them with care.

I'm afraid I won’t answer your questions directly as I simply don’t know enough about your tank. Here is what I can help you with however.

My new tank has been going 11 weeks now. First 2 weeks was just filling, scaping and adding salt. I got diatoms 2 weeks later. About week 5 I got an algae bloom. Good news as it meant my tank was now supporting higher forms of life. Lasted 2 weeks. Upped skimming. GHA followed very quickly, happily for me looked unhappy after a couple of weeks and started to recede. Mostly gone now. Manual removal to assist. Tank now has 3 fish and 2 corals. Plus 5 snails. Snails went in first, then a pair of clowns, LPS and later a Lawnmower Blennie. Exact timing was what I felt comfortable with based on my measurements and observations.

I was measuring Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate every few days from week 3 (not that I expected any NO3 then, just being complete). API test kits at this point. Nitrate and Phosphates with Red Sea Pro kits weekly from week 7. Alk, Ca and Mg weekly with Red Sea Pro kits weekly from week 9. First 10% water change at week 9.

The point I am making is that if you don't measure it, you can't manage it. You are asking if you need to make a water change before adding fish. My question to you is do you know where your tank is at in it's cycle and evolution by all the basic parameters?

The answer to my question informs your answer to your own questions.
 
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Aezeeazil

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I appreciate your detail explanation.
As of now i do not have any diatom Or Gha. Only white film whenever I clean the glass.

Basically back in Singapore, a law passed that there will not be any selling of livestocks till the situation gets better.referring to the Covid 19. Hopefully by the June I'm able to stock up my tnak. From. Now till then with do I do a water change and feed the tnak with ammonia till I stock the tnak? Or should I change prior adding inverts or lifestocks to it.

I understand your point but from what I read or know, bac bloom will last a couple of days and it'll clear up. For algae bloom it's my first time hearing of it since there's no diatoms or Gha in the system. FYI, the system is currently in the 3rd week of cycling.
 

Tastee

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A water change won’t hurt to reduce the Nitrates. It depends however on what type and level of bacteria you have got growing. In my case I didn’t get a big nitrate spike and the combination of my skimmer and dosing some denitrifying bacteria brought it down quickly. Your tank may behave differently however.

To maintain the tank until you start to add livestock you can just ghost feed a very small amount every couple of days - just regular pellets or flakes. Only little however. The bacteria colonies you have going will be just fine like this for weeks. Once you start adding fish and other livestock I would personally add a little good quality bacteria in a bottle to help things along. In my new tank I tried the Continuum Aquatics Bacter gen-M and gen-MD products and they seemed to work well. There are lots of choices however.

The cloudiness should disappear over time as the tank matures. Just keep measuring your parameters every so often to keep a feel for how it is going.

Good luck!
 

hikermike

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The tank cloudiness will clear...it is natural. Also, in a few weeks you may notice a white gelatinous slime forming and that too will clear with time and no treatment and won't hurt fish. The tests kits (I use API cuz I'm Poor) will be cloudy so it's not you and at zero will look just a little green...note the color when you pour it out in a white sink. I"d get along with my tank and instead of adding ammonia (if you do it you really only need to do it once) I'd think of adding a clown or some other hardy fish that you'd want to keep (Damsels are cute and nice but the biggest little bullies at times...except for green chromis...which are pretty) This will move your tank along. I'm the nemesis of all but my recipe is to start with an undergravel filter, live rock, a bottle of Bio-Spira and my tanks all cycle in 2-3 days. Please note, The UG filter doesn't have to cover the whole tank, just a small portion and if you really believe with the anti-UG folks on the board..just 1/4th of the tank...no rocks over it and pull it out in a few months when your cooking fine. Have a bare bottom tank? Well now, that's what gets MY ire up. Where in the ocean is a plain glass bottom?
 
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Aezeeazil

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Tank is looking better now. Slight cloudiness still. Algae bloom is clearing UK after running the skimmer for 3 days.

Out of curiosity I bought a nitrite test kit. Have tested twice in 3 days period.
Nitrite maintained at 0.25ppm whereas nitrates have doubled the amount from 50 to 100ppm.

I know that the nitrification process is ongoing and should avoid any water changes till the cycle is over, but with such high nitrates will it stall the cycle? Or should I dose the bio s to increase the bacteria strain in the system for 2 to 3 days. I'm using maxspect nano blocks and siporax as my bio medias.

Your inputs are much appreciated!
 
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Aezeeazil

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Btw I'm. In no rush to have my tank cycled. I read rave reviews on nitrobac7 and I try not to dose too many and diff kinds of bac in the system. I don't know if many diff strain of bac will cause any long term effect on the tank.
But 8 do know 5hay diff bac will help the nitrification process. Long term wise I'm not too sure about it.
 
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