Cycling: water change or leave it be?

[fotuskyt]

On day 8 of Dr Tim’s fishless cycle with one and only and ammonium chloride in an IM Nuvo 15. Set up is mostly 15lbs dry rock and dry aragonite with maybe 5lbs of live rock from my 20gal so not starting with a large established bacterial population. followed the chart but only dosed the chloride once (on day one) because it has yet to drop below 5ppm to dose again which has me wondering if I dosed incorrectly? (I did 60 drops for 15gal) I’m also reading conflicting information about “cycle stalling.” Not trying to rush the process by any means, just wanna know what I should do whether that’s a water change to get ammonia down to around 2ppm or add more bottle bac and leave it be?

Current parameters
PH: 8
Ammonia: in between 4 and 8ppm (using API, I know not the best but I’m going to the LFS tomorrow to get an accurate reading)
Nitrite: .25 ppm
Nitrate: 20ppm

 

[blaxsun]

Duplicate...

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

You dosed 5 ppm ammonia to begin with?

 

[Dan_P]

On day 8 of Dr Tim’s fishless cycle with one and only and ammonium chloride in an IM Nuvo 15. Set up is mostly 15lbs dry rock and dry aragonite with maybe 5lbs of live rock from my 20gal so not starting with a large established bacterial population. followed the chart but only dosed the chloride once (on day one) because it has yet to drop below 5ppm to dose again which has me wondering if I dosed incorrectly? (I did 60 drops for 15gal) I’m also reading conflicting information about “cycle stalling.” Not trying to rush the process by any means, just wanna know what I should do whether that’s a water change to get ammonia down to around 2ppm or add more bottle bac and leave it be?

Current parameters
PH: 8
Ammonia: in between 4 and 8ppm (using API, I know not the best but I’m going to the LFS tomorrow to get an accurate reading)
Nitrite: .25 ppm
Nitrate: 20ppm

Dr. Tim’s can be a slow starter. Not sure why your live rock is not helping. Is there any nitrite forming? The nitrite test is more sensitive than the ammonia test and will tell you if the system is starting up slowly or is dead.

You can continue to wait for Dr. Tim‘s and the live rock to wake up, or buy BioSpira or Fritz Turbo Start and get it over with.