cycling with turbo start 900

[MikeDesjean]

Hello all,

I am new member here on R2R and trying to get some insight into my water parameters and if my tank is stuck in the cycling process.

So I picked up a Water Box 20g tank from my lfs. It has been cycling since the night of 1/21/22. so it has been cycling water for 6 1/2 days now. The tank is set up with artificial rock, live sand, and filled with nutri-sea water as i was told it was a good water to start with. after filling the tank it was dosed with a small bottle of Fritz turbostart 900, and I have been ghost feeding 1 or 2 flakes of fish food per day as instructed by lfs.

I was told that the tank would be cycled and ready for fish by today or sooner and to bring the water in to be tested. I have bought a API saltwater master test kit and have been testing the tank since 1/23/22. and from what I am seeing and reading I do not feel that my tank has properly cycled. I will post a few pictures, I have one from Monday 1/24 and one from today about 30 minutes ago. the ammonia is stable where it is, ph seems low, nitrites have gone up, nitrates seems to be stable were they are.

I guess I am just looking for a little bit of guidance as to if I should be patient and let it ride for a few more days and maybe let some nitrite eating bac build up a little? or do I need to do something further to aid in the process?


*tests on wood table are from 1/24 whit background from today at 1:15 pm
Thanks!

 

[KrisReef]

When the cycle starts to progress toward finished the bacteria will be producing nitrate. Your nitrate has not really started being indicated on the test kits, but nitrite is showing up. The next bacteria colonies you need to to develope will eat nitrite and produce nitrate.

Presuming the test kits are working, the cycle isn't done yet. Don't let your lfs convince you to buy fish until the nitrite drops and nitrate rises. Gl.

 

[Uncle99]

API is not very accurate.
With the Fritz, your cycled by now.
Fishy time.

 

[MikeDesjean]

Thanks! I had my water tested at the lfs and it showed higher nitrate than my api tests at home.

Testing now, nitrate is starting to go up so I think I was just on the verge of my nitrate spike.

Plus due to the impending blizzard here and possible power outage I will be holding off on getting my new wet pets.

This weekends project is figuring out who’s right for salinity. Using calibration solution and refractometer doing a fresh calibration my water comes out to 1.028. There Milwaukee refrac had my water at 1.031. So idk.

Any experience with Hanna digital salinity meter?

MD

 

[KrisReef]

I’m the old guy that brought a “calibrated swing arm” plastic hydrometer to the lfs to discuss the excellency of the old technology. I have used the meters at work and at the reef shop and they are great but without regular calibration I feel just as safe with my hydrometer!

 

[MikeDesjean]

Thanks Krisreef and Uncle99 for the helpful information!

 

[KrisReef]

Thanks Krisreef and Uncle99 for the helpful information!

If you are stuck home, here is something that might be useful today?

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-06/rhf/index.htm

 

[MikeDesjean]

Perfect! Will be reading this now. Just glancing over the first few paragraphs already seems helpful. Good read for a day like today.

 

[GerberGirth]

How is the cycling going? Started right after you did.

 

[MikeDesjean]

Not great dude. I cycled and got 1 green chromis to make sure system was working properly before I added a pair of clowns.

My big mistake was being impatient and getting the little guy from petco not my lfs he came with ich and got it in my new tank.

Unfortunately he didn’t make it. But I last night just emptied The Who tank and substrate and will be soaking all equipment in a 15 minute bleach solution and letting them air dry for a day as I wash the tank out and let that air dry and properly re cycle as some of the information given to me by the the lfs was not correct and I believe effected the effectiveness of my first initial cycle.

I will forever take the advice of fellow reefers here if nothing good happens quick lol dang little chromis. Both lfs who were closed at the time treat there fish with copper, so hopfully if I sanitize mine and all my equipment and my new fish are treated and don’t have it I should be good on that front.

Just not what I wanted to happen But we here now lol

 

[GerberGirth]

Not great dude. I cycled and got 1 green chromis to make sure system was working properly before I added a pair of clowns.

My big mistake was being impatient and getting the little guy from petco not my lfs he came with ich and got it in my new tank.

Unfortunately he didn’t make it. But I last night just emptied The Who tank and substrate and will be soaking all equipment in a 15 minute bleach solution and letting them air dry for a day as I wash the tank out and let that air dry and properly re cycle as some of the information given to me by the the lfs was not correct and I believe effected the effectiveness of my first initial cycle.

I will forever take the advice of fellow reefers here if nothing good happens quick lol dang little chromis. Both lfs who were closed at the time treat there fish with copper, so hopfully if I sanitize mine and all my equipment and my new fish are treated and don’t have it I should be good on that front.

Just not what I wanted to happen But we here now lol

Major oof. i just finished but an waiting another week or two before adding fish. I'm trying to be patient but that's not an easy task. I hope it all works out for you on the second to around.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Not great dude. I cycled and got 1 green chromis to make sure system was working properly before I added a pair of clowns.

My big mistake was being impatient and getting the little guy from petco not my lfs he came with ich and got it in my new tank.

Unfortunately he didn’t make it. But I last night just emptied The Who tank and substrate and will be soaking all equipment in a 15 minute bleach solution and letting them air dry for a day as I wash the tank out and let that air dry and properly re cycle as some of the information given to me by the the lfs was not correct and I believe effected the effectiveness of my first initial cycle.

I will forever take the advice of fellow reefers here if nothing good happens quick lol dang little chromis. Both lfs who were closed at the time treat there fish with copper, so hopfully if I sanitize mine and all my equipment and my new fish are treated and don’t have it I should be good on that front.

Just not what I wanted to happen But we here now lol

No need to go to this extreme. I do like Fritz turbo as well as Dr Tims and MicroBacter XLM
Simply add bacteria for several days and test, Assure numbers are stable/stabilizing. Chromis can be very touchy
As for API kits- They are notorious for false readings and have let down many reefers. You will want Hanna or Salifert.
A good way to know if your readings are accurate is to take a good sample to a trusted Pet store that does NOT use API for testing and see what results they come up with and compare with yours.

 

[MikeDesjean]

Yea for sure a major oof lol.

Tank is set back up. I cleaned everything with 10% bleach solution and boiled my bio balls and sponge to kill anything. And bleached cured my dry rock and dried it for 24 hours each.

Just waiting for water to get up to temp and water to clear up and will be dosing it with fritz fish less fuel and turbo start. We should be rockin in a week or two.

Once I am 100% ready to go I’m only going to put 2 clowns and a shrimp and some snails. Probs over a 2 week period.

Over the next 6 months start to place hearty frags and maybe a mandarin dragonet. Once I can learn the copepod game

 

[Sink_or_Swim]

Yea for sure a major oof lol.

Tank is set back up. I cleaned everything with 10% bleach solution and boiled my bio balls and sponge to kill anything. And bleached cured my dry rock and dried it for 24 hours each.

Just waiting for water to get up to temp and water to clear up and will be dosing it with fritz fish less fuel and turbo start. We should be rockin in a week or two.

Once I am 100% ready to go I’m only going to put 2 clowns and a shrimp and some snails. Probs over a 2 week period.

Over the next 6 months start to place hearty frags and maybe a mandarin dragonet. Once I can learn the copepod game

Sorry you went through the chromis ich fiasco, that sucks. Honestly I avoid chromis because they can have uronema and introduce that to your tank too. Wish they weren't prone to it because they're pretty fish. I did a fishless cycle as well and used turbostart. Waited til my tank had been fully cycled for a few days then added a pair of clowns. Been 2 weeks and now just starting to get spots of algae, so picking up a few nails. Before they wouldn't have had much if anything to eat. Good luck!