swiss1939
Active Member
Just came across this youtube video of a talk Dr. Tim gave last year specifically on nitrifying bacteria and how to speed up your cycle by setting up your tank to ideal conditions for the nitrifying bacteria you are trying to jumpstart. I'm adding it here for anyone else who is just starting and looking for cycle specific tips and information.
Found it really useful and wish I had seen it before starting my cycle. I am still at the beginning of my cycle so I have applied the tips of his that I could easily do, but wish I could have set up my salinity as suggested prior (too late for that).
What he is suggesting is to set up your tank parameters to ideal conditions for these bacteria to reach the optimum life cycle of those bacteria. The ammonia oxidizing bacteria can double their population every 30+ hrs at peak life cycle, while the nitrite oxidizers take 40+ hrs to double their population. Setting up your tank for ideal fish and coral conditions when you are not populating with these in fact slows this already slow process down because it hinders the bacterial growth. So since you are doing a fishless cycle anyways, just set the tank up for the bacteria and once cycled, slowly adjust the parameters over a couple days to the target fish/coral parameters.
1.) Reduce the salinity of your water for the cycle... ideally 18-20 ppt. This is because these bacteria commonly found in your reef tank are at the limit of their salinity tolerance at 35 ppt (their salinity tolerance is approx 8-40 ppt), and lowering the salinity causes them to grow faster as they are using less energy to survive at the fringe of their salinity tolerance. Being in the midle of the salinity range means they grow faster using less energy to survive. (unfortunately I had already set up my tank water at 35 ppt so this is the one step I could not alter after coming across this information).
2.) Keep both ammonia and nitrite below 5mg/L. Don't overdose ammonia because the nitrite oxidizing bacteria are stunted from high ammonia content, and vice versa the ammonia oxidizing bacteria are stunted by high nitrite content, so overdosing ammonia prevents the second stage of the cycle which is oxidizing nitrites, causing your nitrite to nitrate conversion to stall, and eventually the ammonia oxidizing bacteria also become stunted from the increased nitrites as a result of that log jammed second stage which sets you back on the first stage. So just dose the minimum required ammonia and wait for it to be fully processed through till nitrites rise and fall (skipping ammonia doses if either are still present), then dose the minimum again. This prevents one from getting too high and stalling the other.
3.) Provide external surface area. If you are planning on bare bottom, add a temporary media like bio balls, glass beads, or a small amount of sand to the tank during the cycle which you can remove once the bacteria are well established. The bacteria need surfaces they can easily attach to in order to take hold and grow. glass bottom is not "sticky" enough for them to easily take hold and start to grow.
4.) Don't promote competitors during the cycle.
-Turn off lights until the cycle is complete. Nitrifying bacteria are slower growing (30-40+ hrs to double population) than carbon based bacteria and algae which have much faster life cycles, doubling at much less time. The nitrifying bacteria are competing against carbon based bacteria for surface area and nutrients (phosphates) to grow, so turning off the lights prevents algae from overtaking the bacteria.
-Don't use GFO or denitrifying systems because they remove phosphates which these bacteria need to grow.
-Don't dose organic carbon like vodka and sugars because that feeds the carbon based bacteria and algae instead of the nitrifying bacteria.
5.) Raise the temperature to 84-85F during the cycle. The bacteria grow faster in warmer water. Once cycle is done slowly lower to desired temp (as well as raising your salinity).
Additional tips:
- need calcium substrate during cycle (see tip 3)
- measure the ammonia before adding ammonia first time if you are using live sand because live sand has bacteria and nutrients in it that will break down when exposed to fresh oxygen in your water, causing the breakdown of nutrients into ammonia. You may already have enough ammonia in your tank from the live sand.
- do not dose more than 4 ppm ammonia (see tip 2)
- do not dose every day (see tip 2)
- using test kits don't read them as 0.5 ppm, etc. just read them as present/not present. Wait till ammonia and nitrite are no longer present before adding more.
Found it really useful and wish I had seen it before starting my cycle. I am still at the beginning of my cycle so I have applied the tips of his that I could easily do, but wish I could have set up my salinity as suggested prior (too late for that).
What he is suggesting is to set up your tank parameters to ideal conditions for these bacteria to reach the optimum life cycle of those bacteria. The ammonia oxidizing bacteria can double their population every 30+ hrs at peak life cycle, while the nitrite oxidizers take 40+ hrs to double their population. Setting up your tank for ideal fish and coral conditions when you are not populating with these in fact slows this already slow process down because it hinders the bacterial growth. So since you are doing a fishless cycle anyways, just set the tank up for the bacteria and once cycled, slowly adjust the parameters over a couple days to the target fish/coral parameters.
1.) Reduce the salinity of your water for the cycle... ideally 18-20 ppt. This is because these bacteria commonly found in your reef tank are at the limit of their salinity tolerance at 35 ppt (their salinity tolerance is approx 8-40 ppt), and lowering the salinity causes them to grow faster as they are using less energy to survive at the fringe of their salinity tolerance. Being in the midle of the salinity range means they grow faster using less energy to survive. (unfortunately I had already set up my tank water at 35 ppt so this is the one step I could not alter after coming across this information).
2.) Keep both ammonia and nitrite below 5mg/L. Don't overdose ammonia because the nitrite oxidizing bacteria are stunted from high ammonia content, and vice versa the ammonia oxidizing bacteria are stunted by high nitrite content, so overdosing ammonia prevents the second stage of the cycle which is oxidizing nitrites, causing your nitrite to nitrate conversion to stall, and eventually the ammonia oxidizing bacteria also become stunted from the increased nitrites as a result of that log jammed second stage which sets you back on the first stage. So just dose the minimum required ammonia and wait for it to be fully processed through till nitrites rise and fall (skipping ammonia doses if either are still present), then dose the minimum again. This prevents one from getting too high and stalling the other.
3.) Provide external surface area. If you are planning on bare bottom, add a temporary media like bio balls, glass beads, or a small amount of sand to the tank during the cycle which you can remove once the bacteria are well established. The bacteria need surfaces they can easily attach to in order to take hold and grow. glass bottom is not "sticky" enough for them to easily take hold and start to grow.
4.) Don't promote competitors during the cycle.
-Turn off lights until the cycle is complete. Nitrifying bacteria are slower growing (30-40+ hrs to double population) than carbon based bacteria and algae which have much faster life cycles, doubling at much less time. The nitrifying bacteria are competing against carbon based bacteria for surface area and nutrients (phosphates) to grow, so turning off the lights prevents algae from overtaking the bacteria.
-Don't use GFO or denitrifying systems because they remove phosphates which these bacteria need to grow.
-Don't dose organic carbon like vodka and sugars because that feeds the carbon based bacteria and algae instead of the nitrifying bacteria.
5.) Raise the temperature to 84-85F during the cycle. The bacteria grow faster in warmer water. Once cycle is done slowly lower to desired temp (as well as raising your salinity).
Additional tips:
- need calcium substrate during cycle (see tip 3)
- measure the ammonia before adding ammonia first time if you are using live sand because live sand has bacteria and nutrients in it that will break down when exposed to fresh oxygen in your water, causing the breakdown of nutrients into ammonia. You may already have enough ammonia in your tank from the live sand.
- do not dose more than 4 ppm ammonia (see tip 2)
- do not dose every day (see tip 2)
- using test kits don't read them as 0.5 ppm, etc. just read them as present/not present. Wait till ammonia and nitrite are no longer present before adding more.
Last edited:
I am day three into my cycle doing fishless cycle using ammonia chloride from dr Tim’s and aquaforest BIO-s nitrifying bacteria.
