Dry Rock Start Up

[awolsixft9]

Hello all, I started up a used 20 gallon BioCube tank with all bleached, dry rock. I am trying to cycle the tank using Reef Mature by Red Sea. I'm on day 10 and have had very little increase in ammonia and no nitrites or nitrates yet. There is also no sign of any algae growing. Can I go ahead and put a fish or two in or should I get a small piece of live rock and put that in first and continue cycling?

 

[Spare time]

You should have nitrate. What have your ammonia levels been like? You should have ammonia be converted to nitrite then nitrate. Once you have a few ppm ammonia become all nitrate then the cycle is done (although nitrite is not very relevant in saltwater).


PS do not use nopox at all when cycling. Also, avoid live rock, live rock and undipped coral frags and macro algae are all sources of pests.

 

[awolsixft9]

You should have nitrate. What have your ammonia levels been like? You should have ammonia be converted to nitrite then nitrate. Once you have a few ppm ammonia become all nitrate then the cycle is done (although nitrite is not very relevant in saltwater).


PS do not use nopox at all when cycling. Also, avoid live rock, live rock and undipped coral frags and macro algae are all sources of pests.

My ammonia has only measured 0.25 to 0.5 ppm and that is after I dosed it a second time. The first time it only went up to 0.25 and then back to zero. I will stop the nopox.

 

[dragon99]

By day 10 you should be seeing nitrate only so it doesn't sound like the cycling worked. Could be a dead bacteria bottle or a testing error. I'd suggest contacting Red Sea support. No reason to stop NoPOx as that is part of the Mature kit's instructions. It's just additional food for the bacteria to help establish a population faster.

Adding a piece of live rock is a good idea, it will definitely introduce some bacteria. I'd hold off on adding a fish though until ammonia is reading 0 consistently.

 

[awolsixft9]

By day 10 you should be seeing nitrate only so it doesn't sound like the cycling worked. Could be a dead bacteria bottle or a testing error. I'd suggest contacting Red Sea support. No reason to stop NoPOx as that is part of the Mature kit's instructions. It's just additional food for the bacteria to help establish a population faster.

Adding a piece of live rock is a good idea, it will definitely introduce some bacteria. I'd hold off on adding a fish though until ammonia is reading 0 consistently.

Thanks, I have contacted Red Sea and will see what they say.

 

[Spare time]

My ammonia has only measured 0.25 to 0.5 ppm and that is after I dosed it a second time. The first time it only went up to 0.25 and then back to zero. I will stop the nopox.

Do you have a skimmer running while dosing nopox? That would explain no nitrate.

 

[Spare time]

By day 10 you should be seeing nitrate only so it doesn't sound like the cycling worked. Could be a dead bacteria bottle or a testing error. I'd suggest contacting Red Sea support. No reason to stop NoPOx as that is part of the Mature kit's instructions. It's just additional food for the bacteria to help establish a population faster.

Adding a piece of live rock is a good idea, it will definitely introduce some bacteria. I'd hold off on adding a fish though until ammonia is reading 0 consistently.

The reason to stop nopox is that your are promoting heterotophic bacteria that acts as competition with the nitrifying bacteira gor phosphorus, which can slow down their growth since phosphorus it typically limited in a tank in which you are dosing ammonium chloride (i believe that is thwt is in the kit)

 

[dragon99]

The reason to stop nopox is that your are promoting heterotophic bacteria that acts as competition with the nitrifying bacteira gor phosphorus, which can slow down their growth since phosphorus it typically limited in a tank in which you are dosing ammonium chloride (i believe that is thwt is in the kit)

Absolutely, but then you aren't following the manufacturers directions. Based on what the kit provides, it's likely dosing a heterotrophic bacteria and not true ammonia-oxidizing bacteria and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria. So stopping the NoPOx at this point will just give the bacteria less food. The Bacto-Start probably includes some PO4, but that completely an assumption on my part.

I used the Red Sea Mature kit on a nano 2 years ago with no problems. I followed the directions exactly, and added fish on day 14 with no issues. I'm not sure it's a better method than other methods of cycling, but if you follow their directions it definitely works.

 

[Spare time]

Absolutely, but then you aren't following the manufacturers directions. Based on what the kit provides, it's likely dosing a heterotrophic bacteria and not true ammonia-oxidizing bacteria and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria. So stopping the NoPOx at this point will just give the bacteria less food. The Bacto-Start probably includes some PO4, but that completely an assumption on my part.

I used the Red Sea Mature kit on a nano 2 years ago with no problems. I followed the directions exactly, and added fish on day 14 with no issues. I'm not sure it's a better method than other methods of cycling, but if you follow their directions it definitely works.

Nitrifyers can not use nopox (or any carbon dosing) as food according to Dr. Tim

 

[awolsixft9]

I herd back from Red Sea and they said the problem is that the kit is intended to be used with live rock To get the stated results. Since I am using dry rock only it will be a slower process. I was thinking of dosing the tank again but doubling or tripling the amount to try and get the ammonia up to 1 ppm. Then if it drops and the nitrates/nitrites go up and down as well I’ll know that the tank successfully cycled. Envelope if the ammonia drops to zero in another day or two I am not confident that the cycle worked.

 

[Smokeshow]

I'm still cycling mine but I started my rock is a usual Rubbermaid trash bin. Salinity at 1.024, dkh at 12, ph8.2 and temp at 83. I used pure ammonia dosed to spam. Did a week of dosing microbactor 7, 7 days of stability and still didn't have and nitrites. Added 2 small rocks from petco's saltwater tanks. 2 days later had 2ppm nitrites and 0 nitrates. 5 days later ammonia dropped to 2ppm, nitrites 5 amd nitrates 5. Put everything into my 75g tank with 80lbs of caribsea arag-alive bahamas oolite live sand. I dosed the ammonia back to spam. After 3 days ammonia dropped to 2ppm, nitrites 1ppm and 40 nitrates. Got my sump finished this afternoon and added up more gallons to the system. Upped the ammonia to 2 ppm. My suggestion would be to increase the ammonia in the tank and add some live rock from your lfs. Just check it over really well to make your theres not any unwanted lifeforms on it.

 

[Conovan]

After I realized the red sea kit was for live rock I just got a bottle of bac and a bottle of ammonia. Put in enough ammonia to raise it to 3 ppm and dumped in the bac. That created one heck of a bloom that lasted almost a week but got the job done.

 

[LeftyReefer]

I'm 4 days into cycling my tank. Similar setup. New tank, new dry rock, new dry sand too.
I mixed up a batch of saltwater to 35ppt 1.026 and filled up my tank on 7/6.
Installed a HOB filter with foam, floss, and a bag of Seachem Matrix. I installed the wavemaker and the heater to get things cooking.
I then dosed the tank to 1ppm with ammonia chloride. (took 2 drops per gallon)
I then dumped 2 oz (half of my 4 oz bottle) of Fritz TurboStart 900 in the tank, along with 2 oz of Bio-Spira.
24 hours later I tested. Ammonia had already dropped from 1ppm and Nitrites were registering on my test kit.
The bacteria was already working.
The following day, I tested again, and the ammonia was very low, Nitrites were higher.
I redosed the tank up to 2ppm (took a little less than 4 drops per gallon) Ammonia chloride and added the other half of my bottle of Turbo Start 900 and another 2 oz of Bio-Spira.(7/8)
Yesterday (7/9) I tested again. Ammonia was down to .25ppm (from 2 ppm 24 hours earlier)
Nitrites were up and Nitrates were 20ppm.

So at this point. I'm only 4/5 days in and my tank processed 2ppm ammonia down to .25ppm in 24 hours, so it would seem like I'm getting pretty close already.

I'm definitely impressed with the bottle bacterias and their ability to speed up the cycle.
I ended up using a 4 oz bottle of Turbo Start 900 and a 4 oz of Bio-Spira to seed the tank.