First reef tank - testing

[jsmkmavity]

 

[ChrisfromBrick]

Welcome! Get the Hanna ULR phosphate and Hanna HR nitrate. Those are the most accurate.

 

[Fish Think Pink]

Welcome! I have personally switched over to the Red Sea test kits, but there is a lot of good info already shared here within your thread. Consistency and patience are the magic in this hobby.

 

[fishnick]

Thanks for the message!
I'm still not seeing any nitrite being produced using the Sera so still in early cycling.
I am going away for a few days mid August and back on 20th Aug so all going well I will add my first 2 clownfish on 21 or 22 August.
Should I do my first waterchange when I am back around 10-20% or more?
Also do I need to QT the clownfish if they are bred and they are the first fish going into the tank?

I don't think you're adding enough ammonia. You want the ammonia to go up to about 2.0 ppm on your test kit (don't go only by the instructions on the bottle). If you get your ammonia up that high, and it goes down to nearly zero, you should have nitrite at that point.

I double dosed ammonium chloride last Tuesday by accident and it was reading above 2.0 ppm on Saturday along with nitrite at 0. Yesterday ammonia was at 2.0 ppm. I am going to test again tomorrow to see if it needs another dose of ammonia and I'll check the nitrite as well which hopefully will show.

 

[Ocean_Queenie]

Hello & Welcome to R2R!

 

[BloopFish]

I don't think you're adding enough ammonia. You want the ammonia to go up to about 2.0 ppm on your test kit (don't go only by the instructions on the bottle). If you get your ammonia up that high, and it goes down to nearly zero, you should have nitrite at that point.

Personally I disagree. Its better to start at a lower ammonia level and consistently dose it throughout. The issue if you add too much ammonia at once is it does not allow the bacteria that convert nitrite to nitrate to grow (they grow much slower than ammonia reducing ones) and high levels of ammonia can actually inhibit their growth. You can read all about this on papers about waste water treatments.

 

[Fish Fan]

Personally I disagree. Its better to start at a lower ammonia level and consistently dose it throughout. The issue if you add too much ammonia at once is it does not allow the bacteria that convert nitrite to nitrate to grow (they grow much slower than ammonia reducing ones) and high levels of ammonia can actually inhibit their growth. You can read all about this on papers about waste water treatments.

I'm sorry, but I help people here at R2R everyday with cycling tanks, and I'm quite confident in my advice

 

[BloopFish]

I'm sorry, but I help people here at R2R everyday with cycling tanks, and I'm quite confident in my advice

Sorry, but the scientific literature disagrees with you. Did you actually do a scientific test with a control test and with enough sample sizes? If not, its really just anecdotal when you're comparing it to scientific peer reviewed papers. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15927463/

If you disagree, I suggest you do a study on this to disprove them. In a formalized setting and also get it published in a peer reviewed journal.

 

[Fish Fan]

Sorry, but the scientific literature disagrees with you. Did you actually do a scientific test with a control test and with enough sample sizes? If not, its really just anecdotal when you're comparing it to scientific peer reviewed papers. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15927463/

If you disagree, I suggest you do a study on this to disprove them. In a formalized setting and also get it published in a peer reviewed journal.

Dude, I've been helping people cycle their tanks for years, and no one has ever come back to me and said I was wrong. In fact, most people I've helped have come back to thank me

I have legit degrees in bio and chem, and that's how I know that the article you posted is talking about runoff from farmland, not reef tanks.

You've made it obvious that you disagree with me, and now you seem to have dug up my posts just to disagree with them. I will not argue with you anymore, please have a great evening

 

[BloopFish]

Dude, I've been helping people cycle their tanks for years, and no one has ever come back to me and said I was wrong. In fact, most people I've helped have come back to thank me

I have a legit degrees in bio and chem, and that's how I know that the article you posted is talking about runoff from farmland, not reef tanks.

You've made it obvious that you disagree with me, and now you seem to have dug up my posts just to disagree with them. I will not argue with you anymore, please have a great evening

It can clearly work to do 2.0ppm, I agree. However, it does slow down the growth of nitrifiying bacteria and there are studies about it. You can choose to hate me if you want, but I gave you scientific literature as evidence that regardless of whether I am or am not a reliable source or biased, that you are provably wrong.