First time doing fishless cycle using Dr Tims Ammonium Chloride - help

[wintrmte]

Hi All -

I have setup a new RedSea Nanomax XXL and this is the first time doing a fishless cycle, so I bought the Dr. Tims nitrifying bacteria, and the Dr Tims Ammonium Chloride. Previously I had always floated shrimp in the tank and suffered through the stink in the house.. lol

I followed the stickied post here on the forum, and I'm on Day 10 of my cycle - using the Hanna tester (i Just switched to this a couple days ago, away from teh RedSea testing kit) my Ammonia was 0.08 but my Nitrites are so high the Hanna checker flashes 800 ppb.. My Nitrates are about 18. But, following the guide here, I dosed more Ammonia up to 2ppm because the ammonia is so low.

One thing I forgot to do was turn on my mp40's during the cycle, but I had been running my return pumps and skimmer without the collection cup throughout the cycle.

I'm worried about my Nitrites being so high - is this cause for concern?

Thanks for the help!!

 

[DmitryB]

According to people much smarter than me, Nitrites are NOT toxic in saltwater aquariums. That's a freshwater problem.

 

[Bear22]

Having used Dr. Tim's to cycle my last aquarium I wouldn't worry about the nitrites at all. If ammonia is measured at very low levels or not at all you should be good to go (assuming you first measured no nitrates followed by measurable nitrates).

 

[DmitryB]

I trust @Randy Holmes-Farley on these issues, and have my Nitrates normal ceiling at 50ppm.

 

[wintrmte]

Thank you for the replies - I'm not really worried about the Nitrates, I'm more worried I hosed up my cycle because my Nitrites are through the roof to the moon it seems. :(

 

[DmitryB]

Thank you for the replies - I'm not really worried about the Nitrates, I'm more worried I hosed up my cycle because my Nitrites are through the roof to the moon it seems. :(

I think your Nitrites can go past the Moon and to Mars and be ok.

 

[Fish Fan]

Thank you for the replies - I'm not really worried about the Nitrates, I'm more worried I hosed up my cycle because my Nitrites are through the roof to the moon it seems. :(

Toss the nitrite test kit in the trash bin, you don't need it at all; nitrite is not hurting your cycle

Here's the article on why nitrite isn't a problem in saltwater:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-06/rhf/index.htm

Good luck with your build!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Whoa Nelly!

Your tank almost certainly has exactly the LOW level of nitrite expected from cycling a couple of ppm of ammonia.

Perhaps expressing that as somewhere above 0.8 ppm makes it seem a lot less scary than writing it as above 800 ppb. :)

 

[wintrmte]

Whoa Nelly!

Your tank almost certainly has exactly the LOW level of nitrite expected from cycling a couple of ppm of ammonia.

Perhaps expressing that as somewhere above 0.8 ppm makes it seem a lot less scary than writing it as above 800 ppb. :)

Thank you, Randy!

One more question to anyone really, yesterday when I took my Ammonia measurement, it was 0.60, so I dosed another 2ppm of Ammonia Chloride. I measured it again today, and it's back down to 0.67..

Does the Ammonia reading need to be 0.0 to be considered fully cycled?

 

[Fish Fan]

Thank you, Randy!

One more question to anyone really, yesterday when I took my Ammonia measurement, it was 0.60, so I dosed another 2ppm of Ammonia Chloride. I measured it again today, and it's back down to 0.67..

Does the Ammonia reading need to be 0.0 to be considered fully cycled?

I think you're fine, but I'm curious - what guide are you following? Why does it tell you to keep adding the ammonia? More importantly, when does it tell you to stop

 

[wintrmte]

Yeah.. Honestly, I started with the Dr. Tim's guide that's super confusing, then I started reading some of the threads here on the forum and I basically figured after reading all of the helpful posts to my thread here, that if I did one more dose of 2ppm Ammonia yesterday, and today it's NOT 2ppm, then I might be OK.

The confusing part about this whole fishless cycle is that many people like me google this and Dr. Tims guide comes up first in the search results. If you go through that guide, it basically tells you to dose 2ppm until Ammonia AND Nitrites are zero, then do one more dose to confirm.

At this point, I'll do a mild water change and start introducing some fish and lps slowly over time.

 

[Fish Fan]

If you go through that guide, it basically tells you to dose 2ppm until Ammonia AND Nitrites are zero, then do one more dose to confirm.

From the man selling you the bottled bacteria and bottled ammonium chloride

I don't think you need to constantly be adding more and more ammonia, it just results in wicked high nitrate in the end. We've discussed that nitrite isn't an issue. If you're tank is converting about 2.0 ppm ammonia to about 0.50 ppm or less in 24 hours, I do think you're safe to slowly start stocking some hardy livestock

 

[Mid_Reefkeeper]

Agree with above.

If it’s a long time between finishing the cycle and adding livestock, then periodically adding a bit of ammonia is probably helpful to keep the bacteria going.

But in most cases once ammonia drops to zero and you register some nitrate, you’re good to go. Nitrite can eventually become toxic, but the toxic threshold is really high in saltwater. Without really screwing up you shouldn’t need to worry about it. I never bought a test kit for it.

Just go with the usually caveats of add livestock slowly. Don’t drop a ton of fish in the tank immediately