First Time Reefer Cycle Question

[CleanRiversDirtRoads]

Hi everyone.
I am brand new to the salt water hobby and recently learned about cycling my reef aquarium before adding fish or corals. I was pointed in the direction of the Dr. Tim’s Fishless cycle, and I have followed every step to what is now day 4 dosing ammonia every other day. On day 2, my levels were pH: 7.9, ammonia: 2.0 and nitrite 0.5. Today, (day 4) my levels were pH: 7.8, ammonia: 8.0 and nitrite 2.0.
It seems like that is too big of a spike in two days, but is that normal?
Thank you so much for your helpI really appreciate your time!

 

[blaxsun]

You can disregard pH during cycling, but you should also be testing for nitrates. If correct, your ammonia is high and I'd probably stop dosing it. When you have a chance to post your nitrate levels let us know.

 

[Dbichler]

Yes 8 ammonia is 4x the goal. That will likely take quite a while to go down being so high. You can do a large water change now to bring it down hopefully to 2 or just wait it out and do a 100% water change when ammonia hits 0.

 

[minorhero]

As others have said, 8ppm is too much for ammonia. Do a big water change to get it down. Ammonia that high will delay your cycle.

Don't follow directions on the bottle blindly. Your goal is to dose ammonia TO 2ppm, not add 2ppm every day. If your tank does not have any bacteria already in it, its going to take weeks to develop a healthy colony of bacteria on your own.

So each day you should check your ammonia, if its at 2ppm you do nothing. If its lower then 2ppm you add some ammonia until it reaches 2ppm. That's whats supposed to happen. But at this point you need to lower it to get it back in that state, easiest way to do that is with a big water change.

 

[CleanRiversDirtRoads]

Thank you all so much for your responses. I learned that stirring the substrate can causes the levels to be off. I had just leveled the substrate before I took the reading yesterday. Today pH was 7.8, Ammonia was 2.0 and nitrite was about 1.5. I took the Nitrate measurement but accidentally did an extra drop on the tube which gave me a reading that was probably wrong. It’s currently reading 80, but I will retest it when I get home tonight.

 

[feelnlikemike]

Newbie to reefing I have my tank setup and started the cycling process with live sand and live rock its been running for about 4 days now ammonia level is 0.25ppm my Nitrite level is 0ppm and my Nitrate level is 10ppm. Can I go ahead and start adding coral & fish or should I wait and let the cycling continue?

 

[Dbichler]

Thank you all so much for your responses. I learned that stirring the substrate can causes the levels to be off. I had just leveled the substrate before I took the reading yesterday. Today pH was 7.8, Ammonia was 2.0 and nitrite was about 1.5. I took the Nitrate measurement but accidentally did an extra drop on the tube which gave me a reading that was probably wrong. It’s currently reading 80, but I will retest it when I get home tonight.

I don’t think stirring a new sand bed would have any effect at all. That’s typical to old deep sand beds or really dirty sand beds. Yes testing errors happen not sure if it would be off that far also but just watch for the downward trend and when 0 full 100% water change and good to go

 

[minorhero]

Newbie to reefing I have my tank setup and started the cycling process with live sand and live rock its been running for about 4 days now ammonia level is 0.25ppm my Nitrite level is 0ppm and my Nitrate level is 10ppm. Can I go ahead and start adding coral & fish or should I wait and let the cycling continue?

Did you add any ammonia to your tank? If not, then you need to go through that process first otherwise you won't have cycled your tank.

 

[Spare time]

Thank you all so much for your responses. I learned that stirring the substrate can causes the levels to be off. I had just leveled the substrate before I took the reading yesterday. Today pH was 7.8, Ammonia was 2.0 and nitrite was about 1.5. I took the Nitrate measurement but accidentally did an extra drop on the tube which gave me a reading that was probably wrong. It’s currently reading 80, but I will retest it when I get home tonight.

Ignore nitrate until nitrite is gone as some test kits read very high nitrate if any nitrite is present. Also stirring the sand doesn't do anything unless it's been sitting collecting waste undisturbed.

 

[MaxTremors]

Newbie to reefing I have my tank setup and started the cycling process with live sand and live rock its been running for about 4 days now ammonia level is 0.25ppm my Nitrite level is 0ppm and my Nitrate level is 10ppm. Can I go ahead and start adding coral & fish or should I wait and let the cycling continue?

Did you use real live rock, as in from the ocean or from a long established tank, or dry rock? And as mentioned, did you dose or add any ammonia source? Regardless, I’d give it at least a few more days (if you’re new to the hobby I would even wait until a minimum of two weeks). I would then add one or two fish and a soft coral or two and then wait another couple weeks, add another fish or two and a couple more corals and then wait a couple more weeks, etc. I assume you’re not planning on doing any sort of quarantining, so I would read up on the problems that can cause. Again, if you’re new to the hobby, I would recommend only doing soft corals for the first six months, if that is successful, then try some LPS, if that is successful for 4-5 months, then try some SPS and/or anemones. IME, it’s best to start with soft corals, during which time you’ll work on maintaining stable parameters, when you get LPS you’ll get the hang of keeping alk/cal/mag stable and potentially dosing those elements, and then once you’ve mastered all of that and have kept softies and LPS thriving, you’ll be ready for more advanced corals/anemones.

 

[feelnlikemike]

Did you add any ammonia to your tank? If not, then you need to go through that process first otherwise you won't have cycled your tank.

no I didn't add any ammonia to my tank

 

[feelnlikemike]

Did you use real live rock, as in from the ocean or from a long established tank, or dry rock? And as mentioned, did you dose or add any ammonia source? Regardless, I’d give it at least a few more days (if you’re new to the hobby I would even wait until a minimum of two weeks). I would then add one or two fish and a soft coral or two and then wait another couple weeks, add another fish or two and a couple more corals and then wait a couple more weeks, etc. I assume you’re not planning on doing any sort of quarantining, so I would read up on the problems that can cause. Again, if you’re new to the hobby, I would recommend only doing soft corals for the first six months, if that is successful, then try some LPS, if that is successful for 4-5 months, then try some SPS and/or anemones. IME, it’s best to start with soft corals, during which time you’ll work on maintaining stable parameters, when you get LPS you’ll get the hang of keeping alk/cal/mag stable and potentially dosing those elements, and then once you’ve mastered all of that and have kept softies and LPS thriving, you’ll be ready for more advanced corals/anemones.

I used live rock that has been already in a tank. I haven't used or added any ammonia source at this time. Thanks for the info really appreciate it. what numbers should I be looking for to let me know my tank is ready for some fish and soft corals

 

[Dbichler]

If you used true live rock and you kept it wet you won’t necessarily need a cycle and your probably good to go ammonia 0 with any amount of nitrates would be for sure sign

 

[MaxTremors]

I used live rock that has been already in a tank. I haven't used or added any ammonia source at this time. Thanks for the info really appreciate it. what numbers should I be looking for to let me know my tank is ready for some fish and soft corals

Ideally, you’d dose 2ppm of ammonia and see it go to zero within a day (and end up as nitrates). The problem is that most ammonia test kits are junk and give false positives or test for total ammonia instead of free ammonia (which is what is toxic). If you have an ammonia test kit, I would dose a little bit of ammonia or a few flakes/pellets and then look for the ammonia level to go down (it may not be zero, often times people will continually get 0.25ppm when in actuality it is zero) so long as it’s definitely going from a higher number to a lower number, the tank is processing ammonia and you should be okay for your first fish. Plus, if you used real/established live rock, your tank very likely didn’t even need to cycle or had a very quick cycle (assuming you kept the rock wet/didn’t let it dry out when transporting it). As far as the general parameters you want to shoot for, this is what I recommend:

Alkalinity: 8-10dk
Calcium: 400-450ppm
Magnesium: 1300-1500ppm
Phosphates: 0.03-0.08ppm
Nitrates: 3-15ppm
PH: 8.2-8.4
Salinity: 1.025-1.026 or 34-35ppt
Temp: 76-78°f

I never really test for these once cycled, but:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0

These are the ranges I shoot for, or what I think is ideal, the generally accepted ranges are a bit wider.

 

[feelnlikemike]

Ideally, you’d dose 2ppm of ammonia and see it go to zero within a day (and end up as nitrates). The problem is that most ammonia test kits are junk and give false positives or test for total ammonia instead of free ammonia (which is what is toxic). If you have an ammonia test kit, I would dose a little bit of ammonia or a few flakes/pellets and then look for the ammonia level to go down (it may not be zero, often times people will continually get 0.25ppm when in actuality it is zero) so long as it’s definitely going from a higher number to a lower number, the tank is processing ammonia and you should be okay for your first fish. Plus, if you used real/established live rock, your tank very likely didn’t even need to cycle or had a very quick cycle (assuming you kept the rock wet/didn’t let it dry out when transporting it). As far as the general parameters you want to shoot for, this is what I recommend:

Alkalinity: 8-10dk
Calcium: 400-450ppm
Magnesium: 1300-1500ppm
Phosphates: 0.03-0.08ppm
Nitrates: 3-15ppm
PH: 8.2-8.4
Salinity: 1.025-1.026 or 34-35ppt
Temp: 76-78°f

I never really test for these once cycled, but:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0

These are the ranges I shoot for, or what I think is ideal, the generally accepted ranges are a bit wider.

This was so helpful thanks so much