I started a fishless cycle with Fritz TurboStart 900 and Fishless Fuel about 4 weeks ago. I thought the cycle was complete since my ammonia dropped to zero at day 10 with nitrates dropping to zero around day 14 and nitrates ending up at 20 ppm.
Thinking all was good, the plan was to do a water change to drop the nitrates a bit after I got back from a short vacation, but it seems like I’ve had another ammonia (0.25) and nitrite (0.25) spike for some reason. Nitrates are still hovering around 20 ppm.
My LFS says they’ve never experienced this before and there’s been zero movement in the water parameters in three days now. They say I could add another bottle of the 900 nitrifying bacteria, but I’m just curious if anyone else has seen this before?
Tank Specs During Cycling:
-Reefer 350
-Filled with salt mixed RODI
-Zero livestock
-60 lbs of CaribSea special grade sand
-75 lbs of CaribSea LifeRock
-ClariSea filter roller
Thinking all was good, the plan was to do a water change to drop the nitrates a bit after I got back from a short vacation, but it seems like I’ve had another ammonia (0.25) and nitrite (0.25) spike for some reason. Nitrates are still hovering around 20 ppm.
My LFS says they’ve never experienced this before and there’s been zero movement in the water parameters in three days now. They say I could add another bottle of the 900 nitrifying bacteria, but I’m just curious if anyone else has seen this before?
Tank Specs During Cycling:
-Reefer 350
-Filled with salt mixed RODI
-Zero livestock
-60 lbs of CaribSea special grade sand
-75 lbs of CaribSea LifeRock
-ClariSea filter roller