Having problems cycling with instant ocean bio spira

leo12345

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I’m new to saltwater fish tanks and I’ve been trying to do a fishless cycle on my tank for about 2 weeks now and I dosed with instant ocean bio spira (which was supposed to cycle instantly) and dr Tim’s ammonia in a 29 gallon, my nitrites ph and spiked for a while but are ok now but my ammonia is at .5ppm and my nitrates have been at 10 ppm for 2 weeks now and it won’t go down. I’ve added more bio spira and did a 25% water change but nothing seems to work, do I have to add more chemicals or something, or is this normal and I just need to just let it do it’s thing. Any advice would be great. I’ve also been using a api master test kit to test the parameters.
 

brandon429

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Hey that's a good plan then. Any way you're implementing fish disease control is perfect, i can assure you the biofilter is able to handle however many fish within reason you need.


Two weeks feeding means all submerged surface area is active

Nice plan. Ike's one challenge above didn't happen up front, his ability to add a full reef on bio spira was truly tested there. His challenge came as fish disease after month 6.

Waiting longer for a cycle does not lessen rates of disease expression, only those measures you're investigating are known today to get the best fish retention % over a 12 mo measurement time

The disease forum is chock full of help posts on systems that earned perfectly zero ammonia and nitrite at the start, before they added fish.
 
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leo12345

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Hey that's a good plan then. Any way you're implementing fish disease control is perfect, i can assure you the biofilter is able to handle however many fish within reason you need.


Two weeks feeding means all submerged surface area is active

Nice plan. Ike's one challenge above didn't happen up front, his ability to add a full reef on bio spira was truly tested there. His challenge came as fish disease after month 6.

Waiting longer for a cycle does not lessen rates of disease expression, only those measures you're investigating are known today to get the best fish retention % over a 12 mo measurement time

The disease forum is chock full of help posts on systems that earned perfectly zero ammonia and nitrite at the start, before they added fish.
Once again that you for your help you’ve saved me so much stress and sorry for asking so many questions but is there precautions i can do to make sure my fish dont get any disease’s down the line?
 
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brandon429

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What they say in the disease forum is that excellent feed quality, occasional live food supplement + disease controls like fallow and quarantine are the basic insurances we can provide so it sounds like u have a good plan in place
 
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leo12345

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What they say in the disease forum is that excellent feed quality, occasional live food supplement + disease controls like fallow and quarantine are the basic insurances we can provide so it sounds like u have a good plan in place
Last question i promise, do you know a ammonia test kit that i can get a accurate reading for a relatively cheap price or if i can take my water to get tested at like at petco or something?
 
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kristianosayer

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I’m new to saltwater fish tanks and I’ve been trying to do a fishless cycle on my tank for about 2 weeks now and I dosed with instant ocean bio spira (which was supposed to cycle instantly) and dr Tim’s ammonia in a 29 gallon, my nitrites ph and spiked for a while but are ok now but my ammonia is at .5ppm and my nitrates have been at 10 ppm for 2 weeks now and it won’t go down. I’ve added more bio spira and did a 25% water change but nothing seems to work, do I have to add more chemicals or something, or is this normal and I just need to just let it do it’s thing. Any advice would be great. I’ve also been using a api master test kit to test the parameters.

May be testing error api is notorious for that though. Leave it be another week and then do a large water change and begin.


 
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brandon429

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No future testing for ammonia is needed on a post cycle display, you can retire all kits for it.
 
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brandon429

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I used to press pretty hard against api for sure but the chemists on the forum corrected me in that reading nh4 as they do it’s ~ ten times higher than the only version of ammonia we care about in reefing: nh3



alert badges from seachem read as nh3, and seneyes do so when we see the classic greenish api readout for ammonia we are supposed to imagine what it would look like ten shades lighter than it is

heck the color just about disappears then, matching the presentation of the tank which is healthy fish swimming normally each day.
 
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sergifed91

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It took my tank 3 months to cycle. Although I didn't dos anything. I just threw a price of shrimp in and waited. Tested once a week. By three months I did a wc. Then waited another week retested that last week I just fed the tank. No ammonia no nitrites just nitrates. Then got some green chromis. They survived. But killed each other over time. For a year on occasion I could smell ammonia from the tank. Not often but every time I did. I quickly tested the water. It never showed any ammonia but could smell it. But never lost anty fish
 
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leo12345

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It took my tank 3 months to cycle. Although I didn't dos anything. I just threw a price of shrimp in and waited. Tested once a week. By three months I did a wc. Then waited another week retested that last week I just fed the tank. No ammonia no nitrites just nitrates. Then got some green chromis. They survived. But killed each other over time. For a year on occasion I could smell ammonia from the tank. Not often but every time I did. I quickly tested the water. It never showed any ammonia but could smell it. But never lost anty fish
What does ammonia smell like?
 
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Mogwai

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I’m new to saltwater fish tanks and I’ve been trying to do a fishless cycle on my tank for about 2 weeks now and I dosed with instant ocean bio spira (which was supposed to cycle instantly) and dr Tim’s ammonia in a 29 gallon, my nitrites ph and spiked for a while but are ok now but my ammonia is at .5ppm and my nitrates have been at 10 ppm for 2 weeks now and it won’t go down. I’ve added more bio spira and did a 25% water change but nothing seems to work, do I have to add more chemicals or something, or is this normal and I just need to just let it do it’s thing. Any advice would be great. I’ve also been using a api master test kit to test the parameters.
Also need to be careful with the API Ammonia color cards. The ammonia color for saltwater and fresh water are a different shade of yellow. Freshwater it's very bright yellow for 0 and saltwater has a really slight tint of green making it look like the results you're getting. Nitrates usually takes the longest to drop imo. I tried Dr.Tims nitrifying bacteria and Bio Spira on separate start up tanks and find that Bio Spira worked immediately. Dr. Tims took almost 1 full week for me to get a Nitrite reading, Bio Spira 24-48hrs after. For me, Bio Spira works great.
 
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leo12345

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Also need to be careful with the API Ammonia color cards. The ammonia color for saltwater and fresh water are a different shade of yellow. Freshwater it's very bright yellow for 0 and saltwater has a really slight tint of green making it look like the results you're getting. Nitrates usually takes the longest to drop imo. I tried Dr.Tims nitrifying bacteria and Bio Spira on separate start up tanks and find that Bio Spira worked immediately. Dr. Tims took almost 1 full week for me to get a Nitrite reading, Bio Spira 24-48hrs after. For me, Bio Spira works great.
Dude this was like a year ago I don’t need help anymore
 
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