How to unstick any seemingly stuck cycle

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Okay delayed update thanks to UPS.

Fish arrived 1 day late from Live Aquaria thankfully called and they got them here on Saturday because they only packed them in newspaper! No foam, no heatpack nothing.

I had a bucket of saltwater ready with the same salinity after floating for an hour. Luckily they were happy and acclimated quite nicely.

Still keeping an eye on them, but they’re eating great, and seem very happy.

 

[dosekk]

I was cycling on saechem stability but I wasn’t sure it was working at all. Then I’ve added dr Tim’s bacteria month later (11 April,) deeded ammonia and went on vacation. Now I’m back and cycle looks same as before, maybe small no2 increase, ammonia is not going to 0 as stated on dr Tim’s after 24h.
What to do now? Water change? Lower salinity? Or do nothing?

 

[SirMitcho]

After getting back into the hobby after a long hiatus, this thread was a very interesting read and take on what I left the hobby from. (5 years ago)

After getting a hello reef for my son and starting that up the buy some live rock and start with a damsel, we had a few small hiccups but not too many problems.

Now I am 8 days into the cycle of my personal tank (Red Sea G2 Max Nano XXL) that I plan to be SPS dominated. And yes I may have made a poor choice with sand size as you can see but I have some coarser stuff ready to go in once I do what I suspect to be about a 90% to 100% water change for my once I hit day 10 on Wednesday. Need some time to make the ~45 gallons I need.

I have tested ammonia falling twice now. (With my trusty API kit lol). I seeded the tank with 5x the dose of Fritz turbo start and used fishless fuel to what was supposed to be 2ppm but ended up being more like 5ppm. That fell to 1ppm around Day 6 so I dosed back up to 2ppm and as of today I am back to 0.5ppm. Nitrite (while I know are irrelevant) were pegged at 5 for the past 4 days and are just now returning to 2ppm. I have also been testing nitrates since day 5 at about 5ppm and now day 8 I am at about 10ppm.

I assume the cycle was probably complete at the 5 day mark according to the thread but I am curious to see what you think.

I am also curious if you even think a water change is necessary at this point being nitrates are still only in the 10ppm range and I want to add corals right away as well.

Also mind the glass I need to clean that up a little bit with the water change. I plan to do 50% regardless but I am curious to see if you think the 100% is necessary.

 

[Imrahilwjz]

After getting back into the hobby after a long hiatus, this thread was a very interesting read and take on what I left the hobby from. (5 years ago)

After getting a hello reef for my son and starting that up the buy some live rock and start with a damsel, we had a few small hiccups but not too many problems.

Now I am 8 days into the cycle of my personal tank (Red Sea G2 Max Nano XXL) that I plan to be SPS dominated. And yes I may have made a poor choice with sand size as you can see but I have some coarser stuff ready to go in once I do what I suspect to be about a 90% to 100% water change for my once I hit day 10 on Wednesday. Need some time to make the ~45 gallons I need.

I have tested ammonia falling twice now. (With my trusty API kit lol). I seeded the tank with 5x the dose of Fritz turbo start and used fishless fuel to what was supposed to be 2ppm but ended up being more like 5ppm. That fell to 1ppm around Day 6 so I dosed back up to 2ppm and as of today I am back to 0.5ppm. Nitrite (while I know are irrelevant) were pegged at 5 for the past 4 days and are just now returning to 2ppm. I have also been testing nitrates since day 5 at about 5ppm and now day 8 I am at about 10ppm.

I assume the cycle was probably complete at the 5 day mark according to the thread but I am curious to see what you think.

I am also curious if you even think a water change is necessary at this point being nitrates are still only in the 10ppm range and I want to add corals right away as well.

Also mind the glass I need to clean that up a little bit with the water change. I plan to do 50% regardless but I am curious to see if you think the 100% is necessary.

I would say 100% is not necessary.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

After getting back into the hobby after a long hiatus, this thread was a very interesting read and take on what I left the hobby from. (5 years ago)

After getting a hello reef for my son and starting that up the buy some live rock and start with a damsel, we had a few small hiccups but not too many problems.

Now I am 8 days into the cycle of my personal tank (Red Sea G2 Max Nano XXL) that I plan to be SPS dominated. And yes I may have made a poor choice with sand size as you can see but I have some coarser stuff ready to go in once I do what I suspect to be about a 90% to 100% water change for my once I hit day 10 on Wednesday. Need some time to make the ~45 gallons I need.

I have tested ammonia falling twice now. (With my trusty API kit lol). I seeded the tank with 5x the dose of Fritz turbo start and used fishless fuel to what was supposed to be 2ppm but ended up being more like 5ppm. That fell to 1ppm around Day 6 so I dosed back up to 2ppm and as of today I am back to 0.5ppm. Nitrite (while I know are irrelevant) were pegged at 5 for the past 4 days and are just now returning to 2ppm. I have also been testing nitrates since day 5 at about 5ppm and now day 8 I am at about 10ppm.

I assume the cycle was probably complete at the 5 day mark according to the thread but I am curious to see what you think.

I am also curious if you even think a water change is necessary at this point being nitrates are still only in the 10ppm range and I want to add corals right away as well.

Also mind the glass I need to clean that up a little bit with the water change. I plan to do 50% regardless but I am curious to see if you think the 100% is necessary.

If ammonia fell considerably twice, the tank is adequately cycle to begin to add organisms.

A water change is not necessary.

 

[ReefinAintEasy]

Hello . New to the forum but have read a bunch on some other threads regarding common fish disease and rolled over to noticing talk of testless cycle. I’m using api test kit ( didn’t no much about quality prior to coming here) . Dry rock from hello reef kit and caribe sea sand. I’ve had water in the tank for 4 days now. Added Dr Tim’s and a small pinch of food. Filter sock is out. My kit did not come with ammonia drops so I haven’t added any of that or have any on hand currently. I’ve tests ammonia on day 2 and 3 with no detectable amounts according to my api. I will test later today. Do I need to add food daily while I’m cycling? I’ve only added a pinch twice as I don’t want to over do anything.

 

[frosstman]

Hi, I am on day 17 of cycling my Red Sea Nano Peninsula 26 gallon. I added mulm from the sponge filter of my cycled 15 gallon on three occasions. I also added 2 fully cycled live rocks from the 15 gallon to the dry Marco Rock in the tank at the 7 day mark. The cycled rocks are the lighter ones in the pics. The Marco rock is purple. The two cycled rocks make up about 1/3 of the total rock in the tank. The sand was also dry.

I plan to eventually remove the cycled rock down the line. The rock is not touching the back wall. There is room for flow.

My API test kit is still reading about 1 ppm of ammonia. I added about 2 ppm of ammonia two days ago as the ammonia reading had dropped to .25. I was hoping it would be processed in 24 hours but no. My nitrates are currently reading 5-10.

When I test my known cycled 15 gallon tank, the ammonia reads zero which makes be think the API test kit is accurate. It is past the expiry date though.

I feel my tank should be cycled but the ammonia reading has me afraid to add my two clownfish from the fully cycled 15 gallon to the new tank.

Is it cycled?

 

[dirtyd61]

Hi, I am on day 17 of cycling my Red Sea Nano Peninsula 26 gallon. I added mulm from the sponge filter of my cycled 15 gallon on three occasions. I also added 2 fully cycled live rocks from the 15 gallon to the dry Marco Rock in the tank at the 7 day mark. The cycled rocks are the lighter ones in the pics. The Marco rock is purple. The two cycled rocks make up about 1/3 of the total rock in the tank. The sand was also dry.

I plan to eventually remove the cycled rock down the line. The rock is not touching the back wall. There is room for flow.

My API test kit is still reading about 1 ppm of ammonia. I added about 2 ppm of ammonia two days ago as the ammonia reading had dropped to .25. I was hoping it would be processed in 24 hours but no. My nitrates are currently reading 5-10.

When I test my known cycled 15 gallon tank, the ammonia reads zero which makes be think the API test kit is accurate. It is past the expiry date though.

I feel my tank should be cycled but the ammonia reading has me afraid to add my two clownfish from the fully cycled 15 gallon to the new tank.

Is it cycled?

In my experience, especially expired API kits, they’ll just sit at 0.25 and never show true zero regardless. It read distinctly true 0 on your second tank?