non digital ammonia test kit readings (api, Red Sea, nyos, seachem badges) make you think you aren’t cycled when indeed you are
if you owned a $200 expensive seneye meter, you’d never be doubting your cycle status. since .01% of the reefing population owns these, we need a way to help the majority understand when they’re cycled without using test kits at all
*absolutely do not dose your cycling reef tank to 2 ppm ammonia, it’s a total non requirement, it’s a hindrance to success here. In all these coming pages, we will never do that
a bottle bac salesman who gets paid well if you buy 4 bottles of bacteria vs 1 invented that arbitrary practice and it’s the chief reason this hobby cannot align its cycles correctly. We don’t have test kits that can deal with that initial blast correctly. The cause of false stalls is the hand-in-hand sales advice to dose a huge degree of ammonia into a new tank then believe what a cheap colorimetric test kit says about the resolve rates. We do opposite here.
This is a testless reef tank cycling thread. All the test kit readings you see posted aren't used to get people's cycle finished because those non digital test kit readings cause misread confusion; however, it's understandable that people will lead with test kit levels posted because that's how all cycling threads other than one advises readers.
I don't factor people's posted test kit readings to state their cycle end date, the posted readings from API and Red Sea non digital kits are allowed simply so people won't feel discounted. the posted reads are then overlooked, and we discern how many days their tank has had water in it as the main factor. the way they set up their cycle is also co factored along with # of days the tank has been up and running.
Our results logged speak to the method, try and scroll through these working examples and find fish wipeouts or inability to reef on the date stated.
Cycling bacteria adhere to surfaces in a known number of days that is consistent tank to tank, it's why we don't need test kits to fix up all these cycles. A common cycling chart shows you these wait times, and charts don't vary in timeframes across sources. The arguments that occur in typical cycling threads don't center on the ability to carry life within the tank, they center upon varying interpretations of the test kit readings. We managed to earn an argument- free thread going on multiple years by omitting test kit readouts from our ruleset
The hidden truth of updated cycling science: a common cycling chart is correct, and we don’t need to know nitrite and nitrate at ALL- we don’t need that data, exclude it from this thread.
we just reduced 2 out of 3 common test kits from the cycling process, that’s two less misreading factors to mislead us here. The last factor is ammonia. We don’t test for it: we predict it’s ready date instead and it always works out. Anyone with a seneye can feel free to spot check us and post those results at any time.
we do need ammonia control in reef cycling, that’s still a requirement, but we don’t have to test for it because a simple ammonia load will be resolved by day ten in any common cycle arrangement in a display setup.
New cycling science:
****Nitrite has no basis here in reef tank cycling. We don't want to know the levels, nitrite cannot stall your cycle that was a made up statement by bottle bac sellers and the impact to the hobby was that thousands of people registering nitrite well past their cycle end date bought several extra bottles of bacteria. Simply don't post or factor nitrite levels here, that way we can set this thread far apart from all the other cycling threads.
**unfactoring nitrite isn't my idea, it's Randy Holmes-Farley's idea. Search out any post he's made on this site, plus his article on nitrite written in 2005 and you'll see why we eschew testing for it here. It's chemically neutral in reefing but very impactful in freshwater setups. We only work with ammonia compliance date prediction here and we do it without testing... that's what sets this thread apart from the rest.
Impress us with your fish disease control planning instead, research how you'll stock the tank and prepare your fish via quarantine and fallow approaches
Reef tank cycling must include disease preps, that’s what’s been left out for all these decades we were taught to hyperfocus on ammonia, nitrite and nitrate
the fish disease forum is the busiest forum showing dead fish on this site, it’s not the new tanks forum where the cycling work is done. We adapt to that predicted loss now as we apply advanced/updated cycling science to your new reef tank.
Fish food + cycling bacteria + ten days wait is ideal for cycling large tanks: it saves the owner from having to run a large water change at the end.
Skip cycle setups
There is a certain subset of reef tank cycles that totally skip the wait time process so let’s exclude that type from our thread: when cured live rocks are brought home and set in a tank, from another reef tank lets say from a pet store, they bring a full complement of bacteria into the new tank and they don’t have dieoff. They just transfer over and are immediately cycled without a single minute of wait time. This is how marine conventions like MACNA are able to align hundreds of display reefs on the start date of the convention, they’re all skip cycling but the buyers walking around buying bottle bac for all cycles don’t know that trick. We do
****read this thread to see skip cycle reef examples
A common type of cycle you may encounter comes from buying uncured ocean rocks and having them shipped to you, TBS live rock for example. We will handle those cycles on a case by case basis as they arise here because those systems don’t necessarily follow the common cycling chart
Definitions used here:
Cured live rock=has been sitting in a tank of water at the pet store or in someone's running reef tank long enough to have the attachments we can see that aquariums carry: coralline algae, small bits of algae, micro starfish, pods, sometimes there are attached corals.
Uncured ocean rock: looks like it came from the ocean, has attachments and growths that aquariums don't promote and you don't see in routine reef tank pictures. extremely diverse pigmentation ranging all colors + dense stands of attached clams and barnacles, dense groups of various macro algae, all manner of crabs and worms hanging out of the rock, diverse groups of sponges and tunicates + the rock didn't come from a pet store holding tank is how you identify uncured live rock.
Skip cycling: any approach to reef tank cycling that doesn’t factor a calculated wait time until the system is ready to carry life. Reef conventions have used this method for decades, it’s largely hidden from buyers in that no cycling articles published discuss it, and there are ways of using common bottle bac + dry rock systems to be skip cycle setups for use in emergency tank prep and hospital tanks/special cases.
In summary, everything about your reef tank cycle is so predictable we dont need to test for any aspect of it.
Fish disease preps are where all your concern should aim
seneye owners have a believable test kit, I hope several of them will post their cycle readings as benchmark tests of our updated cycling science.
if you owned a $200 expensive seneye meter, you’d never be doubting your cycle status. since .01% of the reefing population owns these, we need a way to help the majority understand when they’re cycled without using test kits at all
*absolutely do not dose your cycling reef tank to 2 ppm ammonia, it’s a total non requirement, it’s a hindrance to success here. In all these coming pages, we will never do that
a bottle bac salesman who gets paid well if you buy 4 bottles of bacteria vs 1 invented that arbitrary practice and it’s the chief reason this hobby cannot align its cycles correctly. We don’t have test kits that can deal with that initial blast correctly. The cause of false stalls is the hand-in-hand sales advice to dose a huge degree of ammonia into a new tank then believe what a cheap colorimetric test kit says about the resolve rates. We do opposite here.
This is a testless reef tank cycling thread. All the test kit readings you see posted aren't used to get people's cycle finished because those non digital test kit readings cause misread confusion; however, it's understandable that people will lead with test kit levels posted because that's how all cycling threads other than one advises readers.
I don't factor people's posted test kit readings to state their cycle end date, the posted readings from API and Red Sea non digital kits are allowed simply so people won't feel discounted. the posted reads are then overlooked, and we discern how many days their tank has had water in it as the main factor. the way they set up their cycle is also co factored along with # of days the tank has been up and running.
Our results logged speak to the method, try and scroll through these working examples and find fish wipeouts or inability to reef on the date stated.
Cycling bacteria adhere to surfaces in a known number of days that is consistent tank to tank, it's why we don't need test kits to fix up all these cycles. A common cycling chart shows you these wait times, and charts don't vary in timeframes across sources. The arguments that occur in typical cycling threads don't center on the ability to carry life within the tank, they center upon varying interpretations of the test kit readings. We managed to earn an argument- free thread going on multiple years by omitting test kit readouts from our ruleset
The hidden truth of updated cycling science: a common cycling chart is correct, and we don’t need to know nitrite and nitrate at ALL- we don’t need that data, exclude it from this thread.
we just reduced 2 out of 3 common test kits from the cycling process, that’s two less misreading factors to mislead us here. The last factor is ammonia. We don’t test for it: we predict it’s ready date instead and it always works out. Anyone with a seneye can feel free to spot check us and post those results at any time.
we do need ammonia control in reef cycling, that’s still a requirement, but we don’t have to test for it because a simple ammonia load will be resolved by day ten in any common cycle arrangement in a display setup.
New cycling science:
****Nitrite has no basis here in reef tank cycling. We don't want to know the levels, nitrite cannot stall your cycle that was a made up statement by bottle bac sellers and the impact to the hobby was that thousands of people registering nitrite well past their cycle end date bought several extra bottles of bacteria. Simply don't post or factor nitrite levels here, that way we can set this thread far apart from all the other cycling threads.
**unfactoring nitrite isn't my idea, it's Randy Holmes-Farley's idea. Search out any post he's made on this site, plus his article on nitrite written in 2005 and you'll see why we eschew testing for it here. It's chemically neutral in reefing but very impactful in freshwater setups. We only work with ammonia compliance date prediction here and we do it without testing... that's what sets this thread apart from the rest.
Impress us with your fish disease control planning instead, research how you'll stock the tank and prepare your fish via quarantine and fallow approaches
Reef tank cycling must include disease preps, that’s what’s been left out for all these decades we were taught to hyperfocus on ammonia, nitrite and nitrate
the fish disease forum is the busiest forum showing dead fish on this site, it’s not the new tanks forum where the cycling work is done. We adapt to that predicted loss now as we apply advanced/updated cycling science to your new reef tank.
Fish food + cycling bacteria + ten days wait is ideal for cycling large tanks: it saves the owner from having to run a large water change at the end.
Skip cycle setups
There is a certain subset of reef tank cycles that totally skip the wait time process so let’s exclude that type from our thread: when cured live rocks are brought home and set in a tank, from another reef tank lets say from a pet store, they bring a full complement of bacteria into the new tank and they don’t have dieoff. They just transfer over and are immediately cycled without a single minute of wait time. This is how marine conventions like MACNA are able to align hundreds of display reefs on the start date of the convention, they’re all skip cycling but the buyers walking around buying bottle bac for all cycles don’t know that trick. We do
****read this thread to see skip cycle reef examples
A thread tracking pure skip cycle instant reefs, no bottle bac
THE GOLDEN EXAMPLE OF A SKIP CYCLE DAY 1 REEF https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/octo-high-end-sps-skip-cycle-build.713256/ read that entire thread before you read ours. that's the heart of skip cycling. Everything we do going forward in this thread reflects on that ability above, in the #1...
www.reef2reef.com
A common type of cycle you may encounter comes from buying uncured ocean rocks and having them shipped to you, TBS live rock for example. We will handle those cycles on a case by case basis as they arise here because those systems don’t necessarily follow the common cycling chart
Definitions used here:
Cured live rock=has been sitting in a tank of water at the pet store or in someone's running reef tank long enough to have the attachments we can see that aquariums carry: coralline algae, small bits of algae, micro starfish, pods, sometimes there are attached corals.
Uncured ocean rock: looks like it came from the ocean, has attachments and growths that aquariums don't promote and you don't see in routine reef tank pictures. extremely diverse pigmentation ranging all colors + dense stands of attached clams and barnacles, dense groups of various macro algae, all manner of crabs and worms hanging out of the rock, diverse groups of sponges and tunicates + the rock didn't come from a pet store holding tank is how you identify uncured live rock.
Skip cycling: any approach to reef tank cycling that doesn’t factor a calculated wait time until the system is ready to carry life. Reef conventions have used this method for decades, it’s largely hidden from buyers in that no cycling articles published discuss it, and there are ways of using common bottle bac + dry rock systems to be skip cycle setups for use in emergency tank prep and hospital tanks/special cases.
In summary, everything about your reef tank cycle is so predictable we dont need to test for any aspect of it.
Fish disease preps are where all your concern should aim
seneye owners have a believable test kit, I hope several of them will post their cycle readings as benchmark tests of our updated cycling science.
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