Is my cycle ended?

[endlessrealm]

Hello everyone. I currently own a 55 gallons waterbox marine x60.2. And 2.5 weeks ago i added a whole bottle of fritz turbo start 900. And i added fishless fuel ammonia around 2ppm. I woke uo the next day obviously with 2ppm ammonia and 2ppm+ nitrite. I was dosing ammonia every few days when ammonia almost drops to 0. So after a while my nitrite wasnt dropping so somebody suggested to stop adding ammonia so nitrite can catch up. So i stopped adding ammonia, and nitrite dropped to 0. I was 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 15-20 nitrate. So i decided to test the cycle and see if i can process 2ppm ammonia in 24 hours. So i added 2ppm ammonia and nitrite went back up to around 2ppm. And it takes 48 hours instead of 24 hours to get everything to 0 maybe more than 48 hours. Whats my next step?

 

[KrisReef]

The cycle is finished.
Change water to lower nitrates.

Are you planning to have fish and coral?

If you are going to keep coral you need to look at Calcium, Alk, and Mg.

 

[Jekyl]

Large water change. I'd say at least 75%. Get your nitrate in order before adding a fish or 2. Easier to do now before inhabitants. Add a small CuC with fish, more in a month, easy coral in a couple months.

 

[ReeferHolland]

The cycle is finished.
Change water to lower nitrates.

Are you planning to have fish and coral?

If you are going to keep coral you need to look at Calcium, Alk, and Mg.

What to do after a cycle is finished, but no fish or corals are added because they need to do QT for 28 days first. What to do with the tank in those 28 days?

 

[92Miata]

What to do after a cycle is finished, but no fish or corals are added because they need to do QT for 28 days first. What to do with the tank in those 28 days?

You don't need to do anything. Turn the lights off, let the rest of the equipment run. The bacteria won't even notice 28 days. If it worries you, throw some fish food in. After ammonia cycling, the tank is unbalanced (nitrogen heavy) and getting some phosphorus moving around and giving some heterotrophic bacteria something to eat is a good thing.


That being said - until you get to the point where your tank is metabolizing nitrate into nitrogen gas (and flesh, etc) - and that usually takes months - the nitrogen cycle is a consumer of alkalinity - and now is a really good low risk time to get a handle on testing and maintaining that.

 

[ReeferHolland]

You don't need to do anything. Turn the lights off, let the rest of the equipment run. The bacteria won't even notice 28 days. If it worries you, throw some fish food in. After ammonia cycling, the tank is unbalanced (nitrogen heavy) and getting some phosphorus moving around and giving some heterotrophic bacteria something to eat is a good thing.


That being said - until you get to the point where your tank is metabolizing nitrate into nitrogen gas (and flesh, etc) - and that usually takes months - the nitrogen cycle is a consumer of alkalinity - and now is a really good low risk time to get a handle on testing and maintaining that.

Thank you, thats very helpfull. Will do this