Is my tank cycled?

[PizzaIan339]

My intent and purpose is to teach people the right way to do things so that their experience in the hobby can be as good as possible, we can show the world that we are intelligent, responsible and do not redefine terms and, also, that we fully understand the process that we are undertaking with other living things. These words matter and cycling and cycled are not the same thing.

Also, since the OP typed "cycled enough" in the first post, I thought that it was likely that they understood that this was a longer process and wanted to make sure that term mixing did not give the wrong idea that it was done-done.

There is a post somewhere not too far down in the Noobie forum where somebody added like 12-15 fish when he heard the word cycled from a well-known glory seeking member who likes to declare absolutes. Ammonia rose, some fish died and some likely have permanent gill damage. You can probably find it in the first few pages. As a community, we HAVE TO STOP this from happening if we want this hobby to survive for long. These are the types of things that get discussed when the no-wild-things people lobby for the hobby to be limited - I have heard it with my own ears.

BTW - I am not getting off of this soapbox... so no /soapbox from me.

Thank you very much I know that the cycle will not be completed for a while!

 

[jda]

Since you have done your homework and appear to be more prepared than many, the real answer is that your tank is an ecosystem and never will be done until you shut it down. It will constantly be changing with more/less AOB/NOB, algae, corals, fish, etc.

Even when you add fish in 6 months, AOB (ammonia oxidizing bacteria) will have to adjust, but they usually do this fast. By that time you also could have enough corals and algae to just use ammonia directly and you might not need many AOB at all. It is possible that you could have so many corals and algae that very little bacteria needs to be oxidized by bacteria. Things change.

You might need a few more fish if you get a good amount of corals. Corals will prefer to get their nitrogen from ammonia (fish waste). Some can get nitrogen from nitrate at a larger energy cost since they have to covert it back to ammonia - some corals cannot do this at all. You can dose ammonium if you think that your corals are nitrogen starved - low amounts, so no worry about gill/fish damage.

 

[brandon429]

omitting disease prep info and subbing in cycle doubt = old cycling science, still strong as of today despite about 1000 threads using updated terms showing zero fear that JDA routinely paints.


the reason we use updated terms is to make changes in the hobby away from what kills fish (false cycling fear with not one link showing a 'broken' cycle and no training on disease preps) and guide reefers into what protects fish: bottle bac has your cycle covered, don't fret, it's covered on every link you can find, but disease preps is what's missing in everyone's cycle.


what if the auto industry wasn't allowed to use new terms when new means were developed, we should call fuel injectors 'carbs' still?

old vs new cycling science is a worthy search adventure, it'll save your fish the right way/

being heels-dug-in resistant to change doesn't mean change isn't underway/ I have a bunch of threads showing the new ways and the outcomes are stellar, and linkable.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/how-to-unstick-any-seemingly-stuck-cycle.742202/
here's one above, just chock full of new terms

how are those cycles looking on year 4? = great, resolved, never flinching, no warnings about half cycles. disease discussions every day using new terms sure communicates clearly to anyone there that's for sure

every cycle: has an exact start date. not a range, not a guesstimate

and we do not use testing at all.

 

[PizzaIan339]

Since you have done your homework and appear to be more prepared than many, the real answer is that your tank is an ecosystem and never will be done until you shut it down. It will constantly be changing with more/less AOB/NOB, algae, corals, fish, etc.

Even when you add fish in 6 months, AOB (ammonia oxidizing bacteria) will have to adjust, but they usually do this fast. By that time you also could have enough corals and algae to just use ammonia directly and you might not need many AOB at all. It is possible that you could have so many corals and algae that very little bacteria needs to be oxidized by bacteria. Things change.

You might need a few more fish if you get a good amount of corals. Corals will prefer to get their nitrogen from ammonia (fish waste). Some can get nitrogen from nitrate at a larger energy cost since they have to covert it back to ammonia - some corals cannot do this at all. You can dose ammonium if you think that your corals are nitrogen starved - low amounts, so no worry about gill/fish damage.

Thanks I have been researching for around 6 months. The tank is 15 gallons so I don’t think I can really get many fish but correct me if I am wrong.