Messed up cycle?

[grr410]

I am hoping for some guidance here regarding my testing during cycle period.

Background:
17 days ago added rock, live sand , and water, I was told the rock was dry rock (thinking it was live) based on this experience.

8 days ago, after testing for straight with literally zero movement, all tests reading 0.00 except for ph, I added Dr. Tim’s One and Only along with the ammonia from Dr. Tim’s as well. I followed the directions exactly as prescribed from Dr. Tim’s regarding dumping all the one and only in the tank followed by the appropriate amount of ammonia based on my system (Red Sea 200xl, 54G). Over the last few days, days 6-8 according to Dr. Tim’s schedule, my Ammonia, Nitrites, and Nitrates have skyrocketed (according to the API test kits the colors are the highest levels if not greater) and my PH has slightly dropped from 8.2 to approximately 7.9-8.0.

As a side note, I have recently returned to the hobby after five years or so away and never used a Dr Tim’s or any other “quick start” product. Always just let my tank cycle before using a piece of established live rock.

Should I do a water change tomorrow? Should I let it run its course? Could I have overdosed ammonia and not realized that the rock I added was not “dry rock?”

Any help is greatly appreciated. I have attached a pic from my testing done approximately 4-5 hours ago.

 

[ReefGuard Systems]

Yikes. There should be a 'spike' in levels but not that much. I'd say a water change would be a good idea then test again? I've never personally used Dr. Tims, perhaps others have more insight. Good luck!

 

[grr410]

Yikes. There should be a 'spike' in levels but not that much. I'd say a water change would be a good idea then test again? I've never personally used Dr. Tims, perhaps others have more insight. Good luck!

Yeah I’m like holy crap spike in levels. I may do water change going’ to wait and see if others chime in

 

[Mrtakeoff53]

I say let it ride out. With no critters in the tank (assumption here), it’ll all eventually turn to nitrate and you’ll have a more robust bacterial colony at the end (think more ‘food’= more bacteria). Give it another week. Watch the ammonia drop, nitrite drop and nitrate rise. Then do a water change and you’ll be cycle complete.

 

[taricha]

not messed up. There was a bunch of ammonia, it's coming down and being processed, creating a lot of NO2. When there's a lot of NO2, it makes the NO3 test blow up.
everything is working as expected.

 

[Cell]

Stop testing nitrate until nitrite goes down. You cannot accurately measure nitrate in the presence of nitrite with our hobby test kits.

 

[brandon429]

day 17 is beyond the implantation date for bacteria, and they're hyperfed here that's for sure

(old cycling science would claim=dead! lol)

I have seen that same api reading in a nine month old tank, we argued about it being a non issue for fifteen pages as the tank ran just fine with fish, a linkia starfish (sensitive) all doing fine


change a huge amount of water if you want and simply go on. Its ok to wait for that to degrade but its mass algae fuel, and your bacteria are fine.

 

[brandon429]

I'm sure there are times where folks input by accident 5x too much ammonia, this water change + bacteria are fine and always adhered and functioning anyway is a core tenet of updated cycling science vs old rules that were always panic based



in addition: nobody on a calibrated seneye has ever posted such a sustained ammonia issue for 17 days, this is a real solely for api and red sea/non digitals. there's a 99.9% chance your cycle worked fine and that's a blatant misread for whatever reason...the same reason that causes these searchable trainwreck threads: my ammonia is 8 ppm/there are a lot of those on the web, and the tank pics and indistinguishable from a system that may show yellow zero api on another kit/tank. You can move forward because you're past day ten wait time with inoculation and feed in the system. I'd do the big water change for algae purposes. focus on studying and concerning disease preps, this is what kills fish by month eight/skipping them

nobody loses fish to ammonia issues, I mean nobody-I can't find one instance whatsoever from any forum but I do find acclimation errors getting blamed as ammonia issues routinely.

 

[mjszos]

I recently cycled a new tank similarly to yours, first time doing a fishless cycle. I learned through a different channel that you're supposed to reduce your ammonia dosing when using live sand (skip it for the first few days). I had a similar experience, ended up doing the better part of a 90% water change over the course of a week, waiting for numbers to stabilize, then dosing ammonia again for a 24-hour clear.

Do some water changes, then give it a time to let the bacteria do it's work.

 

[grr410]

Thank you everyone.. I went ahead and contacted Dr Tim’s through IG and they responded instantly and suggested a 25% water change. Completed the WC today and waiting to see what test results are tomorrow. Thanks everyone!