My ammonia lvls wont go down to 0!

[vjmendoza12212]

i am new to marine fish keeping hobby. And i was researching stuff on the internet on how to do the cycling. Its been around 2 weeks now since i started my “cycle” and my recently recorded levels are quite confusing to what my research is telling me. My ammonia is still up in .25ppm and my nitrites are in 2.0ppm while my nitrates are up in 80ppm. My research is telling me that ammonia should be in 0 ppm by now and my nitrites should be lowering by next week and i should expect that my nitrates would spike high and i should do a 50% water change. can someone tell me what to do?

 

[TrevorL]

i am new to marine fish keeping hobby. And i was researching stuff on the internet on how to do the cycling. Its been around 2 weeks now since i started my “cycle” and my recently recorded levels are quite confusing to what my research is telling me. My ammonia is still up in .25ppm and my nitrites are in 2.0ppm while my nitrates are up in 80ppm. My research is telling me that ammonia should be in 0 ppm by now and my nitrites should be lowering by next week and i should expect that my nitrates would spike high and i should do a 50% water change. can someone tell me what to do?

This is normal. I just started reef keeping myself and this was one of my questions at the beginning too. If you are using dry rock it can take up to 6 weeks for a tank to fully cycle, live rock however would be a different story and shouldn’t take as long. I started my tank 7 months ago and let it cycle for 2 months just to be safe.

 

[StlSalt]

i am new to marine fish keeping hobby. And i was researching stuff on the internet on how to do the cycling. Its been around 2 weeks now since i started my “cycle” and my recently recorded levels are quite confusing to what my research is telling me. My ammonia is still up in .25ppm and my nitrites are in 2.0ppm while my nitrates are up in 80ppm. My research is telling me that ammonia should be in 0 ppm by now and my nitrites should be lowering by next week and i should expect that my nitrates would spike high and i should do a 50% water change. can someone tell me what to do?

You're about to hear a whole lot about how inaccurate Ammonia tests are and that your tank is cycling just fine.

 

[reef_ninja]

Don’t do any water changes, you’ll only prolong the process. 2 weeks is still a bit early, especially with dry rock. Just keep waiting, it’ll settle out.

Also, if you’re using an API test kit, you’ll probably always read ammonia with those kits, because they suck.

Also Also, this is probably not an emergency. Good luck and welcome to reefing

 

[CarltonCay]

The cycle is complete when the cycle is complete. Just let it sit and don't rush things. Be patient. The better the cycle the better the foundation of the tank. Let the microbes establish and take care of the issue. That's what cycling is for.

 

[Jonify]

If you have a bottle of cycling bacteria, pour some more in. Your ammonia should hit zero within a day. You can check out more info at New 2020 Cycling Rules.

 

[RobertTheNurse]

Are you keeping any fish in the tank during this process?

 

[LegendaryCG]

Best thing you can do for a new tank imo is to add bacteria.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Add 1.5ml of liquid bacteria per 10 gallons (Bacter 7 is good) daily and you can also place chemiclean elite pouch in the sump or filter area which it will place nitrate in check. While tank is new, you dont want it to continue to be elevated.

 

[RocketEngineer]

How are you measuring this?

 

[Jilly92]

i am new to marine fish keeping hobby. And i was researching stuff on the internet on how to do the cycling. Its been around 2 weeks now since i started my “cycle” and my recently recorded levels are quite confusing to what my research is telling me. My ammonia is still up in .25ppm and my nitrites are in 2.0ppm while my nitrates are up in 80ppm. My research is telling me that ammonia should be in 0 ppm by now and my nitrites should be lowering by next week and i should expect that my nitrates would spike high and i should do a 50% water change. can someone tell me what to do?

Did you dose any beneficial bacteria?

 

[brandon429]

per the thread in #6 there's only one last part of this equation missing, the time factor.

all params line up as we'd expect. .25=zero for api

some nitrate means your bottle bac wasn't dead, ergo the directions on the bottle for wait time is the final determinant.

we don't care about the nitrite portion, that no longer factors (and if the nitrite is bumping nitrate falsely, that's still active conversion. 100% ammonia holding pegged green on api, no nitrate, no nitrite might be a stall, that's not posted here above its got the common readings spread we'd expect for an api cycle)

how many days are on the bottle directions, if you've met that # of days your cycle is done, right now.

using old cycling rules, you are no where near done your bacteria are only half alive.

using new rules, you are done, because about 3/4 of the new tankers would have already added fish anyway and they'd be fine, due to bottle bac skip cycling plus dilution.

let us know how many days your bottle directions say and we'll add this thread to that one above as a tracked outcome. Anywhere close to ten days and 99% of all bottle bac brands have you ready, already. the specific takeaway from the thread above is that the bottle bac directions are reliable in 2021. the stuff they put in bottle works well, we've got a red convertible circling the solar system with a spaceman at the wheel as well, our tech is getting good.

 

[vjmendoza12212]

per the thread in #6 there's only one last part of this equation missing, the time factor.

all params line up as we'd expect. .25=zero for api

some nitrate means your bottle bac wasn't dead, ergo the directions on the bottle for wait time is the final determinant.

we don't care about the nitrite portion, that no longer factors (and if the nitrite is bumping nitrate falsely, that's still active conversion. 100% ammonia holding pegged green on api, no nitrate, no nitrite might be a stall, that's not posted here above its got the common readings spread we'd expect for an api cycle)

how many days are on the bottle directions, if you've met that # of days your cycle is done, right now.

using old cycling rules, you are no where near done your bacteria are only half alive.

using new rules, you are done, because about 3/4 of the new tankers would have already added fish anyway and they'd be fine, due to bottle bac skip cycling plus dilution.

let us know how many days your bottle directions say and we'll add this thread to that one above as a tracked outcome. Anywhere close to ten days and 99% of all bottle bac brands have you ready, already. the specific takeaway from the thread above is that the bottle bac directions are reliable in 2021. the stuff they put in bottle works well, we've got a red convertible circling the solar system with a spaceman at the wheel as well, our tech is getting good.

I have poured some api quick start to my tank which is only 28 gallons. it only said it to use when to changing water or adding new fish. Im not exactly sure how to use it but i just followed the directions in the back of the bottle . And also i only added it once and been cycling without fish. i kept my filter running 24 hours a day but im still reading .25 ppt of ammonia and with increasing nitrites and nitrates. Its almost 3 weeks since i started cycling. I will update you guys in the later days

 

[vjmendoza12212]

No i am doing a fishless cycling

Are you keeping any fish in the tank during this process?

 

[vjmendoza12212]

I used api saltwater master test kit

How are you measuring this?

 

[brandon429]

You are done cycling, but have no chance to know it by the tests you chose. Seneye would have helped. It’s ok to wait as many weeks as that kit requires until it hits hard zero. Your cycle has been fully evaluated, case closed


your cycle is just like all the others on google, they’re all .25 positive

this helps sell things as people buy remedies

 

[brandon429]

3 weeks

pull up a cycling chart, ammonia is fine at three weeks. It’s not that you own a reef producing legit .25


its that the link above have not been weighed. We see these type cycles last ninety days usually, I have threads where .25 showed for ninety days then one day they took the reading in a different room, under light changes, and it said ok.

read about TAN conversion, that’s your kits requirement for accurate reading but the TAN reduction step has been not applied to the .25 above

Your cycle is done if you have rocks and sand in contact with bottle bacteria and feed for three weeks.

 

[ReefRusty]

Are you using live rock, dry rock real reef? Live sand? Dry sand? These all are different factors to a cycle and the period.

As @brandon429 states you are cycled.. but depends of how many days it states on bottle. Was a great help during my cycle process and well I was ready at day 15 for my tank.

Test kits are very hard to read and api ect aren't to accurate when 0.25ppm ammonia is showing.

Good luck with the process and just wait.

 

[brandon429]

BRS recommends a 4 month cycle and I agree

but we aren’t waiting for ammonia control that’s ten days


the 120 days was for biofilm and micro community food web establishment, and less dinos. It’s good to delay for the right reasons. It’s good to know how to control ammonia without a test kit because that means every reef you’ll ever own will be immune to a loss from filtration crash, your reef animals are safest when you know how ammonia works without doubt.

 

[vjmendoza12212]

3 weeks

pull up a cycling chart, ammonia is fine at three weeks. It’s not that you own a reef producing legit .25


its that the links provided have not been factored. We see these type cycles last ninety days usually, I have threads where .25 showed for ninety days then one day they took the reading in a different room, under light changes, and it said ok.

read about TAN conversion, that’s your kits requirement for accurate reading but the TAN reduction step has been skipped so you are seeing an over read


that hasn’t been mentioned here as we doubted bacteria over and over. Your cycle is done if you have rocks and sand in contact with bottle bacteria and feed for three weeks.

Can i put fish in my tank now and would it be okay?