Need advice on cycling my tank

[Kompact]

Hey y'all, first time poster and saltwater aquarium keeper, so please bear with me.

I'm currently 19 days into my cycle, and I'm not sure where to go from here. It seems like my tank is cycling rather slowly, but I would like to hear from you guys if I'm on the right track or not. My tank is currently around 26-27 degrees celcius (78-80 degress fahrenheit), with a salinity of 1.025. I cycled my tank with Dr Tim's One and Only, in conjuction with Dr Tim's ammonium chloride solution. Every time I dosed ammonium chloride, I dosed 4 drops per gallon. So for my 40 gallon tank, that was equivalent to 160 drops (or 2ppm). Now there was a point where I accidently squeezed the ammonium chloride bottle too hard, and ended up overdosing the tank (8ppm, potentially more as API ammonia test only goes up to 8ppm). However, with a big water change, I was able to get the ammonia reading to around 3ppm. With all that info out of the way, below are my day-to-day readings:

Day 1: Ammonia - 2ppm, Nitrite - 0ppm, Nitrate - 1ppm, pH - 8.225

Day 2: Ammonia - 2ppm, Nitrite - 0ppm, Nitrate - 1ppm, pH - 8.225

Day 3: Ammonia - 2ppm, Nitrite - 0ppm, Nitrate - 2ppm, pH - 8.225
* Due to my misunderstanding of Dr Tim's guide, I decided to add ammonia while I was still reading 2ppm ammonia. However, this is where I overdosed my ammonia to ~8ppm, and managed to reduce to 3ppm after a big water change.

Day 4: Ammonia - 3ppm, Nitrite - 0ppm, Nitrate - 2ppm, pH - 8.225

Day 5: Ammonia - 3ppm, Nitrite - 0.01ppm, Nitrate - 3ppm, pH - 8.225

Day 6: Ammonia - 3ppm, Nitrite - 0.01ppm, Nitrate - 9ppm, pH - 8.225

Day 7: Ammonia - 3ppm, Nitrite - 0.025ppm, Nitrate - 25ppm, pH - 8.225

Day 8: Ammonia - 2ppm, Nitrite - 0.01ppm, Nitrate - 50ppm, pH - 8.225

Day 9: Ammonia - 2ppm, Nitrite - 0.05ppm, Nitrate - 60ppm, pH - 8.225

Day 10: Ammonia - 2ppm, Nitrite - 0.1ppm, Nitrate - 80ppm, pH - 8.225

Day 11: Ammonia - 1ppm, Nitrite - 0.05ppm, Nitrate - 100ppm, pH - 8.225

Day 12: Skipped

Day 13: Ammonia - 0ppm, Nitrite - 0.1ppm, Nitrate - 100ppm+, pH - 8.225
* Redosed 2ppm ammonia. Nitrate is off the charts from this point. Protein skimmer is turned on.

Day 14: Ammonia - 1ppm, Nitrite - 0.1ppm, Nitrate - 100ppm+, pH - 8.225

Day 15: Ammonia - 0.25ppm, Nitrite - 0.1ppm, Nitrate - 100ppm+, pH - 8.225

Day 16: Ammonia - 0ppm, Nitrite - 0.05ppm, Nitrate - 100ppm+, pH - 8.225
* Redosed 2ppm ammonia (potentially a little over 2ppm)

Day 17: Ammonia - 1.25ppm, Nitrite - 0.05ppm, Nitrate - 100ppm+, pH - 8.225

Day 18: Ammonia - 0.75ppm, Nitrite - 0.05ppm, Nitrate - 100ppm+, pH - 8.225

Day 19: Ammonia - less than 0.2ppm, Nitrite - 0.05ppm, Nitrate - 100ppm+, pH - 8.225
* As per Dr Tim's quick guide to fishless cycling, I've redosed 2ppm ammonia as I was reading less than 0.2ppm in both ammonia and nitrite. I've also set my heater to 28 degrees celcius (~84 fahrenheit).

That brings us to present day. What do you guys think? Is there anything I'm doing wrong? Or anything I could be doing better. Should I continue redosing ammonia everytime ammonia/nitrite are below 0.2ppm, or do you think I should wait till their both at 0ppm?

Thanks in advance y'all! Have a good day!

Edit: Tank has dry rock, dry sand, and marinepure biomedia in the sump.

 

[ReefRusty]

Welcome to reef2reef...


Picture of tank? 19days if your tank is not cloudy and you have enough bioload/rock ect you can do a large waterchange and YOU ARE READY but first post a picture..
Loads of threads on here relating to cycling you tank

 

[Idech]

I think you tank is cycled, but not up to processing 2 ppm of ammonia within 24 hours. 1 ppm would probably be processed in 24 hours.

The fact that you have lots of nitrates proves it. So I would test that 1 ppm, and if it processes fast enough, then that would be it for me.

After that I would do a WC to bring the nitrates at a low level and start stocking fish, but slowly. Introduce one fish to start, then wait 7-10 days. If you test no ammonia, continue adding fish very slowly, so the BB have time to grow in-between fish additions.

 

[Azedenkae]

My main concern is nitrification seems to be going on, but not being able to clear 2ppm ammonia/day. It actually is not ‘necessary’ per se, because the amount of ammonia produced in our tanks is likely to be much less than that. But still good to be able to get 2ppm ammonia oxidation/day if possible. What sort and how much biomedia (including live rock) do you have?

 

[Jeffcb]

Cycled. Do a water change and add a few animals. Blue legged Hermit Crabs are always a good test specimen.
I would add a couple of fish and enjoy.

 

[Kompact]

Welcome to reef2reef...


Picture of tank? 19days if your tank is not cloudy and you have enough bioload/rock ect you can do a large waterchange and YOU ARE READY but first post a picture..
Loads of threads on here relating to cycling you tank

Included a picture of the sump too, if it's relevant

 

[Kompact]

I think you tank is cycled, but not up to processing 2 ppm of ammonia within 24 hours. 1 ppm would probably be processed in 24 hours.

The fact that you have lots of nitrates proves it. So I would test that 1 ppm, and if it processes fast enough, then that would be it for me.

After that I would do a WC to bring the nitrates at a low level and start stocking fish, but slowly. Introduce one fish to start, then wait 7-10 days. If you test no ammonia, continue adding fish very slowly, so the BB have time to grow in-between fish additions.

Okay cool, once the ammonia I added on day 19 is converted, I'll test 1ppm ammonia and see how it performs! Thanks

My main concern is nitrification seems to be going on, but not being able to clear 2ppm ammonia/day. It actually is not ‘necessary’ per se, because the amount of ammonia produced in our tanks is likely to be much less than that. But still good to be able to get 2ppm ammonia oxidation/day if possible. What sort and how much biomedia (including live rock) do you have?

No live rock unfortunately. Only have about 18kg (~40 pounds) of dry rock and 1 gallon of marinepure bioballs in the sump. I've attached a picture to a previous reply just above if you'd like to see! Thanks

 

[ReefRusty]

Waterchange 100% and you will be ready. Your tank will never reach 2ppm ammonia with your livestock..

Also what test kits are you using? Either way you have reached number of days using dr tims.

For me my ammonia was at 4ppm for ages hit 15 days 100% wc and have fish in the same day. 2 weeks now and no ammonia.

 

[Kompact]

Waterchange 100% and you will be ready. Your tank will never reach 2ppm ammonia with your livestock..

Also what test kits are you using? Either way you have reached number of days using dr tims.

For me my ammonia was at 4ppm for ages hit 15 days 100% wc and have fish in the same day. 2 weeks now and no ammonia.

API for ammonia, salifert for all the others. Interesting, I'll test 1ppm ammonia first, but I reckon I'll chuck in a couple clowns after that's processed (after water change, ofc). Thanks

 

[CrimsonTide]

You're cycled. Test tomorrow and do a huge waterchange. With nitrates over 100 you'll want to do a big waterchange. Hopefully like a 75%+ change will get you under 20-25ppm and then your next change after do like another 50% and slowly work your nitrates down. Add a fish aftercare first waterchange and enjoy. Just add fish slowly.

 

[Azedenkae]

No live rock unfortunately. Only have about 18kg (~40 pounds) of dry rock and 1 gallon of marinepure bioballs in the sump. I've attached a picture to a previous reply just above if you'd like to see! Thanks

That should be plenty of biomedia, yeah.

To be honest, my advice is still to wait until the tank can handle 2ppm ammonia/day. While it is certainly true that 1ppm ammonia/day oxidation capacity is plenty when it comes to feeding, it's still nice to have the buffer in case something dies - like a coral that can 'melt' away very quickly. Of course, a water change could take care of it, but letting nitrification handle it is far easier and less stress-inducing. But hey, that's me. Your choice. ^_^

 

[ReefRusty]

To start with Don't rely on APi ammonia test kits I'll tell you know even after 6 months it will still show 0.25 or more you have reached number of days you will be right. Very large waterchange if not do a 50% now 25% when you can x 2 over a week to get those Nitrates down.

 

[Kompact]

That should be plenty of biomedia, yeah.

To be honest, my advice is still to wait until the tank can handle 2ppm ammonia/day. While it is certainly true that 1ppm ammonia/day oxidation capacity is plenty when it comes to feeding, it's still nice to have the buffer in case something dies - like a coral that can 'melt' away very quickly. Of course, a water change could take care of it, but letting nitrification handle it is far easier and less stress-inducing. But hey, that's me. Your choice. ^_^

I'm kind of leaning towards waiting until the tank can process 2ppm ammonia within 24 hours, as it seems to be standard practice when cycling a tank. Do you think it's worth doing a water change now? Or waiting until the cycle is complete before doing a water change?

To start with Don't rely on APi ammonia test kits I'll tell you know even after 6 months it will still show 0.25 or more you have reached number of days you will be right. Very large waterchange if not do a 50% now 25% when you can x 2 over a week to get those Nitrates down.

Yeah I've heard the negative reviews, I've already made an order for a salifert ammonia test which should hopefully arrive soon.

 

[Azedenkae]

I'm kind of leaning towards waiting until the tank can process 2ppm ammonia within 24 hours, as it seems to be standard practice when cycling a tank. Do you think it's worth doing a water change now? Or waiting until the cycle is complete before doing a water change?

I mean there is not a necessity to do a water change even after the cycle if your parameters in order, mostly to lower nitrates. Truth be told you probably have far less nitrate than you are reading. The nitrate test is affected by the presence of nitrite, because nitrate tests actually work by converting a portion to nitrite then reading that as a proxy, so you will likely get a falsely high nitrate reading if you have nitrite present. Which makes sense. If I did not miscount, you only had the 3ppm ammonia from the water change, plus another 6. So you should have 40ppm nitrate or so max now, not 100+. @Randy Holmes-Farley can explain this better lol, he is the chemistry expert, not me.

 

[homer1475]

I think everyone is failing to realize......

Any presence of nitrites, will show abnormally high nitrates on our test kits.

Your 100ppm nitrates is more then likely much lower once the nitrites clear to 0.

But since your processing ammonia to nitrites, your tank has begun it's cycle, and your fine to add 1 or 2 small fish.

Nitrites are not lethal in SW like they are in FW. In the SW world, all were looking for in cycling a tank is if ammonia can be processed. Once ammonia can be processed, regardless of nitrite readings, your good to start very slowly adding livestock.

 

[brandon429]

Don’t wait to page two to begin fish disease preps discussion

whats the plan to prevent month eight fish disease loss in your tank Kompact

I noticed you’re well past the day ten ammonia control date from any cycling chart so fish are coming soon…what’s the safety plan in place for them

 

[Azedenkae]

I think everyone is failing to realize......

Any presence of nitrites, will show abnormally high nitrates on our test kits.

Your 100ppm nitrates is more then likely much lower once the nitrites clear to 0.

Hey hey, I am noticing lol.

 

[homer1475]

I actually didn't read your post till after I posted! I was seeing all the suggestions of doing a WC with high nitrates, and was like "Woah" those high nitrates are probably actually pretty low since there is nitrites in the water, and no one is mentioning it. "time to post about the high nitrates are false when nitrites are present".

And said to myself "wow someone else sees that too!". It's surprising how people can gloss over a post, and not catch the little nuances.

 

[brandon429]

Since this is a dry start tank, inputting two clowns pre quarantined by someone else would be easy and effective

 

[Kompact]

Don’t wait to page two to begin fish disease preps discussion

whats the plan to prevent month eight fish disease loss in your tank Kompact

I noticed you’re well past the day ten ammonia control date from any cycling chart so fish are coming soon…what’s the safety plan in place for them

Great question. I'll be honest, not something I even thought of nor was it something I saw brought up during my research of starting up a saltwater tank. Any resources you'd recommend for disease prevention?