Need help with cycle. New Reefer here

[Reefer1485]

Update on the cycle. 0 on ammonia. 1ppm on nitrite. I will wait until it comes down to zero and then I will add more ammonia back up to 2 ppm and watch it again.

 

[brandon429]

is it true this system has had the bottle bac, feed and water running for two weeks

I havent seen dr tims bottle bac recently, how many days are listed on the bottle until completion

 

[Reefer1485]

is it true this system has had the bottle bac, feed and water running for two weeks

I havent seen dr tims bottle bac recently, how many days are listed on the bottle until completion

Yes only bottle bac. On the instructions that came with it from BRS said by day 14 I should be doing a water change. But I don’t think I’m there yet bc my nitrites are still high. It also says on the instructions to add fish on day 7 well I am not to the point of adding fish yet bc I don’t have a QT tank setup yet. Still need to get parts. It may be another two weeks if not more before I can get fish to put in it

 

[brandon429]

nice. by then the nitrites will likely be in line, that's what a standard cycling chart shows, about 25 days to nitrite clearance.

where they're getting 10-14 days is using updated rules for cycling requires only ammonia compliance, nitrite presence can be ignored, harming literally nothing in reefing. the quarantine approach is a really good way to manage fish, so if that's how long the wait is then by coincidence I bet your nitrite will be ready by then too. if not, still ignore the kit's readings and begin on quarantine date.

usually people are rushed lol in cycling, and have paid $ to be quicker than standard cycling chart times. in that mass rush to the quickest fish safely kept, that's how people have arrived at the 10-14 days it was an ammonia-only eval.

 

[Llyod276]

Update on the cycle. 0 on ammonia. 1ppm on nitrite. I will wait until it comes down to zero and then I will add more ammonia back up to 2 ppm and watch it again.

Just started a 10 gallon nano in my daughter's room. Day 2, additives? 0 (zero). Let's see if the hypothesis of live rock, (from refugium with a few bits of chaeto I couldn't be bothered to remove) will cycle the tank. Come on , diatoms! If I have a bloom success, sterilization is failure. I'll keep ya posted... also no light, it's there; but hey let's see if I can't make some seaweed grog from the cheato resorting to FERMENTATION vs OXIDIZATION. (F)Duck Kreb's cycle!

 

[brandon429]

if it does not cycle the tank the minute it was assembled, meaning all life you add now will live, then we have a twenty page thread on live rock skip cycling to update :)

200 jobs no fails, that reliable.


how two different people evaluate a cycle closed though, that ranges bigtime.

bigtime. some folks will not disbelieve a test kit and some will

in the end there's a handy side proof: animals that feed, swim, act normal day by day in clear water.


contrasted to a test bucket start: dry sand, dry rocks, a couple clowns no other additives and water. uncycled. clowns are dead by the morning, and the water is cloudy.

living animals are truly a reasonable measure of a cycle closed, sometimes more consistent than test kits allow. *that doesnt mean the ideal way to cycle is add life and take a chance either


it means there are other ways to interpret ammonia test kits, even if they read .25. you could dose your system with ammonia a little to see if it goes up then down, if so that's proof before adding animals. the motion proves the ability, not the final reading/that may be stuck at .25 classic for api. we wouldnt consider the nitrite or nitrate readings using updated cycling rules, but old rules will require that. how people define a closed cycle ranges person to person, and decade.

this picture set from JackA shows a fully cycled reef behaving normally on api. notice the 1st pic, the lowest ammonia possible in fully clean and changed water, still isn't hard yellow zero/ that reef was stalled by old rules, but per new rules he's now got fish and corals. the ammonia moved, he was at day ten on Dr Tim's, done:

that above is the ammonia after a 100% water change, known zero condition. still reads .25 expected.


this is after adding raw ammonia to the tank to drive up reading:

then in 24 hours later, ammonia moved down to:

he then added fish/all set. reefing. that api kit was never going to show hard yellow in the presence of active tank ammonia conversion. some do, not very many. most api baselines at .25

 

[Reefer1485]

nice. by then the nitrites will likely be in line, that's what a standard cycling chart shows, about 25 days to nitrite clearance.

where they're getting 10-14 days is using updated rules for cycling requires only ammonia compliance, nitrite presence can be ignored, harming literally nothing in reefing. the quarantine approach is a really good way to manage fish, so if that's how long the wait is then by coincidence I bet your nitrite will be ready by then too. if not, still ignore the kit's readings and begin on quarantine date.

usually people are rushed lol in cycling, and have paid $ to be quicker than standard cycling chart times. in that mass rush to the quickest fish safely kept, that's how people have arrived at the 10-14 days it was an ammonia-only eval.

Lol yeah I just want to do it right the first time. It’s been four years since I have had this tank and just now getting around to set it up. I have been watching and reading BRS, other reefers video and threads over 4 years before I made the jump in. For my QT I already have a 20 gal tank from my fresh water that I will be using. I just need to get a filter for it and a new light. When I do my water change in the main tank. I will use that water to put into the QT tank along with a small bio cube that is sitting in the back sump. I also have safety stop dip to dip fish in as well. When I was running fresh water I never QT which maybe the wrong answer but never lost a fish. We had fish for over two years before I had to tear it down due to a military move.

 

[Reefer1485]

if it does not cycle the tank the minute it was assembled, meaning all life you add now will live, then we have a twenty page thread on live rock skip cycling to update :)

200 jobs no fails, that reliable.


how two different people evaluate a cycle closed though, that ranges bigtime.

bigtime. some folks will not disbelieve a test kit and some will

in the end there's a handy side proof: animals that feed, swim, act normal day by day in clear water.


contrasted to a test bucket start: dry sand, dry rocks, a couple clowns no other additives and water. uncycled. clowns are dead by the morning, and the water is cloudy.

living animals are truly a reasonable measure of a cycle closed, sometimes more consistent than test kits allow. *that doesnt mean the ideal way to cycle is add life and take a chance either


it means there are other ways to interpret ammonia test kits, even if they read .25. you could dose your system with ammonia a little to see if it goes up then down, if so that's proof before adding animals. the motion proves the ability, not the final reading/that may be stuck at .25 classic for api. we wouldnt consider the nitrite or nitrate readings using updated cycling rules, but old rules will require that. how people define a closed cycle ranges person to person, and decade.

this picture set from JackA shows a fully cycled reef behaving normally on api. notice the 1st pic, the lowest ammonia possible in fully clean and changed water, still isn't hard yellow zero/ that reef was stalled by old rules, but per new rules he's now got fish and corals. the ammonia moved, he was at day ten on Dr Tim's, done:

that above is the ammonia after a 100% water change, known zero condition. still reads .25 expected.


this is after adding raw ammonia to the tank to drive up reading:

then in 24 hours later, ammonia moved down to:

he then added fish/all set. reefing.

lol agree. That is why I have three different test for ammonia just to see if I can get consistent readings over all three. I would rather wait to add 40 plus dollar fish and take a gamble vs using one test that cost per test around a buck. I know my kids are ready to see fish in it but I don’t want to have them see it and then wake up to find them dead after day one.

 

[brandon429]

you dont have to test, that triplicate ammonia motion shown above already proves on any cycle whether it safely handles fish, no guessing required.

after getting positive confirmation on the movement test, the fish being in the tank is how we know the .25 constant reading is false.

 

[Reefer1485]

you dont have to test, that triplicate ammonia motion shown above already proves on any cycle whether it safely handles fish, no guessing required.

after getting positive confirmation on the movement test, the fish being in the tank is how we know the .25 constant reading is false.

O okay so what your saying is just wait for the nitrites to fall, conducted a water change and then add fish slowly? Is that correct .

 

[brandon429]

no its that nitrites dont matter at all, you have already mentioned ammonia control/but can re verify it like above for proof.

you are likely already done with the cycle, you met the timeframes on the directions.

 

[Llyod276]

O okay so what your saying is just wait for the nitrites to fall, conducted a water change and then add fish slowly? Is that correct .

Here's an Idea, toss in a 5 dollar chromis see what happens. It's amazing how much you guys wanna spend testing the friggin fishtank, have you tested your own water? What is the amount of ammonia your'e drinking and dkh and ph etc... fish will adapt. Come on people only the strong survive, and if you recreate an ocean, you're in the wrong business. You should be a billionaire.

 

[Reefer1485]

Here's an Idea, toss in a 5 dollar chromis see what happens. It's amazing how much you guys wanna spend testing the friggin fishtank, have you tested your own water? What is the amount of ammonia your'e drinking and dkh and ph etc... fish will adapt. Come on people only the strong survive, and if you recreate an ocean, you're in the wrong business. You should be a billionaire.

Very true but I am still at the issue of not having my QT set up and I am trying to avoid adding unwanted issue in the tank. Another way to look at it is I work hard for my money and 5 dollars is 5 dollars. Not meaning I want to nickel and dime but hey some do and some don’t. I don’t want to waste money on just testing a fish to see if my tank is ready. I don’t want to add just any fish in my tank as I have a list of ones that I do want that will work for me and stay within the bio load that I am trying to stay within to keep my maintenance down.

 

[Reefer1485]

no its that nitrites dont matter at all, you have already mentioned ammonia control/but can re verify it like above for proof.

you are likely already done with the cycle, you met the timeframes on the directions.

Thanks. Yeah I have been testing my ammonia with three different test kits on in the tank, Red Sea and API

 

[Llyod276]

After doing some more reading, I decided to take a gallon of water out of the tank and replace with fresh RO/DI water to bring my salinity down from 1.026 to 1.024. I purchased the ammonia hang on the glass reader from Seachem. Once I see the color change on it, I will conduct my full test to track the cycle. Also I am gonna keep the skimmer off until all is good to go.

Here's the thing with salinity keep it low when the tank is full. Like .022. Because after 5 gallons evaporate you'll be at .023ish. Then 10 gallons .024ish etc, as your water evaporates the salinity increases. Depending on your tank size this allows you to be lazier, yes now it's new and shiny, eventually it'll become a chore. Then things start dying. Like starfish and anemones. Also tops the salt creep back in the tank. Does you no good chilling on the pipes, cords and glass...etc.

 

[Reefer1485]

Okay Folks here is my update: Since my last post I was showing my Nitrites at well over 1 ppm per the Red Sea test. here is my readings now:

Ammonia : 0-.25 based on color leaning more on the 0
PH: 8.0
ALK: 7.5 its a little low. I hope I can raise that when I do a water change
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 10-15 ppm based on color of Red Sea test. looks to be a little closer to 10.

How does those numbers sound? Since I am not going to be home for a week starting this weekend, should I go ahead and do a water change? Should I put up an auto feeder to ghost feed once a day to keep the Bactria good? I will not purchase fish until I get back. currently nothing is in it. I am still searching for QT fish for sale.

 

[brandon429]

the cycle can never be undone from this point unless you dry out the system. wet seated in place bacteria feed from your contamination exchanges between the tank and the home, regardless of your feed. we have a three year fallow test on file/Dj City's thread as a neat chart for that kind of timeframe.

adding in a pinch of food is also ok, we load our reefs up with feed what's a little pinch at the start to kick it all off.

 

[Reefer1485]

the cycle can never be undone from this point unless you dry out the system. wet seated in place bacteria feed from your contamination exchanges between the tank and the home, regardless of your feed. we have a three year fallow test on file/Dj City's thread as a neat chart for that kind of timeframe.

adding in a pinch of food is also ok, we load our reefs up with feed what's a little pinch at the start to kick it all off.

Awesome. I think she is good to go with cycling. I will continue to keep my skimmer off, top off the water before I leave and ghost feed the day before. When back, will conduct a water change, put in my BIO chem, new clean filter pads and then get some fish. :) I am looking to get two clones first from any one of the online QT sellers.

 

[Reefer1485]

Hey everyone,

well I have been monitoring my water and tank since setup. Everything is going great! I am starting to see the brown algae growth as everyone has stated happens and have added a few items. Here is my water reads as of today:
pH: 7.78
Salinity: 1.023
ALK: 7.8 DKH “ dosing red reef to bring up to 8.4”
Cal: 500ppm “ little high”
MAG: 1320 “ will dose until 1350 is reached”
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 2ppm
Ammonia: 0

 

[Reefer1485]