Need help with cycling tank using seachem stability

Rajat

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Need help on cycling my tank .

Can I use seachem stability and do a fishless cycle using either fish food or shrimp .

Ammonium chloride isn't available in my country , dr.tims too not available , import can take anywhere between 15 - 25 days .

So I plan to add seachem stability as per dosage when water settles may be 24-48hrs after adding water and use a portion of shrimp or fish food to cause ammonia for bacteria food and test daily thereafter .

Please correct me if I am doing anything wrong .
 

40B Knasty

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Throw a shrimp in. Let it rot. That will be your ammonia. Going to take about 2-3 weeks for nitrites to show. Then nitrates. Everything will peak out and then ammonia and nitrites start to drop. Let them go down to 0ppm. Your nitrates will stay high. But come down a little. Do a 50% water change at least. See where they are at after a day. Give it another day or 2. Give it another water change. See how far it drops. Should get down in the 1-10ppm. I would get it down to 1ppm. Then add fish if you want. Just a game of patience letting your underwater world be able to handle the world you want for it. Don't over think it. You can test after a week for ammonia. Ya just need to build it up.
 
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Rajat

Rajat

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Thanks and you think using seachem stability in this process will make the cycle easier or further complicate it
Throw a shrimp in. Let it rot. That will be your ammonia. Going to take about 2-3 weeks for nitrites to show. Then nitrates. Everything will peak out and then ammonia and nitrites start to drop. Let them go down to 0ppm. Your nitrates will stay high. But come down a little. Do a 50% water change at least. See where they are at after a day. Give it another day or 2. Give it another water change. See how far it drops. Should get down in the 1-10ppm. I would get it down to 1ppm. Then add fish if you want. Just a game of patience letting your underwater world be able to handle the world you want for it. Don't over think it. You can test after a week for ammonia. Ya just need to build it up.
 

40B Knasty

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Thanks and you think using seachem stability in this process will make the cycle easier or further complicate it
If you are in a rush. It won't hurt to use it. Either way it is going to take time. To me I see it like this. If it is a beneficial bacteria. The beneficial bacteria is there to turn nitrites into nitrates. If you have no nitrites. What is it going to feed off of to stay alive? Or it isn't beneficial if it has nothing to convert.
So if it is alive when the nitrites finally become present. It just won't allow nitrites to get to high, but from my experiences cycling tanks. I want to get them high. So I do have a lot of beneficial bacteria to grow to convert anything that is a nitrite to nitrate. Beat up your tank. When it can handle anything you throw at it. Your system is ready for all the punches you want to throw at it.
After it cycles you will go through the ugly phases. Diatoms is usually first. Takes about a month. It works its way out of the system. You don't need to buy anything for it. Maybe a fighting conch.
 
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Rajat

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If you are in a rush. It won't hurt to use it. Either way it is going to take time. To me I see it like this. If it is a beneficial bacteria. The beneficial bacteria is there to turn nitrites into nitrates. If you have no nitrites. What is it going to feed off of to stay alive? Or it isn't beneficial if it has nothing to convert.
So if it is alive when the nitrites finally become present. It just won't allow nitrites to get to high, but from my experiences cycling tanks. I want to get them high. So I do have a lot of beneficial bacteria to grow to convert anything that is a nitrite to nitrate. Beat up your tank. When it can handle anything you throw at it. Your system is ready for all the punches you want to throw at it.
After it cycles you will go through the ugly phases. Diatoms is usually first. Takes about a month. It works its way out of the system. You don't need to buy anything for it. Maybe a fighting conch.
Hi Knasty
9th day cycling my ammonia dropped from 2 yesterday to 1 ppm , nitrite is 1 yesterday zero and nitrate is now 20ppm
Is this progress or something wrong ?
 

40B Knasty

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Hi Knasty
9th day cycling my ammonia dropped from 2 yesterday to 1 ppm , nitrite is 1 yesterday zero and nitrate is now 20ppm
Is this progress or something wrong ?
Sounds about right. Quick cycle. Wait till you have 0ppm ammonia.
 

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If you can get Microbacter7 or Biospira use one of those. I have used both a few times to fishless cycle tanks. They work very well to boost and diversify the bacteria population of a new tank especially if using dry rock. I still recommemd waiting 30-45 days to add any fish, 60 if possible. Go slow and wait a least a week for the system to stabilize after any changes or new additions.
 
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Rajat

Rajat

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If you can get Microbacter7 or Biospira use one of those. I have used both a few times to fishless cycle tanks. They work very well to boost and diversify the bacteria population of a new tank especially if using dry rock. I still recommemd waiting 30-45 days to add any fish, 60 if possible. Go slow and wait a least a week for the system to stabilize after any changes or new additions.
My tank nitrogen cycle completed , as per seachem I should be doing water change and adding fish else bacteria goes dormant without ammonia
50b09d9f62c01ea09e74e6b76ff08ed5.jpg
 

40B Knasty

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Yup, do a water change. Get those nitrates as low as possible. Add a cleaner shrimp and a fish if you want. Hang back on adding snails. There is no algae yet for them to feed off of. They will fall off the glass and die due to starvation. Build up your clean up crew as necessary to your tanks needs. You don't want to buy 30 snails and they all die causing an ammonia spike.
 
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Rajat

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Yup, do a water change. Get those nitrates as low as possible. Add a cleaner shrimp and a fish if you want. Hang back on adding snails. There is no algae yet for them to feed off of. They will fall off the glass and die due to starvation. Build up your clean up crew as necessary to your tanks needs. You don't want to buy 30 snails and they all die causing an ammonia spike.
Hi Knasty ,
Thanks for all the guidance during the tank cycle and hope you are doing great .
I did water change today 40% and also replaced my carbon with purigen , carbon was only a small part of my chemical media just 100 grams and I was mainly running chemipure elite from day 1 which stays , I am sure I will strip all the nitrate from system [emoji14]
I plan to keep this tank Fowlr for at least 10 months or so , I will only be adding a pair of Clownfish and may be a sand shifting goby for this month and then one fish every month going forward .
This way I will have the flexibility of building a system free from parasite diseases and if at any time I feel things out of control I can do hypo salinity in main tank as well to eliminate any parasites if present so for now I would not put any cuc they don't have anything to clean right now , but I am keeping all options open except adding corals for 10-12months .
By that time I feel my rock will be completely cycled too
I like to keep a low bioload and would only go for 6-8 small fishes in my 65 gallons .

Please correct me if I am wrong

2a56928534fb8272f6556f66bd184c60.jpg
 
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Rajat

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No biospira , I have prodibio bio digest though , I will be dosing one vial tomorrow
It won't hurt, but I have never had good results with Stability. Do you have Biospira in your area?
 
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