New tank cycle questions

[Whiskey]

Hello all. I have a question about new tank cycle. I have a 110g tall tank 48"x18" 24" tall bottom ported running a 1" siphon with 3/4" overflow and 3/4" exterior return. With a 1350 gph return pump running at almost max speed. I have 2 nicrew 150w leds . I have a 20 gallon refugium with chaeto algae growing well. I used 40l s of dry sand and 32lbs of live sand, 80lbs of dry live rock with 20lbs of live rock from lfs that I trust to start the tank. I ghost feed the tank for 3 weeks had no ammonia, nitrites or nitrates during the process. I did have a diatoms blue and hair algae. I put 2 blue green chromas in the tank a week ago. Still no ammonia, nitrites or nitrates.

Do you think I didn't add enough food I ghost feed 3 frozen cubes of brine shrimp daily now the fish eat most of it still no readings.

Any thoughts would be appreciated thanks reefers.

 

[Subsea]

I would say your bio filter is well established.

How long has chaeto been growing? Have you harvested any?

What is your stocking plan for this tank?

 

[Whiskey]

No I bought a small amount online, a palm full amount it's double in size since then. Hair algae and diatom bloom grew quickly and subsided. Still present but not growing quickly or at all that I can tell. I had high PO4 levels .5 two weeks ago but there also at 0.00 now.

 

[Naekuh]

Remember you need to keep pruning that chaeto.
Its a nutrient export so you prune it to get rid of the NO3 and PO4 its eatten.

I would hoenstly test for Nitrite.
This is the ONLY time u will ever need to test for Nitrite.
Nitrite and Nitrate are different.
Nitrite will tell you if your converting Ammonia into Nitrite.
Then It goes Nitrite into Nitrate... and then Nitrate into Cheato and then u prune the Chaeto so it doesn't over run your tank and make it into a ULN tank... Ultra Low Nutrient.

You bottoming your PO4 will not end up good, so i would start pruning , otherwise the chaeto will just consume more and more until its consumed everything in your tank.

But i would test Nitrite... if you have Nitrite, it means your Ammonia cycle is probably finished if your seeing 0.
I would start dosing your tank with Microbacter - 7 as well.
Its very good stuff, but takes several weeks if not couple of months for you to see any benefit.
This will help with possible more Cyano blooms, and other algae blooms.

 

[Whiskey]

Remember you need to keep pruning that chaeto.
Its a nutrient export so you prune it to get rid of the NO3 and PO4 its eatten.

I would hoenstly test for Nitrite.
This is the ONLY time u will ever need to test for Nitrite.
Nitrite and Nitrate are different.
Nitrite will tell you if your converting Ammonia into Nitrite.
Then It goes Nitrite into Nitrate... and then Nitrate into Cheato and then u prune the Chaeto so it doesn't over run your tank and make it into a ULN tank... Ultra Low Nutrient.

You bottoming your PO4 will not end up good, so i would start pruning , otherwise the chaeto will just consume more and more until its consumed everything in your tank.

But i would test Nitrite... if you have Nitrite, it means your Ammonia cycle is probably finished if your seeing 0.
I would start dosing your tank with Microbacter - 7 as well.
Its very good stuff, but takes several weeks if not couple of months for you to see any benefit.
This will help with possible more Cyano blooms, and other algae blooms.

 

[Hakon]

Honestly it sounds like with all the live media it just Cycled through before you even had a chance to test it, maybe add some fritz turbo start or micro bacter 7 if you're worried. If you have fish in there and you're not getting an ammonia spike in like a day or two it's probably fine though.

 

[Whiskey]

I want to start a reef tank but I'm not in a hurry for corals. My thoughts were to introduce a small cuc and buy some fish increasing the bioload to replenish PO4 and NO3 make sure I don't crash the tank. Was worried I was rushing the NO cycling.

 

[Naekuh]

I want to start a reef tank but I'm not in a hurry for corals. My thoughts were to introduce a small cuc and buy some fish increasing the bioload to replenish PO4 and NO3 make sure I don't crash the tank. Was worried I was rushing the NO cycling.

slow is always the best...

Id still start dosing microbacter 7.
I and many other reefers stand by it for starting tanks, and helping to stabilize a slightly unstable tank.

 

[BeanAnimal]

I would hoenstly test for Nitrite.

Why?
He started with live sand and some live rock, there is macro thriving. He has been adding food. The system has no ammonia. I wouldn’t expect any nitrite and given the macro, likely no nitrate.

No need to complicate things. The system is processing ammonia or it would be climbing with the ghost feeding.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Id still start dosing microbacter 7.
I and many other reefers stand by it for starting tanks, and helping to stabilize a slightly unstable tank.

Why? His tank is already processing ammonia. It is good to go.

 

[BeanAnimal]

I want to start a reef tank but I'm not in a hurry for corals. My thoughts were to introduce a small cuc and buy some fish increasing the bioload to replenish PO4 and NO3 make sure I don't crash the tank. Was worried I was rushing the NO cycling.

Add a fish or two and take things slow. No need to dose nitrate or phosphate, just feed the fish.

My advice? Don’t start dumping bottles of bacteria or other products in. Just feed the fish.

 

[Whiskey]

Add a fish or two and take things slow. No need to dose nitrate or phosphate, just feed the fish.

My advice? Don’t start dumping bottles of bacteria or other products in. Just feed the fish.

My thoughts exactly wanted others with knowledge on the subject to say the same. Gonna get a small clean up crew snail and hermits and add fish or 2 depending on size I have a black blenny and royal Gramma in QT tank now. Gonna ad them when quarantine is done then put couple more small fish in if everything goes well.