New to the hobby, did I screw up my first cycle?

[raklassen]

Hey everyone, thank you in advance for any help. I'll try to keep it as short as possible. I've just started up my first tank Friday evening. It's an Innovative Marine 30L. For those not familiar, that is an AIO tank that comes with a filter sock and media caddy for carbon, GFO, etc.

As the title says, I'm new to the hobby. I've spent the last few months researching and educating myself as much as possible. I'll be honest, the Cycle process has been a bit confusing for a 'newbie' like myself. I feel I've got a decent grasp of it, but as I've quickly discovered, there is always something new to learn.

On Friday, I went to my 'LFS' and got some much needed help. They got me setup and did a great job of walking me through everything and helped me find the right product to start a 'fishless cycle'. They set me up with Fritz-Zyme Fishless Fuel (ammonia) and the Turbo Start 900. I followed the directions as closely as possible.

Here is where I believe I screwed up. I didn't realize until last night that you are apparently supposed to remove filter media for the cycle process. In all my research I guess I missed that part. The filter sock and media caddy that come with the IM 30L have been in place the entire time.

What should be my next move? Leave as is? Remove the filter's asap? Start the cycle over completely? or just add more of the Turbo Start? I tested 48 hours after adding the fuel to get a starting point and my nitrite and nitrate levels are maxed out for the Salifert test kits. Because of this, I'm hesitant to add more ammonia.

Again, thank you all for any help.

 

[Benjammin]

Bump

 

[Azedenkae]

Here is where I believe I screwed up. I didn't realize until last night that you are apparently supposed to remove filter media for the cycle process. In all my research I guess I missed that part. The filter sock and media caddy that come with the IM 30L have been in place the entire time.

What should be my next move? Leave as is? Remove the filter's asap? Start the cycle over completely? or just add more of the Turbo Start? I tested 48 hours after adding the fuel to get a starting point and my nitrite and nitrate levels are maxed out for the Salifert test kits. Because of this, I'm hesitant to add more ammonia.

Again, thank you all for any help.

Heyo!

Nah you're good. Don't worry too much about the filter sock and media caddy. They should not affect the cycle (much).

Nitrate maxxing out is expected too, as the nitrate test kit actually converts a portion to nitrite, then measured that. So if you have any amount of nitrite, that would confound your nitrate test readings. What is your ammonia after you dosed, and now?

 

[MaxTremors]

Who says you’re supposed to take out the filter media? Its not a problem, your cycle should continue just fine.

 

[davidcalgary29]

Who says you’re supposed to take out the filter media? Its not a problem, your cycle should continue just fine.

To be fair, some products such as Dr. Tim's (but not this one) instruct users to remover filter media at the outset. Perhaps that's where the confusion arose.

 

[raklassen]

Heyo!

Nah you're good. Don't worry too much about the filter sock and media caddy. They should not affect the cycle (much).

Nitrate maxxing out is expected too, as the nitrate test kit actually converts a portion to nitrite, then measured that. So if you have any amount of nitrite, that would confound your nitrate test readings. What is your ammonia after you dosed, and now?

I'm using the Salifert ammonia kit, and I'll be honest, it's not the easiest for me to read. Also, I live in a rural area, so the local fish store is actually 90 minutes away. So having a more accurate test isn't readily available unfortunately.

But, if I'm reading it right, I believe that 48 hours after dosing my ammonia was between .5-1. Tonight, 72 hours after adding ammonia, the test reads around .25-<.15 (the gradient at that low level is a bit hard for me to differentiate)

 

[Azedenkae]

I'm using the Salifert ammonia kit, and I'll be honest, it's not the easiest for me to read. Also, I live in a rural area, so the local fish store is actually 90 minutes away. So having a more accurate test isn't readily available unfortunately.

But, if I'm reading it right, I believe that 48 hours after dosing my ammonia was between .5-1. Tonight, 72 hours after adding ammonia, the test reads around .25-<.15 (the gradient at that low level is a bit hard for me to differentiate)

Well it does at least imply that ammonia is decreasing, though yeah how fast is hard to tell.

So quick question, what's the exact cycling method you've been suggested?

 

[JumboShrimp]

Don’t panic: You can’t really filter-sock (or filter-floss) out bacteria, per say. (Something like a UV unit could be a different problem for your initial cycle.) Full steam ahead.

 

[mdb_talon]

Honestly it is really hard to screw up a cycle

Some can go quicker than others depending on the products you use, but in any case you eventually get there. With the products you used I expect it to be a very quick cycle. Just going to point out though that when you are cycled that just means your tank gets to the point it can nitrify ammonia and becomes a safer place for living creatures to reside. It does not necessarily mean your tank is past some of the issues new tanks have... things like "the uglies" or diatom blooms that may happen. Those are normal and something I see a lot of new people worry about, but it is just often part of a maturing tank.

 

[raklassen]

Well it does at least imply that ammonia is decreasing, though yeah how fast is hard to tell.

So quick question, what's the exact cycling method you've been suggested?

Dry reef safe rock, Carib Alive sand, Sera Siporax mini bio filter. Dose the ammonia and turbo start. Test ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates after a week (but I’m testing already for my own curiosity). Do a water change and go from there. But the lfs I got help from felt confident I would be good to go after a week to two weeks for light livestock.

 

[mdb_talon]

All sounds reasonable other than i would base it off processing ammonia only. You can save a lot of worthless frustration being worried about nitrites.

 

[brandon429]

Your cycle is done, Fritz adhered to surfaces in one day, it’s been well tested digitally. These aren’t digital readings here, don’t put much stock into them, it’s ready.

in 100% of cycles using any bottle bac, including Dr Tims, you can and should run your media, all the media even the socks.


media can’t stall a cycle at all, I’m aware DT says it can.

we have been testing out also similar claims about nitrite stalling, and found something else to be the rule, that nitrite cannot ever stall a reef tank cycle and never has prior.


run media in all cycles, you cant collect bacteria inside a sock such that it doesn’t spread to the rest of the tank, that’s always been an amazingly shocking claim since I first read it online


what’s the micron pass through rate for common socks, and how does that huge gap compare to the size of a bacteria or even bac+ aggregates, they’re still going to pass just fine.


we also tested reef water and found it to contain enough cycling bacteria that it works pretty much like paid for bottle bac, there was also the claim that reef water has no filter bac but we cycled a tank in twenty days using only reef water.

a Fritz cycle fed with ammonia would be the most guaranteed quick cycle from a bottle we could attain per Dr Reefs testing thread.

 

[PatW]

Screwing up a cycle is not easily done. You can even cycle with just adding ammonia and just waiting. Eventually the bacteria for the nitrogen cycle will colonize the system and convert the ammonia to nitrate.

The main thing to look for is having 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and a pot load of nitrate. To confirm that you have the cycle going, just add enough ammonia to be measurable like .5 ppm and test the next day. Test the water right after adding to be sure that you have measurable ammonia at an appreciable level. If you have 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite and a pot load of nitrate, your cycle is done. Having this level of cycle means that any ammonia produced by your critters should be speedily turned into relatively non toxic nitrates.