No ammonia spike, low magnesium

[michaelabellz]

Hi guys I first just want to say thank you for the friendly welcoming and all the effort you guys put in helping me with my last question it made me very happy to know if anything goes wrong I have a great support system to turn to. Unfortunately I have been having some problems or concerns with the new tank.



So it is now day eighteen of the cycle (cycling with microbactor7) in my 40 gal tank and there has been no spike in ammonia and not any reading of nitrite, also the microbactor was supposed to cycle my tank in 2 weeks max. So far only have live tropical sand and dry rock in my tank. For the first 2 weeks my ammonia would vary from .25 to .55ppm but now it seems to be reading around .15 to .25ppm. Is it normal for ammonia to vary like that when cycling? Also I tested magnesium today for the first time and it tested very very low, there’s barely any magnesium at all. Is it normal for magnesium to be low during the cycle or should I get that fixed right away? I do have reef safe magnesium I can add.

 

[fishguy242]

hi ,welcome to the reef,ammo sounds about normal to me just under 3 weeks,are you using rodi water? and what is mag testing at?

 

[michaelabellz]

hi ,welcome to the reef,ammo sounds about normal to me just under 3 weeks,are you using rodi water? and what is mag testing at?

Hi thank you, no I’m using RO water and magnesium seems to be at 0.

 

[fishguy242]

i think bad test kit,try again,most salt mixes approx 1200

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Yep, magnesium is fine for a long time in a new tank that uses any reasonable salt mix.

 

[lion king]

Did you use an ammonia source to feed the tank to start the cycle. The low ammonia resdings could just be from the die off in the live sand. Go to Dr Tims website and read about cycling a tank.

 

[michaelabellz]

Did you use an ammonia source to feed the tank to start the cycle. The low ammonia resdings could just be from the die off in the live sand. Go to Dr Tims website and read about cycling a tank.

My LFS said that the microbactor7 would be a fast way to cycle my tank? I’m beginning to think otherwise as it’s been more than a month and I have seen no ammonia spike or nitrites.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Unless you have something adding a load to your tank, you won’t see much in form of ammonia ( similar to testing tap water)
Mag, until you have coral consuming it- no worries

 

[michaelabellz]

Unless you have something adding a load to your tank, you won’t see much in form of ammonia ( similar to testing tap water)
Mag, until you have coral consuming it- no worries

So would you suggest to stop using the microbactor7 and just do small ammonia dosages? That was my original plan but my LFS said that the microbactor7 would get the cycle done faster which didn’t work too well in my case. I’m almost finished the bottle I’d say I have about a week or two left.

 

[vetteguy53081]

So would you suggest to stop using the microbactor7 and just do small ammonia dosages? That was my original plan but my LFS said that the microbactor7 would get the cycle done faster which didn’t work too well in my case. I’m almost finished the bottle I’d say I have about a week or two left.

Continue bacteria but you can add a small piece of shrimp and allow to foul a little which should add to ammonia or even a couple of black mollies which will produce waste

 

[michaelabellz]

Jn

Continue bacteria but you can add a small piece of shrimp and allow to foul a little which should add to ammonia or even a couple of black mollies which will produce waste

thank you for the advice! I did some research on what you suggested and black mollies seem like a great alternative.

 

[lion king]

A bottle of Dr. Tims ammonium chloride is the way to go.

 

[ichthyoid]

Fwiw, I would not advocate using animal flesh as a source of ammonia, due to likelihood of encouraging pathogens.

There are a number of bottled ammonium products available in the trade.

Whatever you decide, just know that a source of ammonium is required by the nitrifying bacteria in order to start the cycle.