Setting up a new tank using a Seneye for ammonia monitoring

CasperOe · Nov 28, 2023

Hi Reefers,

As the subject line says, I am setting up a new tank and I am currently cycling it. No chemicals, no quick start, nothing fancy - but I did move in my Seneye to track the ammonia and better understand the cycle

Mostly for fun; nothing will go in the tank until three months down the line or so..

Has anyone done this before? If so, do you have any pointers or advice to add?

As far as I can read across the internet, the Seneye is very precise when it comes to NO3. Any thoughts?

brandon429 · Nov 28, 2023

what you could derive about cycling in general with that device is nothing short of amazing

info the hobby does not have

what's your planned cycle approach? lets test it's nh3 compliance chart by prediction. what kind of cycle are you going to set up with that in place

*also don't forget slide prep 48 hours before using

if you have a running reef tank to calibrate the seneye, to trim it into spec between .002-.005 (what reef tanks run at) you could do wonders with this device.

lack of this device is why nobody agrees on cycling rules, just yet.

brandon429 · Nov 28, 2023

Request for seneye owners to use their calibrated meters to conduct bucket reef experiments and change reefing.

these meters can be used by hundreds of people to generate new cycling science rules at a massive rate. let chatgpt pick up the results and you'll evolve reef tank cycling science tenfold. you have the meters you can already see using seneye on your home reef nh3 control isn't a concern re aim...

www.reef2reef.com

there are several aspects not known about cycling that the device can uncover once we get any decent pattern set / 10 or more people on the same time scale log regarding nh3 control.

the meter isn't necessarily trimmed and tuned out of the box. needs care tuning

CasperOe · Nov 28, 2023

brandon429 said:
what you could derive about cycling in general with that device is nothing short of amazing

info the hobby does not have

what's your planned cycle approach? lets test it's nh3 compliance chart by prediction. what kind of cycle are you going to set up with that in place

*also don't forget slide prep 48 hours before using

if you have a running reef tank to calibrate the seneye, to trim it into spec between .002-.005 (what reef tanks run at) you could do wonders with this device.

lack of this device is why nobody agrees on cycling rules, just yet.

So, it's a fishless cycle of one of my Red Sea Max Nano tanks. The Seneye has been used for about a year on my big reef tank so I thought it would be fun to try it out during this.

Will give it a go with calibration in the established tank, I have actually never done that before

CasperOe · Nov 28, 2023

brandon429 said:
Request for seneye owners to use their calibrated meters to conduct bucket reef experiments and change reefing.

these meters can be used by hundreds of people to generate new cycling science rules at a massive rate. let chatgpt pick up the results and you'll evolve reef tank cycling science tenfold. you have the meters you can already see using seneye on your home reef nh3 control isn't a concern re aim...

www.reef2reef.com

there are several aspects not known about cycling that the device can uncover once we get any decent pattern set / 10 or more people on the same time scale log regarding nh3 control.

the meter isn't necessarily trimmed and tuned out of the box. needs care tuning

Cheers!! Will definetly give this article a look

brandon429 · Nov 28, 2023

are you going to do a skip cycle

or bottle bac + fish, want to know the predetermined date the nh3 will remain in safe zones allowing fish stocking? the first thing we can do with it is test preestablished models.

CasperOe · Nov 28, 2023

brandon429 said:
are you going to do a skip cycle

or bottle bac + fish, want to know the predetermined date the nh3 will remain in safe zones allowing fish stocking? the first thing we can do with it is test preestablished models.

No bottle. No fish. Just waiting and a slight addition of food along the way

Currently two days in and the seneye is showing 0.114 ppm NH3

I would reckon the "safe zone" for fish is zero.

Let the experiment begin!

brandon429 · Nov 28, 2023

Excellent to have this on a currently running tank

what has it been running on the current year old reef, what’s the last few days nh3 trending
is it thousandths ppm each day, rarely if ever hitting hundredths ppm nh3 in the running reef?

CasperOe · Nov 28, 2023

brandon429 said:
Excellent to have this on a currently running tank

what has it been running on the current year old reef, what’s the last few days nh3 trending

0.001 - 0.003 "stable"

brandon429 · Nov 28, 2023

First prediction = in place that’s one finely tuned craft you have

calibration is set

that’s what cycled reefs run at

now to differentiate with the cycle readings:

can u post a pic of the current cycling setup

agreed that’s the highest ammonia I’ve ever seen on a seneye, curious what raw ammonia source is driving it that high in the cycling tank

CasperOe · Nov 28, 2023

brandon429 said:
First prediction = in place that’s one finely tuned craft you have

calibration is set

that’s what cycled reefs run at

now to differentiate with the cycle readings:

can u post a pic of the current cycling setup

agreed that’s the highest ammonia I’ve ever seen on a seneye, curious what raw ammonia source is driving it that high in the cycling tank

Will definetly post a picture once I'm back in.. Stripped one of my tanks completely to change the plumbing.

I filled up the tank incl. scape with RO water to test for leaks so I reckon it's all the dead and imploded aiptasia causing the high ammonia

brandon429 · Nov 28, 2023

the system cannot be used without saltwater it’ll say wonky things

the slide is likely damaged needs new + recalibration in the running tank to establish a reliable cycling slide/meter

cant go from freshwater soak back to marine readings on that one slide.

merely having a running reef and a seneye already running in spec gives you the rarest possible insight into marine cycles

soak a new slide for 48 hours in the running display. Get it within those prior specs, then move into the cycling nano tank and you’ll have baseline + max nh3 ranges logged for that particular type of cycle, which is cycling gold info

Dan_P · Nov 28, 2023

CasperOe said:
Hi Reefers,

As the subject line says, I am setting up a new tank and I am currently cycling it. No chemicals, no quick start, nothing fancy - but I did move in my Seneye to track the ammonia and better understand the cycle Mostly for fun; nothing will go in the tank until three months down the line or so..

Has anyone done this before? If so, do you have any pointers or advice to add?

As far as I can read across the internet, the Seneye is very precise when it comes to NO3. Any thoughts?

I don’t understand how you are cycling the aquarium by letting it sit for three months. Is there live rock? Ghost feeding? Any info would be helpful.

brandon429 · Nov 28, 2023

Agreed once we see pics and a clear definition of the planned cycle some predictions can be made, and then tested live time.

he could do easily some side tests that will quickly validate many of Tarichas cycle findings going on rn in the experiments forum, for example.

that connected webbing of calibrated digital nh3 limits across setups is the new cutting edge secret info in reef tank cycling

bottle bac sellers will lose sales proportional to the degree of cycling truth the public can determine on their own, = second prediction in place.

#3 prediction
by day ten, you don’t have an ammonia issue in the new tank regardless of what you do along the variations of a commonly stocked and fed cycle

to not be ready by day ten means something really abnormal was in place. This is of course after showing a given slide still runs .002-.005 nh3 in the known display, for recalibration.

CasperOe · Nov 28, 2023

Dan_P said:
I don’t understand how you are cycling the aquarium by letting it sit for three months. Is there live rock? Ghost feeding? Any info would be helpful.

Somewhat live rock minus whatever life that remains after an RO bath as well as ghost feeding

Once my seneye start to slow a decline in NH3, I will start to measure for NO3.

Mostly playing around at this stage to try and understand deeper the chemistry involved

brandon429 · Nov 28, 2023

Was your seneye slide exposed to freshwater or was this just freshwater insulted rock put back into saltwater then measured

Dan_P · Nov 28, 2023

CasperOe said:
Somewhat live rock minus whatever life that remains after an RO bath as well as ghost feeding

Once my seneye start to slow a decline in NH3, I will start to measure for NO3.

Mostly playing around at this stage to try and understand deeper the chemistry involved

OK, this makes sense.

You might see no ammonia accumulation nor nitrate because the live rock organisms will make short work of both.

How much food is the system getting each day and how many gallons is the system? I would be interested in calculating the amount of protein being dosed every day.

Thanks.

brandon429 · Nov 28, 2023

A big big deal that’s debated and absolutely not written about in reefing: pure unassisted cycling.

=take a five gallon bucket of common saltwater

put a bunch of dry reef rock in it, one of those cheap always on beta tank heaters from petco and a cheap powerhead

mark internal water line with marker set at .023 salinity Put a lid on it with holes drilled in

let it run three months adding nothing, built just like that above. Cannot be sealed off must breathe and get regular topoff like a common reef

on day ninety dose the calculated degree of cycling ammonia to attain .5 ppm nh3 in the bucket, using online formulas for the amount of water in place. See if the system can move that small degree of nh3 into safe range over nite or at least within 48 hours. Natural contaminations test / nitrifying bacteria don’t necessarily have to come from a bottle is the hypoth

only very very cursory and non digital logs exist for this data, you could provide the first digital confirmation I’ve ever seen in reefing with a calibrated seneye

and from that data alone we can deconstruct whether starving a cycle *at all* is possible.

repeat the bucket test but with dried new rocks no cycle in place, any common bottle of cycling bac, and two clownfish in place *with their receiving water matching the salinity from their transport water

if the nh3 never spikes you’re confirming or disconfirming that fifteen years of fish-in cycles online have not been harmful regarding ammonia control

things people disagree about vehemently online can be quickly known by simple bucket tests

the bet is the arguments exist because each claimant side gets its ammonia data from totally different meters. There’s api and Red Sea, and then there’s a calibrated seneye or Taricha’s pro lab gear which is clearly top notch

rhitee93 · Nov 28, 2023

CasperOe said:
Has anyone done this before? If so, do you have any pointers or advice to add?

As far as I can read across the internet, the Seneye is very precise when it comes to NO3. Any thoughts?

Here is some data I took this summer when I cycled a fresh tank with a seyeye online. It was fun to watch for a while, but quickly got old as I never was satisfied with explanations I found on how to correlate what Seneye calls NH3 with what I was measuring with a Hanna. Both tests show were I jumped the gun and added fish a little too quickly.

Maybe this will be useful for you:

Date	Ammonia (ppm) Hannah	NH3 (ppb) Seneye
7/15/2023	2	2.8
7/16/2023	1.4	2.8
7/17/2023	0.99	2.2
7/18/2023	0.56	1.3
7/19/2023	0.29	0.4
7/20/2023	0.15	0.1
7/21/2023	0.08	0.1
7/22/2023	0.04	0.2
7/23/2023	0.14	0.001
7/24/2023	0.26	0.003
7/25/2023	0.36	0.004
7/26/2023		0.004
7/27/2023	0.53	0.006
7/28/2023	0.36	0.004
7/29/2023	0.48	0.006
7/30/2023		0.008
7/31/2023	0.51	0.006
8/1/2023	0.24	0.001
8/2/2023	0.15	0.001

CasperOe · Nov 28, 2023

rhitee93 said:
Here is some data I took this summer when I cycled a fresh tank with a seyeye online. It was fun to watch for a while, but quickly got old as I never was satisfied with explanations I found on how to correlate what Seneye calls NH3 with what I was measuring with a Hanna. Both tests show were I jumped the gun and added fish a little too quickly.

Maybe this will be useful for you:

Date Ammonia (ppm) Hannah NH3 (ppb) Seneye
7/15/2023
2
2.8
7/16/2023
1.4
2.8
7/17/2023
0.99
2.2
7/18/2023
0.56
1.3
7/19/2023
0.29
0.4
7/20/2023
0.15
0.1
7/21/2023
0.08
0.1
7/22/2023
0.04
0.2
7/23/2023
0.14
0.001
7/24/2023
0.26
0.003
7/25/2023
0.36
0.004
7/26/2023
0.004
7/27/2023
0.53
0.006
7/28/2023
0.36
0.004
7/29/2023
0.48
0.006
7/30/2023
0.008
7/31/2023
0.51
0.006
8/1/2023
0.24
0.001
8/2/2023
0.15
0.001