Stalled Nitrogen Cycle?

[ReeferMadness1104]

Hello everyone, I am new to Reefing and R2R. I am currently cycling a 20 gallon jbj cube. I chose to use realreef "live" rock and a sand bottom. I also chose to use the fitz turbo fuel ammonium chloride as a source of ammonia I tested and it was 2ppm. I used the fitz turbo start 900...in the first couple days ammonia dropped 0.50 ppm daily dropping almost to 0 ppm. The nitrite went to 5 ppm or greater and nitrates fluctuated from 0-40 ppm in the first few days. I was advised to spike ammonia again to 2 ppm, which I did, and the nitrites stayed 5 or greater ppm, and nitrate fluctuated from 20-80 ppm. The ammonia dropped rapidly over the course of 3 days to 0-0.25 ppm. I'm curious if the cycled has stalled and that is why the nitrites are remaining high...I hope that one of you experts can help me understand what is going on and provide guidance. Thank you for your time.

 

[brandon429]

Not stalled, but done

How to unstick any seemingly stuck cycle

non digital ammonia test kit readings (api, Red Sea, nyos, seachem badges) make you think you aren’t cycled when indeed you are if you owned a $200 expensive seneye meter, you’d never be doubting your cycle status. since .01% of the reefing population owns these, we need a way to help the...

www.reef2reef.com

read all of post one and two. Page one


the rest for entertainment

 

[ReeferMadness1104]

Not stalled, but done

How to unstick any seemingly stuck cycle

non digital ammonia test kit readings (api, Red Sea, nyos, seachem badges) make you think you aren’t cycled when indeed you are if you owned a $200 expensive seneye meter, you’d never be doubting your cycle status. since .01% of the reefing population owns these, we need a way to help the...

www.reef2reef.com

read all of post one and two. Page one


the rest for entertainment

Appreciate your speedy response and resources. It was informative and entertaining.

 

[brandon429]

Clearly we shortcut the typical cycle approach but you used the single fastest cycling bac avail. Ammonia dropped, met the number of days on a cycling chart to the ammonia drop, used bac known to instantly carry life the day you add the bacteria + nitrite is now factored as neutral, thats the new way. Dr Reefs bottle bac thread showed us how fast these bacteria work right out of the gate.

 

[ReeferMadness1104]

Clearly we shortcut the typical cycle approach but you used the single fastest cycling bac avail. Ammonia dropped, met the number of days on a cycling chart to the ammonia drop, used bac known to instantly carry life the day you add the bacteria + nitrite is now factored as neutral, thats the new way. Dr Reefs bottle bac thread showed us how fast these bacteria work right out of the gate.

Yes, it definitely did demonstrate the vitality of the bacteria. I would say fritz is at that level too as it started to go to work rapidly as well.