Tank Cycling help

[codyj1023]

Hello all! I am quite new to the saltwater hobby, as I’ve had freshwater for years, but recently just graduated college and on my own, I finally got to start a hobby ive been wanting to do for a long time! Currently I have a Fluval Flex, 32.5, and over the last month the cycling process has been a bit of a mystery to me. I started cycling the tank using the flake food method, and using Microbacter 7, but I did not have any luck doing this for about 3 weeks, noticed ammonia increase to .5ppm, but nothing else. I did add live sand to the tank originally, with about 30lb of dry rock, and to help speed up coraline algae growth I added one small piece of live rock I purchased from my LPS, well after being frustrated over nothing happening, I added 2 very small sponge filters from my established freshwater tank, hoping that it would help seed the tank, but after a few days , I tried using Microbacter XLM start, which worked pretty well, I am actually on day 4 of the cycle with it ( apparently supposed to cycle in 7 days) but I am getting strange results. My ammonia has converted into nitrites, and my nitrites into nitrates, but neither my ammonia level, or my nitrite level seems to have dropped. Currently my levels are
Ammonia: 1.00ppm
Nitrite: 1.00-2.00pm
Nitrate: 20ppm
I assume that the cycle is happening, but that the bacteria has not built up enough to completely handle and convert all of the ammonia and nitrite, but I am not sure if it is some error on my part, I just thought it was odd , as from what I’ve read the ammonia should drop to 0 after nitrite conversion, and same with nitrites to nitrates, which is really confusing as to why I have all 3. Any help or advise would be greatly appreciated!

 

[brandon429]

your cycle is 100% done. nicely done.

you will see that few agree on this answer, the hobby is within a state of revision on cycling.

 

[brandon429]

here's why i'm ok in your status: you've met / exceeded the timeframe from a common cycling chart, and the numbers you report are expected for the test kits at hand. using more exacting kits at this phase in hundreds of tanks we know that cycling charts aren't wrong, that's being relayed here though we don't have the digital test options for the numbers above.

timing duration beats api in every case for discerning a safe can-reef, can-start date.

plus you've dosed bottle bac meant to work faster than the unassisted wait times on the charts.

your water is clear, bac-imbalanced water isn't.

that water smells normal, though I can't smell it from here
(predictable-free ammonia bad water smells bad)
that's a high surface area reef for attachments.

 

[Brew12]

I don't think you actually have much in the way of nitrates yet. Nitrate tests work by breaking nitrate down into nitrite and measuring it. Low levels of nitrite will cause much higher nitrate readings.
As for ammonia not going down, I would suspect 2 main factors. First is the method you added an ammonia source. You probably still have flake food breaking down and generating fresh ammonia that is replacing some that is being converted into nitrite. The 2nd is the accuracy of the test kits. Even if we use the test perfectly they normally have a margin of error of over 0.25ppm. Once we add in human testing error by changes in sample or reagent drop sizes and these errors are compounded.

Keep in mind that cycling is a continuous process. Our tanks are constantly creating ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. In a more mature or "cycled" system the ammonia and nitrite are processed so quickly that the levels are below what our hobby type test kits can read.

 

[Garf]

Hello all! I am quite new to the saltwater hobby, as I’ve had freshwater for years, but recently just graduated college and on my own, I finally got to start a hobby ive been wanting to do for a long time! Currently I have a Fluval Flex, 32.5, and over the last month the cycling process has been a bit of a mystery to me. I started cycling the tank using the flake food method, and using Microbacter 7, but I did not have any luck doing this for about 3 weeks, noticed ammonia increase to .5ppm, but nothing else. I did add live sand to the tank originally, with about 30lb of dry rock, and to help speed up coraline algae growth I added one small piece of live rock I purchased from my LPS, well after being frustrated over nothing happening, I added 2 very small sponge filters from my established freshwater tank, hoping that it would help seed the tank, but after a few days , I tried using Microbacter XLM start, which worked pretty well, I am actually on day 4 of the cycle with it ( apparently supposed to cycle in 7 days) but I am getting strange results. My ammonia has converted into nitrites, and my nitrites into nitrates, but neither my ammonia level, or my nitrite level seems to have dropped. Currently my levels are
Ammonia: 1.00ppm
Nitrite: 1.00-2.00pm
Nitrate: 20ppm
I assume that the cycle is happening, but that the bacteria has not built up enough to completely handle and convert all of the ammonia and nitrite, but I am not sure if it is some error on my part, I just thought it was odd , as from what I’ve read the ammonia should drop to 0 after nitrite conversion, and same with nitrites to nitrates, which is really confusing as to why I have all 3. Any help or advise would be greatly appreciated!

Welcome to R2R . Looking good for livestock soon. I would at least give it another 3 days before deciding on stocking as that’s the advice from MB. A few peeps find MB7 a bit too slow to cycle so your not alone.

 

[codyj1023]

I wanted to thank everyone for the advice! I waited a few more days and the levels got to where the tank was complete, did a 25% water change, and then I added a pair of clowns, a shrimp, and 12 little hermit crabs. All of the livestock seems to be healthy and doing great so far! The only issues I am having at the moment is becoming knowledgeable enough to keep a healthy reef system. I picked up a neon tipped torch coral, some leather corals, and a few other small frags at Fragtopia, a frag convention in Knoxville TN. The leathers are towards the bottom of the tank, as they already came on a rock and I could not position them much higher, and a few seem to be drooping, and the torch coral is not extending fully as it was in the tank I bought it from . There is just so many types of corals, and knowing what each and everyone likes and needs is a lot of information, especially someone newer to the hobby.