I’m trying to understand the science of cycling a new aquarium and why (I assume) different products produce such vastly different results. Specifically cycle time and testing results. I guess, in the end, each cycle gets from point A to point B (the cycle gets finished), but why is the timing so variable and why do you get such varied testing results as you move through the cycle.
I have limited experience with doing no live rock cycles and the two I’ve done in the last three months have been extremely different. First one took 7 days, while the one I’m doing now is dragging along and the ammonia is still lingering above .6 ppm. As I see it, since I’m starting with a clean slate (both systems are bare bottom and one with dry rock) the only variables are the types of ammonia and bacteria I put in the system to get it going. Here is the flow.
First was my 29 gal QT. I used Fritz Pro Aquatic Ammonium Chloride (set at 2 ppm) and Instant Ocean BioSpira (dumped a 70 gal bottle in). Within 2 days the nitrites and nitrates where high and the ammonia was zero. Dumped in more ammonia each day and the next morning it would always be zero again. Nitrites dissipated after 5 days. By day 7, ammonia zero, nitrites zero and nitrates were between 40-60 ppm. Did a big water change and put the fish in. Life was good. Second effort was setting up the DT. Bare bottom 200 gal total water and about 180 lbs dry rock. Running return pump and 4 power heads. Skimmer and UV off and filter socks removed. This time , on recommendation of LFS, I used MicroBacter QuikCycl as ammonia source and MicroBacter Start XLM for bacteria. Ammonia set at 2 ppm and per instructions put in 250 ml of XLM. After 2weeks, ammonia was still lingering around .9 ppm. That’s total ammonia. NO3 shows somewhere around .15 ppm. Nitrites have never showed above zero and except for one day when I threw in some fish food, nitrates have been zero as well. Going on three weeks now and ammonia still somewhere between 1.0 and 0.6 ppm, nitrites zero and nitrates zero. This seems painfully slow after the QT was complete in 7 days. Oh forgot. All system parameters for both tanks are identical. PH 8.1, temp 78, salinity 1.024.
So, my thought process (don’t laugh…..okay, you can laugh) is either the different ammonia sources are causing the difference, or the different bacteria are causing the difference.
ammonia: will ammonium chloride power show clean after the cycle, while liquid XLM (water and ammonia) will have lingering ammonia showing up 2-3 weeks later?
Bacteria: BioSpira be good and XLM be bad? Or, is there different bacteria flora in the two prodocts that process different parts of the ammonia? IE., does BioSpira process all ammonia faster than XLM? Or, did I just get a not so efficient bottle of XLM.
As said earlier, the DT cycle seems to be getting there, albeit much slower than the QT cycle. I’m using the same testing products on both, so I assume the results are showing accurately. Why is one cycle removing all ammonia within 48 hours while the other has yet to remove much over 50% in almost 3 weeks. I’m just trying to understand why they are so different in timing and testing.
Jetson
I have limited experience with doing no live rock cycles and the two I’ve done in the last three months have been extremely different. First one took 7 days, while the one I’m doing now is dragging along and the ammonia is still lingering above .6 ppm. As I see it, since I’m starting with a clean slate (both systems are bare bottom and one with dry rock) the only variables are the types of ammonia and bacteria I put in the system to get it going. Here is the flow.
First was my 29 gal QT. I used Fritz Pro Aquatic Ammonium Chloride (set at 2 ppm) and Instant Ocean BioSpira (dumped a 70 gal bottle in). Within 2 days the nitrites and nitrates where high and the ammonia was zero. Dumped in more ammonia each day and the next morning it would always be zero again. Nitrites dissipated after 5 days. By day 7, ammonia zero, nitrites zero and nitrates were between 40-60 ppm. Did a big water change and put the fish in. Life was good. Second effort was setting up the DT. Bare bottom 200 gal total water and about 180 lbs dry rock. Running return pump and 4 power heads. Skimmer and UV off and filter socks removed. This time , on recommendation of LFS, I used MicroBacter QuikCycl as ammonia source and MicroBacter Start XLM for bacteria. Ammonia set at 2 ppm and per instructions put in 250 ml of XLM. After 2weeks, ammonia was still lingering around .9 ppm. That’s total ammonia. NO3 shows somewhere around .15 ppm. Nitrites have never showed above zero and except for one day when I threw in some fish food, nitrates have been zero as well. Going on three weeks now and ammonia still somewhere between 1.0 and 0.6 ppm, nitrites zero and nitrates zero. This seems painfully slow after the QT was complete in 7 days. Oh forgot. All system parameters for both tanks are identical. PH 8.1, temp 78, salinity 1.024.
So, my thought process (don’t laugh…..okay, you can laugh) is either the different ammonia sources are causing the difference, or the different bacteria are causing the difference.
ammonia: will ammonium chloride power show clean after the cycle, while liquid XLM (water and ammonia) will have lingering ammonia showing up 2-3 weeks later?
Bacteria: BioSpira be good and XLM be bad? Or, is there different bacteria flora in the two prodocts that process different parts of the ammonia? IE., does BioSpira process all ammonia faster than XLM? Or, did I just get a not so efficient bottle of XLM.
As said earlier, the DT cycle seems to be getting there, albeit much slower than the QT cycle. I’m using the same testing products on both, so I assume the results are showing accurately. Why is one cycle removing all ammonia within 48 hours while the other has yet to remove much over 50% in almost 3 weeks. I’m just trying to understand why they are so different in timing and testing.
Jetson