Advice on tank cycling

[OrangeHunter458]

Hi all, so it's been 2 weeks now since I first started cycling my tank. Firstly, I definitely overdosed ammonia to like 4 or 8ppm (I don't have a pic of my very first reading ) anyway I read on some places, including here on R2R that high ammonia does not kill nitrifying bacteria, it'll only take longer for them to populate. So knowing that, I still dosed AF Bio S accordingly and put Life Bio Fil in my sump, then l left my tank to do its thing.

So now, I've been testing every other day for 2 weeks, no changes in ammonia. Getting frustrated, I was about to do a water change yesterday cause I thought I might have stalled my cycle. I thought to test first before doing a wc, to my surprise, ammonia went DOWN to 2ppm!

Forgive my long a** nails. Anyway, I held off on that wc cause I thought "Finally! Some progress!". Did NO2 and NO3, and well.... there were none LOL " maybe I messed up the test" I think to myself. So I wait until this morning, ammonia now went down to .50ppm but STILL no nitrites and nitrates!

What is happening? Can anyone help? Should I raise it to 1ppm ammonia and test again tomorrow?

 

[Dan_P]

Hi all, so it's been 2 weeks now since I first started cycling my tank. Firstly, I definitely overdosed ammonia to like 4 or 8ppm (I don't have a pic of my very first reading ) anyway I read on some places, including here on R2R that high ammonia does not kill nitrifying bacteria, it'll only take longer for them to populate. So knowing that, I still dosed AF Bio S accordingly and put Life Bio Fil in my sump, then l left my tank to do its thing.

So now, I've been testing every other day for 2 weeks, no changes in ammonia. Getting frustrated, I was about to do a water change yesterday cause I thought I might have stalled my cycle. I thought to test first before doing a wc, to my surprise, ammonia went DOWN to 2ppm!

Forgive my long a** nails. Anyway, I held off on that wc cause I thought "Finally! Some progress!". Did NO2 and NO3, and well.... there were none LOL " maybe I messed up the test" I think to myself. So I wait until this morning, ammonia now went down to .50ppm but STILL no nitrites and nitrates!

What is happening? Can anyone help? Should I raise it to 1ppm ammonia and test again tomorrow?

I never used this product to establish nitrifuing bacteria in a new aquarium. It does not seem to be behaving normally.

Is there live rock or sand in the aquarium?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I would just leave it alone, let the ammonia come down and wait for the nitrate to increase. Maybe another week to go, 2-3-4 weeks for a cycle is normal.

 

[MissMolly]

I would do a WC and dose bacteria only and let it run it’s natural cause. I have never does ammo. Your rock and gravel and matrix in filter will start hosting naturally over the next few weeks. Stop obsessing and just be patient

 

[OrangeHunter458]

I never used this product to establish nitrifuing bacteria in a new aquarium. It does not seem to be behaving normally.

Is there live rock or sand in the aquarium?

No live rock or sand. I used AF sand too but it’s dry sand with bottled bacteria inside the bag. Not like caribsea live sand.

 

[OrangeHunter458]

I would just leave it alone, let the ammonia come down and wait for the nitrate to increase. Maybe another week to go, 2-3-4 weeks for a cycle is normal.

That’s my goal anyway a month or 4 weeks is my target, or longer if necessary. I just got confused that my ammonia suddenly dropped but no nitrate reading.

 

[OrangeHunter458]

I would do a WC and dose bacteria only and let it run it’s natural cause. I have never does ammo. Your rock and gravel and matrix in filter will start hosting naturally over the next few weeks. Stop obsessing and just be patient

Obsessing is my middle name haha. But I think I’ll leave it alone for now, hopefully mother nature will sort this out, but maybe when I’m 3 weeks in and there’s still no nitrates I’m gonna make some changes.

 

[Dan_P]

No live rock or sand. I used AF sand too but it’s dry sand with bottled bacteria inside the bag. Not like caribsea live sand.

OK thanks. Just trying to figure out the lack on nitrite. The bottle of bacteria that came with the sand might be the reason. If AF was being clever, they might have added heterotrophic bacteria and organic food. That would remove ammonia without producing nitrite.

 

[OrangeHunter458]

OK thanks. Just trying to figure out the lack on nitrite. The bottle of bacteria that came with the sand might be the reason. If AF was being clever, they might have added heterotrophic bacteria and organic food. That would remove ammonia without producing nitrite.

Maybe that's the reason? There were 2 bottles inside each bag. Bottle A is the bacteria, bottle B is nourishment for the bacteria. That's all that was written on the bottles haha they didn't specify what type of bacteria, it's just nitrifying bacteria.

 

[OrangeHunter458]

I know I said I would leave it alone but I dosed 1ppm ammonia yesterday just so I could see if my tank can process it in a day.

Woke up this morning to this. Does this mean that a cycle is definitely happening?

Should I do a water change now or after the week has passed?

 

[Dan_P]

I know I said I would leave it alone but I dosed 1ppm ammonia yesterday just so I could see if my tank can process it in a day.

Woke up this morning to this. Does this mean that a cycle is definitely happening?

Should I do a water change now or after the week has passed?

Looks like a normal result. Take a peek at the nitrite level. I am curious whether it is low or high. In either case, if.it were my aquarium, I would call this “cycled”.