Ammonia and Nitrates.. no nitrite?

[CaliCO]

Hi,
So I did a fishless cycle with ammonia drops and Dr. Tims one and only. After one week, my ammonia is sitting at about 4-5ppm and my nitrates are at around 4ppm. I saw no nitrite spike while recording my numbers daily. Is this normal for Dr. Tims one and only? Do I just wait it out till the ammonia goes away? Will I see nitrites or does that part get skipped somehow? Also this tank has the contents of a smaller 20 gallon tank which I cycled with no ammonia, and used stability for 3 weeks before the upgrade. Now the water, dry rock, and live sand are all in this new 29 gallon tank with extra new rock and more RODI saltwater. Any help on what I should do is greatly appreciated.

 

[brandon429]

Very easy fix here, wait till day ten, change water, you will be cycled. The test issues you see before then don’t matter, day ten its ready off the dr Tim’s, not even counting the already cycled materials. It’s able to process testing from this thread right now, but waiting to day ten is nice extra and it’s done.

 

[brandon429]

How to unstick any seemingly stuck cycle

Updated Cycling Science in Action This is a testless reef tank cycling thread, the only one from any board. If you ever had trouble with reef tank cycling in the past, you won't any longer after working some jobs with us. chances are you are using/about to use a method of reef tank cycling...

www.reef2reef.com

that thread directly applies to your tank. If you ran those rules your test would pass right now, but waiting to day ten is universally a perfect date, regardless of what your tests say. We show how to make tests work there, and what to test. We won’t use nitrite info in the decision it won’t apply.

 

[CaliCO]

Perfect, so it sounds like I'm on the right track! Thanks for the advice

 

[CaliCO]

How much water change do you recommend? Day 10 should be this weekeend and it would be great to add fish. Do I just change the water till the ammonia level is 0? Or will the process eliminate the ammonia on its own? Thanks for the advice.

 

[brandon429]

Per the thread the ammonia reading isn’t right until arranged as we did, but you can change any degree of water you like, it’s to reduce nitrate levels for the least algae. You won’t have to do the three part verification step on day ten it will just be ready, change any degree of water up to all of it if you want the lowest algae fuel possible

your test levels aren’t assumed correct, nobody gets accurate cycling levels from api or Red Sea until they’re arranged in the series we used there

 

[CaliCO]

OK thanks, there's a lot of info in that thread! I'll have to take some time and sift through it. Thanks for your help!

 

[Rjukan]

Don't bother testing for nitrite or nitrate until the ammonia hits zero.

 

[CaliCO]

Very easy fix here, wait till day ten, change water, you will be cycled. The test issues you see before then don’t matter, day ten its ready off the dr Tim’s, not even counting the already cycled materials. It’s able to process testing from this thread right now, but waiting to day ten is nice extra and it’s done.

I waited till day 10 (today) and changed about 80% of my water. My ammonia is down to 1ppm now. The ammonia was not moving at all from 4ppm. I know my tank is supposed to be cycled since I'm showing nitrates, but shouldn't my ammonia be dropping if the cycle is truly conplete? Should I just wait it out, or do another large water change to further reduce ammonia closer to 0? It makes me nervous to try and put livestock in when my tank doesn't appear to be processing ammonia hardly at all. I read the thread you recommended but I guess I'm just not understanding why you said the ammonia reading isn't right.

 

[CaliCO]

Should I just disregard the 1ppm ammonia number as an invalid like your thread says?

 

[brandon429]

Yes it’s invalid, but we show how to prove it by posting the 3 part ammonia picture if you’d like to re prove it’s ready here in this one

 

[brandon429]

100% Water Change

So in my previous thread, I had an ammonia issue that was out of hand. As suggested, I did a 100% WC and now i’m wondering when I should start adding fish back. If anyone has suggestions, let me know!

www.reef2reef.com

with a picture set that’s showing ammonia going down we can be sure it’s cycled and we can track his tank above to see it’s progression

reasons I feel you are cycled:

pre cycled materials used, prepped for three weeks

bottle bac takes max ten days per dr reefs thread on bottle bac

use of wet sand brings in more bac too

this tank can show the ammonia movement above if required I’ll bet

 

[CaliCO]

100% Water Change

So in my previous thread, I had an ammonia issue that was out of hand. As suggested, I did a 100% WC and now i’m wondering when I should start adding fish back. If anyone has suggestions, let me know!

www.reef2reef.com

with a picture set that’s showing ammonia going down we can be sure it’s cycled and we can track his tank above to see it’s progression

reasons I feel you are cycled:

pre cycled materials used, prepped for three weeks

bottle bac takes max ten days per dr reefs thread on bottle bac

use of wet sand brings in more bac too

this tank can show the ammonia movement above if required I’ll bet

This is two ammonia tests taken 24 hours apart. One on the right is the newer one. Im a little reluctant to add more ammonia, given I have never seen movement bases on a starting point of reference

 

[brandon429]

where are the pics that show the initial read before adding ammonia, and then the pic showing the slight ammonia increase

I do see those two match though.

 

[brandon429]

best summary for the calibrated proofing is one pic from current tank water, nothing added at all. second pic is after adding cycling ammonia to the water enough to drive up the second reading as only slightly darker than pic 1

pic 3 is 24 hours later after pic 2

if pic 3 matches pic 1 you are cycled

if it matches pic 2 you arent yet

 

[CaliCO]

I havent gone through that process yet since I just saw your response this morning. Like I mentioned I'm a little hesitant to add ammonia back in but I understand that I need those reference points. Is there a difference between ammonia thats been in the tank for a bit vs. new ammonia and how its processed? Whats the difference between adding more and waiting 24 hours and just observing again after 24 hours? It sounds like you're saying that the base ammonia test reading can be disregarded, and additional ammonia will be used to verify movement. I guess it just doesn't make sense to me how the base ammonia wouldn't move.

 

[CaliCO]

best summary for the calibrated proofing is one pic from current tank water, nothing added at all. second pic is after adding cycling ammonia to the water enough to drive up the second reading as only slightly darker than pic 1

pic 3 is 24 hours later after pic 2

if pic 3 matches pic 1 you are cycled

if it matches pic 2 you arent yet

Thanks for your help brandon429. My ammonia was down to .25 today so I saw that movement. Put two clowns in and they seem perfectly happy so far!