(Another) Cycling Question

mpatient · Jan 18, 2019

My 32G BioCube had a crash this week. (Still don't want to talk about it.

) The remaining survivors (mixed corals, clowns, Lawnmower Blennie and yellow head jaw fish are currently in a temp tank.

Although the crash was unfortunate, I am moving very soon, and had intended on breaking down the tank, completely cleaning the entire system, adding Tropical Eden Live Sand and newly pre-cycled dry Marco rock at that time.

I actually started cycling the new scape (pic attached) in a Brute container 10 days ago using the ammonia method and Bio Spira. I also just threw in a bottle of Fritzyme Turbo Start 900 yesterday. As of this morning my Ammonia reading is 0 and Nitrites are at 1ppm using Salifert tests. I had already re-dosed ammonia to 2 ppm and it returns to 0 by the new day. Long explanation for a simple question, but do I stop dosing ammonia to 2ppm and wait to the nitrites go down or do I continue to do so until both are at 0 in 24 hours. Online opinions are all over the place on this one. My goal is to eliminate as much of the "uglies" and new tank syndrome as possible when setting the tank back up.

Crazeh · Jan 18, 2019

Should be OK to stop dosing once nitrites also reach 0 in 24 hour, however, if it's a little over that then I wouldn't worry too much. Given you have no fish bioload and will have stopped dosing ammonia, the bacteria population may stabilise at a smaller amount. The bacteria will survive a good amount of time without being 'fed', the population may just decrease a bit. If you keep dosing you may just push the nitrates through the roof.

You can test the water shortly before you set-up the new tank for ammonia (to check for die-off). If all is good then you can even dose ammonia to check it still processes it within 24 hours.

You probably won't avoid the uglies completely - it would be quite similar to just buying live rock from the store. Diatoms are typically fed by silicates in the sand for example.

I like the rock layout!

mpatient · Jan 18, 2019

Just to clarify. Keep dosing ammonia until both ammonia and Nitrites return to 0 in 24 hours.

Crazeh · Jan 18, 2019

The point I try to make is that you're establishing a bacteria colony that is being fed a certain amount. Once you reach the two 0's within 24 hours you are going to stop dosing ammonia, and so the bacteria colony will stabilise at a different population over time. If it then takes you another few months to set up your new tank, you aren't guaranteed to still have a colony which can process the ammonia and nitrite in 24 hours (hence the reason to verify it's condition before you add fish).

In short though, yes, let's make sure your rock is fully cycled. We don't want the cycle to stall and get a build up of nitrites for example. However, if you find it's taking a little over a day for the nitrite to come down (but it still comes down!), I wouldn't be overly concerned (given the above).