Another cycling

[HJ99]

We have our 180 (250g w sump less rock & sand) set up and been running about a week but no live stock in the tank yet. Used Bio-Spira for bacteria and 4 bags of the "live sand". Dosed twice with ammonia and came down to 0 in 24 hr with Nitrite at .4 last I checked. I'm thinking it's probably ready for some fish. Bio-Spira says just add the fish with it but I wanted to test with the ammonia first. Thing is we are just setting up a 55gal QT. We were at the LFS yesterday for more salt and almost bought some fish. The young fella there said it was up to us but if there were to be a problem, we would be treating or replacing 250g of water instead of 55. That was actually a concern I had as well but my wife is anxious to get it going. Probably should have done the QT tank first but this is the way it worked out. My question is will there be any issue with letting the DT system run empty for several weeks while we quarantine ? Should I ghost feed or just let it run ?

 

[Cell]

Ghost feed it.

 

[Azedenkae]

We have our 180 (250g w sump less rock & sand) set up and been running about a week but no live stock in the tank yet. Used Bio-Spira for bacteria and 4 bags of the "live sand". Dosed twice with ammonia and came down to 0 in 24 hr with Nitrite at .4 last I checked. I'm thinking it's probably ready for some fish. Bio-Spira says just add the fish with it but I wanted to test with the ammonia first. Thing is we are just setting up a 55gal QT. We were at the LFS yesterday for more salt and almost bought some fish. The young fella there said it was up to us but if there were to be a problem, we would be treating or replacing 250g of water instead of 55. That was actually a concern I had as well but my wife is anxious to get it going. Probably should have done the QT tank first but this is the way it worked out. My question is will there be any issue with letting the DT system run empty for several weeks while we quarantine ? Should I ghost feed or just let it run ?

Your LFS is right, it would be easy to treat/replace 55 gallons rather than 250 gallons.

So, re: your question. If it's a few weeks then maybe not, but several weeks and I worry your nitrifiers may start dying off, or at least go into hibernation. Which would take some time to reactivate. The thing is it does vary from species to species, and I don't know which species in particular is in Bio-Spira and they may be perfectly fine without anything for the several weeks, or not.

Either way, since you already have ammonia on hand, it'd be quite simple. Just keep dosing ammonia in the mean time. Probs do not need to be daily. Weekly doses of ammonia should do. You can ghost feed if you really want to, but it is absolutely unnecessary because 1. the nitrifiers you have are probably autotrophic and do not need organic compounds as a carbon source, 2. you already have ammonia on hand, you aren't probably gonna use it for anything else (soon), 3. it is way more controlled than ghost feeding. So yah. Weekly ammonia dosing (2ppm should be fine) is imo the way to go.

 

[HJ99]

Your LFS is right, it would be easy to treat/replace 55 gallons rather than 250 gallons.

So, re: your question. If it's a few weeks then maybe not, but several weeks and I worry your nitrifiers may start dying off, or at least go into hibernation. Which would take some time to reactivate. The thing is it does vary from species to species, and I don't know which species in particular is in Bio-Spira and they may be perfectly fine without anything for the several weeks, or not.

Either way, since you already have ammonia on hand, it'd be quite simple. Just keep dosing ammonia in the mean time. Probs do not need to be daily. Weekly doses of ammonia should do. You can ghost feed if you really want to, but it is absolutely unnecessary because 1. the nitrifiers you have are probably autotrophic and do not need organic compounds as a carbon source, 2. you already have ammonia on hand, you aren't probably gonna use it for anything else (soon), 3. it is way more controlled than ghost feeding. So yah. Weekly ammonia dosing (2ppm should be fine) is imo the way to go.

Actually, I used up all the ammonia but I could get more. It's not expensive. I did 50ml at a time and that used up the bottle. Thanks

 

[Azedenkae]

Actually, I used up all the ammonia but I could get more. It's not expensive. I did 50ml at a time and that used up the bottle. Thanks

Oh, lol. I am so used to nano and pico tanks that I forgot how much volume of chemicals a bigger tank goes through. XD My bad.

I mean, ghostfeeding would work. I just yeah, would prefer ammonia dosing if possible. You are right, it ain't very expensive, so why not eh.

 

[IslandLifeReef]

Just keep the DT running. No need to ghost feed. @brandon429, what are your thoughts.

 

[brandon429]

neat post just re read it above to see details.

Harmless to ghost feed and if none is added, right now where I sit some bachelor baseboards not cleaned show alternate reef feed that is getting in, from the air and from setup contaminations even if that home is spotless. because they still must care for baseboards and white blinds but not brown ones lol, that reef is getting fed either way. in this mix is a couple gnats and some skin cells and carbon galore. maybe I better bi-annually clean those rascals right now