ATM Colony Question.....

[Marc900]

Hi guys, jumped in at the deep end with a Redsea 900. Setup with TMC eco reef rock , live sand, 2 bio plates in sump.
filled with NSW and used 3 large bottle of Colony enough for a 1000ltr we only had 800 with rock displacement.
Added 14 small fish (25% of total stock) on day 1. Did not feed on day 2,3,4 and recommenced on day 5. we are now on day 23 skimmer went on on day 16.
Up until now I have tested water daily - have had no reading of Nitrite or Nitrate ( using Redsea test kit)
Ammonia is still very low 0.2-0.4 (not done water change yet) .
Parameters as follows
Ph 7.8-8.1
Dkh 6-6.5
Salinity 36.9
Fish seam fine and have had the Diatoms stage on day 10
Has the Cycle failed as I have had no readings for Nitrate ?
Thanks Marc

 

[P-Dub]

Not necessarily. But, I am not a proponent of adding bacteria in a bottle and starting to add animals right off the bat. Call me old school, but I find there is no substitute for time. I didn't add anything other than a CUC until 3 months into my natural cycle and started testing only after I added said CUC. Never had any Nitrates register until 16 months running. It is entirely possible that you have a successful bacteria population to handle the current load. Personally, I can only say go really slow from this point and continue testing. With my old slow school method I never had any outbreaks of anything. No dinos, no algae. It's a slow process and excruciating for someone like me who has zero patience but I have even less patience to deal with the associated issues so often encountered cycling any other way.

 

[brandon429]

your cycle is fine and complete. the reason you cant see that via ammonia is due to non seneye, you arent using a three hundred dollar digital ammonia test kit r u>?

you can see it via no ammonia testing though: clean water, living fish.

your whole system would be dead and cloudy if the cycle stalled, and since there is no middle ground for cycling (only with non seneye/false reads) you are 100% cycled and can't be 99% cycled.

*by about day 7 max, max, all forms of bottle bac for cycling have adhered in place and can't be harmed, reset, or removed even with a 100% water change. You are beyond day 20...

no other params matter in cycling but ammonia control, which you've demo'd a few ways above.