Cycle question

[brandon429]

Top ten reasons you should NOT dose a new cycling tank to 2 ppm ammonia

We are all 100% familiar with the sales adage that a cycle is only proven when you can move 2ppm ammonia to zero multiple times before a cycle can be deemed reliable 9.9/10 cycling umpires online stand firm with this information in unison to anyone posting doubt about cycle completion, what...

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[brandon429]

I don't do this to make online reef enemies/promise

I do it to stem the loss of fish disease, complete and total wasting within the hobby, and as a counterbalance to a sales machine so massive that ten million bottles of bacteria could have been saved from purchase. we're getting market taken, folks. our peers do about 87% of the movement, free of charge.

 

[MnFish1]

I think what I see in your post is an old school way of thinking clashing with what we know today. A basic cycle used to be seen as what you stated: ammonia -> nitrite -> nitrate. When nitrates were present, then the cycle was complete. I still think this is a viable way of looking at things, under one condition. That is if you did not dose ammonia to feed the bacteria in a bottle. From what I read, people are prolonging the cycle with this method. So, if you add a shrimp (as was done before) or ghost feed during the cycle, and you end the cycle with a sub 5ppm nitrate reading, then I would say that you absolutely do not need to do a water change at all. No reason for it. However, if you dosed ammonia and somehow you end the cycle with, lets say (completely arbitrary) 30ppm nitrate, then you should perform a water change. Does this make sense?

No - it doesn't make sense (to me). Why? because as at least in my experimental systems - unlike many new cycling science believers believe - the nitrification process only occurs up to the level of food (ammonia) provided. There is no magic to using 2 ppm ammonia, a dead fish, shrimp, or just adding a very small bioload to a tank - for the most part. The problem with shrimp, dead fish, etc - is that you don't know how much ammonia is being produced. If you dose it, you know.

The amount of nitrate produced will reflect that ammonia processing capability of 'that tank'. For example - if you dosed it to 0.25 ppm total ammonia - you might have 5 ppm nitrate (just making up the numbers). If you dosed 5 ppm ammonia you might have 50 ppm nitrate. But - the tank dosed to 5 ppm will have more ability to maintain fish, coral, etc - than the one dosed to 0.25 ppm - IMHO.