Cycle questions

[Gogoggansgo]

I’m doing a fish in cycle with two clowns in a 60 gallon tank “yes i know it’s not ideal and looking back i should of just used ammonia drops” and if they show any signs of stress I’ll take them out. Thus far they’re doing great and eating without issue. I’m currently at 1.023, PH of 8.2, ammonia of .50, nitrite of 0 and nitrate of 0. I’m using
Microbacter7 “just a backup bottle

seachem stability and prime plus are the two i use daily

i seeded the tank with live sand and bio balls aka small live rock directly from my LFS. Basically after a week nothing have changed, and I’m curious as too what some of you guys think . I kinda feel like i have too much bio going on and my two little clowns aren’t making enough ammonia to start the cycle. And i know prime can mess up my results. Even after a 20 percent water changed the ammonia level didn’t drop or I’m just being a typical noob and being impatient

Hmmmmmmm

 

[brandon429]

Literally all you do is wait before adding more stuff it will cycle fine.

If it wasn't already cycled, overnite your fish would be dead and water would be cloudy. You imported enough bac to work fine just don't add more fish for a while. You did a skip cycle/didn't have to wait to add bioload

Don't add anything in response to low level ammonia, simply wait and enjoy the tank a couple weeks. Feed and change water as normal
See this thread

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-microbiology-of-reef-tank-cycling.214618/

Yes they make enough ammonia for the buildup of bac to continue

 

[Gogoggansgo]

Literally all you do is wait before adding more stuff it will cycle fine.

If it wasn't already cycled, overnite your fish would be dead and water would be cloudy. You imported enough bac to work fine just don't add more fish for a while. You did a skip cycle/didn't have to wait to add bioload

Don't add anything in response to low level ammonia, simply wait and enjoy the tank a couple weeks
See this thread

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-microbiology-of-reef-tank-cycling.214618/

Yes they make enough ammonia for the buildup of bac to continue

I think i May of lost one hermit crab he was really small. And oh i know I’m not adding anything till i see the ammonia go down and everything else at 0. So if it takes two months so be it. I’m just scratching my head is all

 

[Gogoggansgo]

Thank you for the quick response

 

[UCF Alum]

You’re showing ammonia, zero nitrites and zero nitrates because your cycle just got started. At this point you have really nothing to lose. Get some Bio Spira and hopefully the fish will live. Sustained levels of even small amounts of ammonia will kill them. Don’t do ANY water changes as this will effect the cycle. Additives like seachem is only further delaying things and covering up the problem. I moved an entire tank from an established one last year to a new one and still had a small, two week cycle without any fish.

Bottom line- you need to let the tank go through the natural process without adding anything. I also don’t think you skipped the cycle. If you did, your tank would’ve processed the ammonia that’s showing on your test kit.

 

[Gogoggansgo]

You’re showing ammonia, zero nitrites and zero nitrates because your cycle just got started. At this point you have really nothing to lose. Get some Bio Spira and hopefully the fish will live. Sustained levels of even small amounts of ammonia will kill them. Don’t do ANY water changes as this will effect the cycle. Additives like seachem is only further delaying things and covering up the problem.

Bottom line- you need to let the tank go through the natural process without adding anything. I also don’t think you skipped the cycle. If you did, your tank would’ve processed the ammonia that’s showing on your test kit.

The only reason why I did a water change was too get the salt level up a tad. Wasn’t about trying to get rid of any ammonia. And ya think bio spira is better than Microbacter7

 

[UCF Alum]

The only reason why I did a water change was too get the salt level up a tad. Wasn’t about trying to get rid of any ammonia. And ya think bio spira is better than Microbacter7

Yes. I’ve used both. Go with bio spira.

Also, if it’s fish only, run you salt at 1.021 to reduce stress.

 

[brandon429]

We cover in the thread how to identify ammonia misreads, showing link examples like your tank

be sure and check that before adjusting anything reactively, you have nothing to adjust.

Nice skip cycle. If they're not dead by tomorrow, you're safe again. Same for Sunday, every 24 hrs is new proof

The thread has some neato details on how to call cycles going off pics since test kits are hardly ever right

We show on the last page how to make your test kits read correctly, but since you have fish just skip verification.

Simply feed, change water as normal, you imported your whole filtration off the sand alone, which is why your water isn't cloudy and your fish aren't dead. The bottle bac and any live rock are incidental extras

Yes, prime adulterates the testing as one reason you're seeing the seemingly free ammonia but nothing indicates it biologically, such as totally dead fish, a smelly tank, fully cloudy water etc

We talk in detail that true lack of bacteria shows increasing ammonia, by the hour, no biological mechanism exists to have the classic readings of .25 and .5 held in place sustained~

We have about ten thread examples with your .5 or .25 sustained claims to analyze

Learning to not believe test kits is the first step in successful cycling we show for pages. Chemists just love my approach lemme tell ya ha
B

 

[Gogoggansgo]

Yes. I’ve used both. Go with bio spira.

Also, if it’s fish only, run you salt at 1.021 to reduce stress.

Okay will do thank you

 

[Gogoggansgo]

We cover in the thread how to identify ammonia misreads, showing link examples like your tank

be sure and check that before adjusting anything reactively, you have nothing to adjust.

Nice skip cycle. If they're not dead by tomorrow, you're safe again. Same for Sunday, every 24 hrs is new proof

The thread has some neato details on how to call cycles going off pics since test kits are hardly ever right

We show on the last page how to make your test kits read correctly, but since you have fish just skip verification.

Simply feed, change water as normal, you imported your whole filtration off the sand alone, which is why your water isn't cloudy and your fish aren't dead. The bottle bac and any live rock are incidental extras

Yes, prime adulterates the testing as one reason you're seeing the seemingly free ammonia but nothing indicates it biologically, such as totally dead fish, a smelly tank, fully cloudy water etc

We talk in detail that true lack of bacteria shows increasing ammonia, by the hour, no biological mechanism exists to have the classic readings of .25 and .5 held in place sustained~

We have about ten thread examples with your .5 or .25 sustained claims to analyze

Learning to not believe test kits is the first step in successful cycling we show for pages. Chemists just love my approach lemme tell ya ha
B

They’ve been alive since Tuesday

 

[Gogoggansgo]

We cover in the thread how to identify ammonia misreads, showing link examples like your tank

be sure and check that before adjusting anything reactively, you have nothing to adjust.

Nice skip cycle. If they're not dead by tomorrow, you're safe again. Same for Sunday, every 24 hrs is new proof

The thread has some neato details on how to call cycles going off pics since test kits are hardly ever right

We show on the last page how to make your test kits read correctly, but since you have fish just skip verification.

Simply feed, change water as normal, you imported your whole filtration off the sand alone, which is why your water isn't cloudy and your fish aren't dead. The bottle bac and any live rock are incidental extras

Yes, prime adulterates the testing as one reason you're seeing the seemingly free ammonia but nothing indicates it biologically, such as totally dead fish, a smelly tank, fully cloudy water etc

We talk in detail that true lack of bacteria shows increasing ammonia, by the hour, no biological mechanism exists to have the classic readings of .25 and .5 held in place sustained~

We have about ten thread examples with your .5 or .25 sustained claims to analyze

Learning to not believe test kits is the first step in successful cycling we show for pages. Chemists just love my approach lemme tell ya ha
B

Thank you you make me so much better my LFS told me that prime can cause testing issues and most of the kits aren’t exactly 100 percent accurate this includes ammonia alert which i have, you can see it’s green in my picture up top

This is from the other night

 

[brandon429]

It'll be ok just feed easily the next ten days or so don't fatten em up in the very new tank, they won't die if they have to work and wait a bit for feed vs how it will be in a couple weeks/totally normal. Underfeed them just a bit, no big portions for another week or so for safety

Let's chat about dry sand or wet pack sand to use in a skip cycle tank

Did you use caribsea wet pack sand

 

[Gogoggansgo]

It'll be ok just feed easily the next ten days or so don't fatten em up in the very new tank, they won't die if they have to work and wait a bit for feed vs how it will be in a couple weeks/totally normal

Let's chat about the impacts of dry sand use or wet packs and use in a skip cycle tank

Did you use caribsea wet pack sand

Yes i used 40 pounds of it i just threw it in the tank and another 40 pounds of some other stuff, that my LFS told me too wash it before i put in the tank. I’m shocked at how clear this water got after a week and a carbon bag later

 

[brandon429]

You added retail dosers specifically designed to allow you to instantly use fish. Dr Reefs extensive testing thread shows them being verified as well

With dry sand, they'd be enough to still skip the cycle

- cycle defined as how long you have to wait before an aquarium can keep your fish alive without killing them-

Your live sand alone would run them skip cycle, says it right on the bag yep

You've redundantly skip cycled

 

[brandon429]

2 fish in a 60 gallon is really good dilution they didn't recommend anything bad here, this is common nowadays

In all biological accuracy you didn't do anything wrong with the cycle but you possibly imported ich into your system by skipping the fallow phase protocol, that's the impact of fish in cycling

The retailers have mastered transmissible bacteria nowadays, wait cycling is kind of gone out the window honestly

 

[Gogoggansgo]

2 fish in a 60 gallon is really good dilution they didn't recommend anything bad here, this is common nowadays

In all biological accuracy you didn't do anything wrong with the cycle but you possibly imported ich into your system by skipping the fallow phase protocol, that's the impact of fish in cycling

The retailers have mastered transmissible bacteria nowadays, wait cycling is kind of gone out the window honestly

If there is ich it won’t take long to show up but that’s also why i did two small clowns first. I’m not too worried about ich, I’m just trying to figure out if i should stop using prime and let the tank be

 

[BadFish619]

You’re showing ammonia, zero nitrites and zero nitrates because your cycle just got started. At this point you have really nothing to lose. Get some Bio Spira and hopefully the fish will live. Sustained levels of even small amounts of ammonia will kill them. Don’t do ANY water changes as this will effect the cycle. Additives like seachem is only further delaying things and covering up the problem. I moved an entire tank from an established one last year to a new one and still had a small, two week cycle without any fish.

Bottom line- you need to let the tank go through the natural process without adding anything. I also don’t think you skipped the cycle. If you did, your tank would’ve processed the ammonia that’s showing on your test kit.

Also the prime he uses daily binds the ammonia making it livable for the fish. Hoping a day isn't skipped or may have some casualties!. When your tank is cycled you would tend to see the opposite numbers. 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and a small nitrate reading. Good luck!

 

[Gogoggansgo]

Also the prime he uses daily binds the ammonia making it livable for the fish. Hoping a day isn't skipped or may have some casualties!. When your tank is cycled you would tend to see the opposite numbers. 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and a small nitrate reading. Good luck!

I haven’t missed a day but I’m at that crossroad of what the heck to do next lol

 

[brandon429]

Clowns are pretty bulletproof they'll be ok

Two options that w work are just proceed on and wait about ten more days to establish normal feeding, add a couple corals etc. you don't have to add prime or more bottle bac and if you do add them not a problem

You can also do a water change if you want, still not having to add prime or bac since bac are stuck to surfaces now vs in the water column doing the majority of the work

Ammonia deaths due to lack of bac are fast, not slow. Overnite bad things w show in a tank we wouldn't need a test to see if bac are lacking, so we go off your tank biology now and not an uncalibrated test + prime, testing is unhelpful now but watching the system for bio indicators will never lie it's the best approach


You'll get keen on the real actions going on just off your intuition as you watch the tank, like when Luke was blindfolded, no API, and he still could sword fight

 

[BadFish619]

I haven’t missed a day but I’m at that crossroad of what the heck to do next lol

Its totally possible to do. I've had fish live through it. Just keep up on it as much as possible!