Cycle

[Kidderic]

Hi all,

I started cycling my new RSM650 a couple weeks ago....i used live sand, partially cycled dry rock, and dr tims. Last sat i got zeros on both ammonia and nitrites....so i dosed ammonia back to 3ppm and waited 24 hours....at that time i was getting 0 for ammonia and around 0.1-0.25 nitrites.... so i dosed again and waited 24 hours...the same thing....so i have been doing this since sat and today the same result...not sure what i should do....should i stop dosing daily until they hit zeros again then dose and see if it gets processed in 24 hours? or should i continually dose daily until i hit zeros.... nitrates are over 50ppm and ph has held steady around 8.....any ideas? thanks

 

[booth2010]

Well the whole point behind Dr Tims Nitrifying Bacteria is so you can be fish ready immediately. You are putting a massive amount of live bacteria into the tank so that it doesnt take time to cycle, its for "instant cycling". If you keep putting ammonia in and it drops to 0 the next day the bacteria must be doing its job. As far as if you should stop dosing, maybe not as much there needs to be some ammonia so the bacteria doesnt die off but I dont think you need to keep going to 3ppm. Maybe someone else will chime in.

 

[Kidderic]

Thanks.. Yeah that is why I used it.. But the tank should be able to process the ammonia in 24 hours and leave you zeros for both ammonia and nitrite.. But I'm still seeing the nitrite so that is why I'm a little confused..

 

[Kidderic]

And like I said last Saturday I had zeros on both..

 

[booth2010]

Just let it sit for a few days without adding any more ammonia, everytime you add ammonia it is converted to nitrite.

 

[Kidderic]

Ok.. Once I hit zeros then dose again and see if it can process it I'm guessing