Cycling a new system with ammonia and mb7 question

[prsnlty]

Although I've cycled many systems before I have not done it using ammonia and mb7. On a new (rebuild) 45 gallon system with 29g sump (about 55g twv) I decided to try this method. The rock is live and has been cooking for many months. 50% of the sand is dry rinsed sand and 50% is live so called instant use sand. Plus I added a couple of cups of live sand from my 180 gallon system. From what I understand I am supposed to be dosing about 55 drops of ammonia on the first day and two or three every day thereafter. However since I could not see the ammonia level rise I have been dropping that amount (55 drops) on a daily basis and it has come up to .50ppm. I also stopped dosing two capfuls of mb7 because the ammonia was not rising. I guess my point is here: am I doing this correctly? Or was it not raising up because I have about 80 pounds of live rock in it and 60lbs + 2 cups of live sand?

 

[prsnlty]

Oh I forgot to mention that when I began cycling this tank I put a piece of frozen fish approximately 2 inches in my sump which was completely gone by the time I began ammonia dosing. Is it possible that this tank cycled itself that quickly? And maybe I just didn't notice....
Edit: the tank was running for only one two two weeks before I started ammonia dosing and the fish was dissolved, eaten, missing - gone lol

 

[prsnlty]

@Randy Holmes-Farley

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I'd stop dosing the mb7. I don't think adding more and more is going to be useful.

I expect there are sufficient bacteria in the tank to be processing the ammonia. If ammonia got to 0.5 ppm and has or is dropping, as soon as it is gone the tank is good to go, IMO.

 

[prsnlty]

Thank you Randy I never saw it go through all stages in testing. But I didn't begin testing until 2.5 weeks after setup and adding ammonia.