Cycling a new tank- am I doing this correctly?????

[damsels are not mean]

How long should it be before I start to see an ammonia spike and typically how long will it take to start converting? I understand the concept of the cycle I would just like a ball park on what to expect to see every few days/weeks in my parameters.

Just wait. If the LR survived the trip it may not even cycle again. Watch for activity from the hitchhikers. If they keep growing and spreading and you never see an ammonia spike that is ideal. When I set up my first reef I never saw anything on the test strips, but that's because I packed the tank full of nice fiji rock that was cured at the LFS and full of life. Even kept some corals that were on there.

 

[BContos]

Those kits are useless in cycling, sorry to break the news. Buy seneye if you want to know ammonia, buy Hanna digital if you want to know nitrite and nitrate. Of all possible pH measurement tools available api is the last you’d reference. Buy the Orion digital calibrated probe Randy uses in the chem forum if you want to test pH.


also pertinent: you can also choose to not measure those params. If they were required to reef my 16 year old reef couldn’t exist, it’s tested only for salt levels and temp. If you search out api pics on five year old running reefs, twenty thousand readings look like that. Those readings are literally found on reefs long past the cycling phase, it’s why searches you can find for api accuracy are so poor. Even in the main forum, the poll for api accuracy has more doubt than trust. Any way it’s measured, those kits aren’t the ones you should reef with.

Im amazed that nitrite looks zero, those aren’t half bad api readings given the context !

It’s insane the API tests are pushed so heavily by stores (in person and online) if they aren’t super accurate! I will look into getting the testing materials you referenced

 

[damsels are not mean]

It’s insane the API tests are pushed so heavily by stores (in person and online) if they aren’t super accurate! I will look into getting the testing materials you referenced

To be fair, accuracy doesn't really matter that much for things like ammonia. Either it's measurable (toxic) or not (fine)

 

[Garf]

Thanks for all the responses guys! I’m sorry I haven’t responded I have COVID and have been pretty down and out the last few days! I will attach my test results as of last night (day 7 of the cycle’s readings) . Bare in mind we still have 3/4 of a shrimp in the tank keeping our ammonia source going. My husband also ordered me 10 additional pounds of aquacultered (sp?) live rock from FL that will be here in a few days. There was a few spots in the display tank that I wanted a little more rock work and we figured more established rock would be better than more dry!
My concern is the pH- is it normal to see it this low while cycling? We have a good sized house (1900 sq ft) with two adults, 2 dogs and a cat so I don’t believe that it’s an over abundance of CO2 and because we live in Texas it’s way to hot to open windows and keep your AC on. We run a protein skimmer and I was under the impression this would keep our O2 levels high enough. I would prefer to know what is causing the problem so I can try and fix that rather than add buffers if possible!

It’s insane the API tests are pushed so heavily by stores (in person and online) if they aren’t super accurate! I will look into getting the testing materials you referenced

pH looks ok. As long as there’s plenty water movement, you’ll be ok. Don’t know what Brandon said but the API are totally acceptable for cycling.

 

[MnFish1]

Those kits are useless in cycling, sorry to break the news. Buy seneye if you want to know ammonia, buy Hanna digital if you want to know nitrite and nitrate. Of all possible pH measurement tools available api is the last you’d reference. Buy the Orion digital calibrated probe Randy uses in the chem forum if you want to test pH.


also pertinent: you can also choose to not measure those params. If they were required to reef my 16 year old reef couldn’t exist, it’s tested only for salt levels and temp. If you search out api pics on five year old running reefs, twenty thousand readings look like that. Those readings are literally found on reefs long past the cycling phase, it’s why searches you can find for api accuracy are so poor. Even in the main forum, the poll for api accuracy has more doubt than trust. Any way it’s measured, those kits aren’t the ones you should reef with.

Im amazed that nitrite looks zero, those aren’t half bad api readings given the context !

RIDICULOUS

 

[MnFish1]

It’s insane the API tests are pushed so heavily by stores (in person and online) if they aren’t super accurate! I will look into getting the testing materials you referenced

The API tests - are as accurate as the others - If my reading is correct - Brandon also does not like anything but the Seneye. Salifert and redsea are not accurate. Just wait - Your cycle will happen with or without ANY testing - or a Seneye

 

[MnFish1]

Just wait. If the LR survived the trip it may not even cycle again. Watch for activity from the hitchhikers. If they keep growing and spreading and you never see an ammonia spike that is ideal. When I set up my first reef I never saw anything on the test strips, but that's because I packed the tank full of nice fiji rock that was cured at the LFS and full of life. Even kept some corals that were on there.

Stop worrying - start waiting - stop testing.

 

[BContos]

Stop worrying - start waiting - stop testing.

Thank you for the advise. This is my first tank so I just want to make sure I did everything correctly. I have been waiting but also have been told to monitor parameters to keep track of where the levels are at. This feels like a mad science project and since everyone has a different opinion on how it should be done and l have no one person to mentor me in person I’m doing the best I can.

 

[brandon429]

theres a neat trick to all cycling hashings

no cycle is a new angle on the established norms or without fifteen other comparative cycles like it already on file and tracked out with pics and updates on the system.


cycles behave the same way per group, regardless of testing it’s a time-based game… ranging from zero days wait (live rock transfer skip cycles) to thirty days wait for a common dry rock, no bottle bac, feed-only cycle. Within a group of about four different types of cycles, yours meets one of them and the # of days to completion is already known, such that we don’t need testing to manage any of them. Testless cycling came onto scene long about when self driving cars came on scene. All science has a progression scale and cycling is no longer a problem or concern in any setting, fish disease sure is.

 

[brandon429]

Post a pic of your tank with the blended rock let’s see the layout.

 

[MnFish1]

Stop worrying - start waiting - stop testing.

I think I summarized @brandon429 'Stop worrying - start waiting - stop testing.'

 

[BContos]

 

[brandon429]

That’s an effective skip cycle since it’s all positioned mid water like that, perfect

 

[BContos]

That’s an effective skip cycle since it’s all positioned mid water like that, perfect

There’s about 20lbs of established live rock and 50lbs of dry rock. Some of the live rock from our LFS is hidden cause it’s not super pretty but there’s about 10lbs on each side with the middle big arch being all the dry rock secured with reef safe glue and epoxy to keep it secure. Will the coralline algae spread? If so, in terms of time what should I expect? No rush but just curious. The aquacultured rock has beautiful diversity of different colors and textures I’m really hoping it spreads

 

[brandon429]

Hard to say. If it was put into my tank it wouldn’t spread much, my coralline stopped growing the second I changed from power compact lighting into led

 

[BContos]

Hard to say. If it was put into my tank it wouldn’t spread much, my coralline stopped growing the second I changed from power compact lighting into led

When I add my CUC will they eat this algae?

 

[brandon429]

I’d bet no. If CUC worked reliably nobody would use manual controls or other dosers like fluconazole

they work on target 1/20 times.

 

[BContos]

I’d bet no. If CUC worked reliably nobody would use manual controls or other dosers like fluconazole

they work on target 1/20 times.

Good point lol

 

[damsels are not mean]

they work on target 1/20 times.

Depends on what "work" means and what look you are after. If your goal is to have sterile white rocks you can't expect snails to know that. If you just want to keep your algae under control, a diverse selection of herbivores will absolutely do quite a bit of work for you, just as they do in the wild.

 

[brandon429]

only ideally

try and assemble any work threads of pattern where current invasions lacking those organisms add them, and get the invasion fixed. I know when it happens at home in someone's reef it seems easily outbound copied, but see if you can get maybe 5 tanks or so to show a marked turnaround off adding the cuc discussed here. if you present a pattern that works for five then there's lots of people in the invasion forum who want that copy that works on common early tank headaches. it can't be a selection of past threads where cuc legit cleaned up algae, the key is it has to be a live time help thread barely posted, worked live time with them. do five


for me to get five done and cause a marked change from the opening pick they'd be poking at their rocks with steaknives and hitting spots in burning peroxide, if a group of snails can be applied live time many people want that method instead. they want it without disease transfer risk too (see any disease forum post: new clean up crew killed my fish) so its a good idea to have fallowed sources of cuc before putting wet vectors in people's tanks as an experiment. they'll usually willing do it anyway but its at least fair to consider Jay's biosecurity article on cuc's as part of the sign off advice for participating in a work arrangement with a help post.

the second reason we evolved into manual controls was no disease risk input