Cycling Dry Rock - Ammonia went fast - Nitrites high

[Aquaman102]

Hi All -

I'm cycling Dry Marco Rock in a trash can. Got the salinity and temp right, put in a couple of powerheads and added a piece of raw shrimp. I also dumped in a bottle of Bio-Spira.

I started the cycle 5 days ago. I could barely get Ammonia to show up on the card for the last few days, so I tested for Nitrites last night and it was > 50 ppm .

I am testing with a Red Sea Marine Care Test kit and followed the directions closely.

Is it possible the the Bio-Spira processed the ammonia that quick and it's already onto Nitrites rising?

 

[Marco S]

50 seems extremely high, was that supposed to be 5.0?

Either way, I have used Bio-Spira a few times and it normally takes around 6 - 8 days to fully complete the cycle so that sounds like you are right on track. I usually see an ammonia spike around day 2 and then nitrites spike around day 3 or 4 and then nitrates by day 5 or 6, (give or take) and then all is good. I will say that while using Bio-Spira did drastically speed up the cycle, it also drastically increased the amount of the algae bloom every time. I didn't mind since it was my QT tanks not my DT so it was acceptable to me, but you may want to think twice before going this route for you DT. I always do a full cycle the natural way for 6-8 weeks in my DT and the algae has always been manageable.