Cycling first tank

[slaag]

Hey folks,

Curious about cycling and what to expect. I understand the cycle and how it operates, but what's not clear to me is expectations of changes daily.
This is what I am seeing out of my tests (Using API Salt Water test kit)

Started - Nov 12/2022
	Ammonia	Nitrite	Nitrate	PH
Day 1	2	0	DNT	DNT
Day 2	2	0	DNT	8
Day 3	2	0.5	20	DNT

Does this seem right?

Thanks!

 

[Rmckoy]

Hey folks,

Curious about cycling and what to expect. I understand the cycle and how it operates, but what's not clear to me is expectations of changes daily.
This is what I am seeing out of my tests (Using API Salt Water test kit)

Started - Nov 12/2022
	Ammonia	Nitrite	Nitrate	PH
Day 1	2	0	DNT	DNT
Day 2	2	0	DNT	8
Day 3	2	0.5	20	DNT

Does this seem right?

Thanks!

Only
3 days to detect elevated nitrates ..
but the issue is still ammonia .

 

[Spare time]

I would post pictures. API ammonia tests in saltwater are easy to misinterpret due to precipitation within the vials. What are you using as an ammonia source? Did you add bacteria, live rock, etc.?

 

[slaag]

I would post pictures. API ammonia tests in saltwater are easy to misinterpret due to precipitation within the vials. What are you using as an ammonia source? Did you add bacteria, live rock, etc.?

Thanks for the reply! It is a fishless cycle.

I used Brightwell MicroBacter QuikCycl for Ammonia
I used Brightwell MicroBacter StartXLM for Bacteria

I don't have pics of today's test but will take some tomorrow.

 

[Spare time]

Thanks for the reply! It is a fishless cycle.

I used Brightwell MicroBacter QuikCycl for Ammonia
I used Brightwell MicroBacter StartXLM for Bacteria

I don't have pics of today's test but will take some tomorrow.

If you haven't you can dump the whole bottle of bacteria into the tank.

 

[slaag]

Hi all,

@Spare time - I followed your recommendation and put the rest of the bottle in this morning.

Here are some pictures of todays test. To me, Ammonia looks the same as the past 3 days, but Nitrite is up and Nitrate is the same.

Appreciate your wisdom! Thank you.

 

[zdrc]

It looks like your cycle is progressing well. I think the rule of thumb is when the tank can process 2 ppm of ammonia into nitrate in a 24 hr period the tank is cycled.

In freshwater systems, it's important to do water changes during the cycle to keep the nitrate from getting too high (like 80 -160 ppm or higher). Supposedly, the high nitrate inhibits the growth of the bacteria needed for the cycling. I'm not sure if the same is true in saltwater tanks.

 

[Spare time]

Hi all,

@Spare time - I followed your recommendation and put the rest of the bottle in this morning.

Here are some pictures of todays test. To me, Ammonia looks the same as the past 3 days, but Nitrite is up and Nitrate is the same.

Appreciate your wisdom! Thank you.

Ok neat. That is definitely some amount of ammonia. One thing you can do is turn the temp up to something like 81F which can help speed things along. Usually api ammonia is sometimes difficult to distinguish when it reaches closer to 0 (i.e. between 0.25 and 0). Contrary to popular opinion, API tests likely don't give the famous "false ammonia reading" that people say, but rather these people are inexperienced with these kits first hand and regularly testing cycled and uncycled tanks with them

 

[dstockwell]

I don’t see how expectations can be put into days, so many factors in play

 

[slaag]

Ok neat. That is definitely some amount of ammonia. One thing you can do is turn the temp up to something like 81F which can help speed things along. Usually api ammonia is sometimes difficult to distinguish when it reaches closer to 0 (i.e. between 0.25 and 0). Contrary to popular opinion, API tests likely don't give the famous "false ammonia reading" that people say, but rather these people are inexperienced with these kits first hand and regularly testing cycled and uncycled tanks with them

Okay, thanks for the info. What do you read that ammonia level as? It doesn't look like its changed much each day but it certainly doesn't look as dark as the 4 or 8. I've increased the temp now. Just hurry up and wait I suppose!

eshwater systems, it's important to do water changes during the cycle to keep the nitrate from getting too high (like 80 -160 ppm or higher). Supposedly, the high nitrate inhibits the growth of the bacteria needed for the cycling. I'm not sure if the same is true in saltwater t

Thanks for the info.

I don’t see how expectations can be put into days, so many factors in play

Yeah, I totally understand. I see movement in Nitrite and Nitrate but not in Ammonia so I was curious about what to expect given what I've show with the tests. I am fine with being patient with this. Just a curious noobie here.

 

[Idech]

It looks like it’s progressing well. Nitrates are high for only three days and nitrites appeared early. You might want to test your rodi water just in case. If good, then I think you’ll cycle fast.

With Dr Tim, I cycled in 21 and 23 days.

 

[Reefer911]

I was told to look down into the API test vial and compare with the color chart that way

 

[slaag]

It looks like it’s progressing well. Nitrates are high for only three days and nitrites appeared early. You might want to test your rodi water just in case. If good, then I think you’ll cycle fast.

With Dr Tim, I cycled in 21 and 23 days.

I don't have anymore RODI water to test. I didn't test before using it. I bought a RO Buddie w/ DI attachment system and made my own. Before using it, I let it rinse for 10 mins to clear out the charcoal filter, then added the membrane, and rinsed that for 30 mins, then added DI filter and rinsed that for another 15 mins. I then collected water for 4 hrs (50 GPD system), to mix with salt and had a gravity of 1.025 and used that. I didn't actually test the RODI water as I didn't have anything to test it with at the time.

 

[Idech]

I don't have anymore RODI water to test. I didn't test before using it. I bought a RO Buddie w/ DI attachment system and made my own. Before using it, I let it rinse for 10 mins to clear out the charcoal filter, then added the membrane, and rinsed that for 30 mins, then added DI filter and rinsed that for another 15 mins. I then collected water for 4 hrs (50 GPD system), to mix with salt and had a gravity of 1.025 and used that. I didn't actually test the RODI water as I didn't have anything to test it with at the time.

Okay. You should always have rodi water ready, at least for 2-3 water changes. When you make some, test it. I suppose you checked it with a TDS meter and you got 0 ?

 

[Spare time]

Okay, thanks for the info. What do you read that ammonia level as? It doesn't look like its changed much each day but it certainly doesn't look as dark as the 4 or 8. I've increased the temp now. Just hurry up and wait I suppose!


Thanks for the info.


Yeah, I totally understand. I see movement in Nitrite and Nitrate but not in Ammonia so I was curious about what to expect given what I've show with the tests. I am fine with being patient with this. Just a curious noobie here.

Looks like 2ppm to me

 

[slaag]

Hi folks, back with an update of the cycle process. Some of these numbers appear high but the colours match. Any thoughts or recommendations? Just continue to hurry up and wait for it nitrite to hit zero then do 50% water change?

TIA.
(DNT-did not test)

Started - Nov 12/2022
	Ammonia	Nitrite	Nitrate	PH
Day 1	2	0	DNT	DNT
Day 2	2	0	DNT	8
Day 3	2	0.5	20	DNT
Day 4	2	1	20	DNT
Day 5	1.5	2	40	8
Day 6	DNT	DNT	DNT	DNT
Day 7	1	4	80	8
Day 8	DNT	DNT	DNT	DNT
Day 9	0.25	5	160	DNT

 

[zdrc]

I'd do a water change now. I think I've heard that really high nitrate can inhibit the growth of nitrifying bacteria, and the high nitrate could kickstart an algae bloom. A 50% change will just halve all those numbers so there will still be plenty of Nitrite. You will need to add more ammonia though.

 

[slaag]

I'd do a water change now. I think I've heard that really high nitrate can inhibit the growth of nitrifying bacteria, and the high nitrate could kickstart an algae bloom. A 50% change will just halve all those numbers so there will still be plenty of Nitrite. You will need to add more ammonia though.

Okay, I was curious about doing a change now. It does seem like a good thing given the high nitrite/nitrate numbers.

Why would I want to add more ammonia? Isn't the goal to get down to 0 and then have nitrite go to 0 then I can add fish?

 

[TheBear78]

As mentioned earlier in the thread, as soon as the ammonia dose is completely converted within 24 hours the initial cycle is complete.
Adding more will either allow you to confirm the 24 hour conversion (your last test proved it wasn't quite there) or just continue the process until you are.

 

[reef_1]

Hi folks, back with an update of the cycle process. Some of these numbers appear high but the colours match. Any thoughts or recommendations? Just continue to hurry up and wait for it nitrite to hit zero then do 50% water change?

TIA.
(DNT-did not test)

Started - Nov 12/2022
	Ammonia	Nitrite	Nitrate	PH
Day 1	2	0	DNT	DNT
Day 2	2	0	DNT	8
Day 3	2	0.5	20	DNT
Day 4	2	1	20	DNT
Day 5	1.5	2	40	8
Day 6	DNT	DNT	DNT	DNT
Day 7	1	4	80	8
Day 8	DNT	DNT	DNT	DNT
Day 9	0.25	5	160	DNT

API (and salifert and maybe others) nitrate test converts nitrate to small amount of nitrite and then measures that converted nitrite.

The consequence of this is that if you still have any nitrite in the water it will convert to a huge nitrate reading when using the nitrate tests, the conversion factor is big, 20-50 for different test kits.

Do not test nitrate until your nitrites are clear blue 0. At the moment you most likely have zero nitrates and when nitrite goes down and gets converted to nitrate you will have around ~10 nitrates.

Then you can do a minor water change and go.

p.s: search Reef2Reef for exact tests, but I just cycled 3 tanks and confirmed that this is true. Also 1ppm ammonia is converted to 2.6ppm nitrite and 3.6ppm nitrate and as your cycle look quite "clean" you can only have ~10 nitrates at the end.