Cycling Help 20 Gallon

MikeDesjean

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Good afternoon,

tank setup:
-20 gallon cube AIO
-Caribsea Live sand
-dry rock
-Instant ocean salt water @ 1.026
-cycling at 79-80 degrees
I am new to the hobby and am 6 days into the cycle using fritz fishless fuel and fritz turbostart 900. I have been reading a lot of brandon429"s posts as well as drreef's threads on cycling.

I dosed the fishless fuel day one and mistakenly got it to 8 ppm ammonia instead of closer to 4 ppm per directions.(did 4 drips per gallon not the tsp recommended, thought it would be the same amount) Dosed turbostart 900 and the 8 ppm got to .5 ppm in 4 days. nitrite is still high though. its hard to distinguish API nitrite test between 2 and 5 ppm, so i figure maybe 2-4 ppm?

I really have not seen any nitrite drop at all. it has been this high for 6 days now going on 7. I don't really understand why it is not going down. ammonia seemed to be getting proceeded at 2ppm in 24 hours like it should.

right now ammonia is 0, nitrite is like i said 2-5 ppm, nitrate readings have been all over the place, some times its 20 ppm other times its closer to 40 or even 60 ppm. when i get these readings I always redo test and get same result. kind of odd? I know I have read here that people get miss reads because of presence of high nitrite creating a misread?

The few reasons I am posting this thread is:
-2 lfs have given conflicting advice. one saying it stalled and to do 10% h20 change. Other says to wait it out it could take up to 2 weeks or so.
- I have seen information to from brandon429 and drreef as to the bottle bac being very advanced in how they work and cycling tanks in short periods of time. making a 2 week cycle using the products to be a long time. I don't want to rush anything, but I feel for paying extra for a " 1 week cycle" and waiting 2 to 3 weeks really isnt what we paid for then right?
-any ideas or recommendations?

IMG_3913.jpg
 
Good afternoon,

tank setup:
-20 gallon cube AIO
-Caribsea Live sand
-dry rock
-Instant ocean salt water @ 1.026
-cycling at 79-80 degrees
I am new to the hobby and am 6 days into the cycle using fritz fishless fuel and fritz turbostart 900. I have been reading a lot of brandon429"s posts as well as drreef's threads on cycling.

I dosed the fishless fuel day one and mistakenly got it to 8 ppm ammonia instead of closer to 4 ppm per directions.(did 4 drips per gallon not the tsp recommended, thought it would be the same amount) Dosed turbostart 900 and the 8 ppm got to .5 ppm in 4 days. nitrite is still high though. its hard to distinguish API nitrite test between 2 and 5 ppm, so i figure maybe 2-4 ppm?

I really have not seen any nitrite drop at all. it has been this high for 6 days now going on 7. I don't really understand why it is not going down. ammonia seemed to be getting proceeded at 2ppm in 24 hours like it should.

right now ammonia is 0, nitrite is like i said 2-5 ppm, nitrate readings have been all over the place, some times its 20 ppm other times its closer to 40 or even 60 ppm. when i get these readings I always redo test and get same result. kind of odd? I know I have read here that people get miss reads because of presence of high nitrite creating a misread?

The few reasons I am posting this thread is:
-2 lfs have given conflicting advice. one saying it stalled and to do 10% h20 change. Other says to wait it out it could take up to 2 weeks or so.
- I have seen information to from brandon429 and drreef as to the bottle bac being very advanced in how they work and cycling tanks in short periods of time. making a 2 week cycle using the products to be a long time. I don't want to rush anything, but I feel for paying extra for a " 1 week cycle" and waiting 2 to 3 weeks really isnt what we paid for then right?
-any ideas or recommendations?

IMG_3913.jpg
It’s probably going to take a couple weeks if you really want to make this go by faster I would use turbo start and leave it be for about a week and a half and the. Test is and if everything is still high do a small water change and leave it be it will balance itself out eventually!!
 
I would wait a little longer, and trust me you will know when you tank is cycled and ready. Here a pic of my recently cycled quarantine tank, (excuse the dirty water) all the brown diatom is a dead give away when your tank is ready for life. Don’t rush it, I learn the hard way and had fishes died or have to change 50% water twice a week due to ammonia/nitrite spikes.

28D9EC65-D32F-4FC7-B578-99D0E1DC020C.jpeg
 
I’d get a damsel or real LR. Wait 3 weeks , Cycled ….
 

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