Cycling Help

[dgarrison]

Question : I have had water in the tank for about a week and a half. 100 pounds of dry rock and 3 good size pieces of live rook from a friend's established tank. I also have 60 pounds of live sand and have been using the liquid bio starter daily. After a few days, the ammonia rose to 1.0 and the Nitrite to 0.25. Now the Ammonia is down to .25 and the Nitrite is holding at the same. I am starting to get what appears to be Diatoms on the sand and rock. Should the ammonia rise higher than 1.0 during the cycle process?

 

[Joeganja]

use Seachem Stability.

 

[Humblefish]

Should the ammonia rise higher than 1.0 during the cycle process?

It does sometimes, but not always. You mentioned you are using a "bio starter daily" - is that something like Bio-spira or Seachem Stability? If so, that means you are slowly introducing nitrifying bacteria into your tank (a good thing.) However, you also need to "feed" that bacteria (with ammonia) to help it propagate. To do this, you can just add a pinch of flake food every 2-3 days (slow way), or add a raw shrimp to let decompose and get ammonia spikes out of that (faster way.) Or alternatively, some just add pure ammonia when cycling.

 

[deerhunter06]

Humblefish gave some good advice. With the addition of the 3 pieces of live rock you are pretty much wasting your money on the bacteria in a bottle. An ammonia spike does not NEED to spike to any certain amount once the tank cycles and the microbes become established they will multiply rapidly and adjust to your bioload this is why we add livestock slowly just incase your bioload produces more ammonia daily than your initial ammonia spike. That way the bacteria can catch up accordingly over a couple days or so.

 

[dgarrison]

Thanks for all of the advice. Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate all went to zero. I added the first two fish and they seem to be doing well.

 

[fishroomlady]

your nitrate should have read something ??

 

[dgarrison]

It was showing zero on the color scale

 

[zwulfke]

for the cycle to complete you should of had nitrate left in the water. Though I am not sure if the liquid bio starter you used also had nullifying bacteria too.

 

[dgarrison]

I was using the MicroBacter 7

 

[zwulfke]

• Complex system of non-pathogenic aerobic and anaerobic microbes, as well as natural
  enzymes, specifically formulated to establish biological filtration in new aquarium set-ups,
  and to enhance the rate of nitrification, denitrification, and organic waste degradation in
  marine and freshwater aquaria through complete nutrient remineralization.
• Supplied in a state of suspended animation for maximum longevity.
• Formulated utilizing extensive data compiled by microbiologists.

Medium- to High-nutrient Systems, or to seed Biological Filtration in new aquaria: To effectively decrease the concentration of available nutrients and waste material in all marine and freshwater aquaria, add 5 ml (1 capful) per 25 US-gallons (94.6 L) [≈4 drops per gallon (3.8 L)] of aquarium water daily for the first two weeks of use; the impact that MicrōBacter7 has on an aquarium is most evident within this period. Turn protein skimming and UV-sterilization off for a period of 4 hours following addition to aquaria. A noticeable difference in water clarity is typically apparent within 30-minutes of dosing. Follow same instructions for new aquarium start-up. Thereafter, switch to “low-nutrient” dosage (below).

Taken from
http://brightwellaquatics.com/products/microbacter7t.php

So in a sense yes his nitrates will be zero given there is nullifying bacteria in the additive. I would though keep a close eye on it and get a good test kit like red sea because API can be wrong and harder to see exact measurements.

 

[BaritoneJP]

........ get a good test kit like red sea because API can be wrong and harder to see exact measurements.

Wish I had read this prior to getting the API kit and I agree with "harder to see exact measurements" (live and learn)

 

[deerhunter06]

This is pretty simple....you didn't have a large ammonia spike So you aren't going to have many nitrates. I wouldn't worry about it. I had an ammonia spike of 8ppm and only ended up with 10 nitrate. Yours was only 1ppm.........

 

[dgarrison]

Sounds good. I am continuing to check the levels but all seem ok.