Cycling Help??

RoryJ · Apr 16, 2017

Brew12 said:
You shouldn't need to. Most of the bacteria will be clinging to hard surfaces like your rock. You will lose very little during your water change.

Just did testing: as of 4/16/17
Ammonia: 8 ppm
Nitrite: .50 ppm
PH: 8.2
Nitrate: 40 ppm

Brew12 · Apr 17, 2017

RoryJ said:
Just did testing: as of 4/16/17
Ammonia: 8 ppm
Nitrite: .50 ppm
PH: 8.2
Nitrate: 40 ppm

I would hold off on that water change. You are developing nitrates very nicely so I am thinking you have a false positive on your ammonia. I don't think it is nearly that high.

RoryJ · Apr 17, 2017

Brew12 said:
I would hold off on that water change. You are developing nitrates very nicely so I am thinking you have a false positive on your ammonia. I don't think it is nearly that high.

Testing as of 4/17/17
Ammonia: 4 ppm
Nitrite: 1.0 ppm
Nitrate: 40 ppm
The ammonia is kinda hard to decifer between 4 ppm and 8ppm looks kinda lighter than yesterday..nitrites raised but nitrates stayed the same

Brew12 · Apr 17, 2017

RoryJ said:
Testing as of 4/17/17
Ammonia: 4 ppm
Nitrite: 1.0 ppm
Nitrate: 40 ppm
The ammonia is kinda hard to decifer between 4 ppm and 8ppm looks kinda lighter than yesterday..nitrites raised but nitrates stayed the same

You have some testing issues going on. Unless you did a water change you can't have ammonia drop without nitrates going up.

I think you are on the right track with your cycle but you may want to grab a water sample to bring to your LFS, along with your test kits, and see if you can figure out why you are getting such strange readings. If your LFS will do that with you, anyway.

RoryJ · Apr 17, 2017

Brew12 said:
You have some testing issues going on. Unless you did a water change you can't have ammonia drop without nitrates going up.

I think you are on the right track with your cycle but you may want to grab a water sample to bring to your LFS, along with your test kits, and see if you can figure out why you are getting such strange readings. If your LFS will do that with you, anyway.

Yeah no water change, I did add some saltwater to sump in place of R/O for top off to bring up salinity..salinity has been reading 1.021 to 1.022

Brew12 · Apr 17, 2017

RoryJ said:
Yeah no water change, I did add some saltwater to sump in place of R/O for top off to bring up salinity..salinity has been reading 1.021 to 1.022

That won't impact your test results at all. Either way, I am confident your cycle is going just fine.

RoryJ · Apr 17, 2017

Brew12 said:
That won't impact your test results at all. Either way, I am confident your cycle is going just fine.

ok thank you for your help, I did add about 2-3 gallons of saltwater when i topped off, i let the level get pretty low in sump so I could boost up the salinity level

RoryJ · Apr 18, 2017

Had LFS check my levels and got same readings...he advised just leaving it alone for a few more days..He also questioned if the Fluval Bacteria was compatible with the Dr Tims ammonia??..causing the really high ammonia readings??

Ashish Patel · Apr 18, 2017

I don't believe your nitrate reading are correct. The cycle starts with Ammonia then converts to nitrite and then to nitrate.
If the readings are correct then you have something form already in the system. I am sure it will balance out id recommend adding some bio spira to speed up the process.

RoryJ · Apr 18, 2017

Ashish Patel said:
I don't believe your nitrate reading are correct. The cycle starts with Ammonia then converts to nitrite and then to nitrate.
If the readings are correct then you have something form already in the system. I am sure it will balance out id recommend adding some bio spira to speed up the process.

You think it would be ok to add even if i have already used Fluval biological booster?

glb · Apr 18, 2017

I added biospira after a cycle stalled with Dr. Tim's. Long story short, it sped things up. I never had much nitrite during the cycle, just a trace. The bacteria boosters seem to convert the nitrites immediately to nitrates. I used API during my cycle and some of those colors are hard to tell apart, especially nitrates. If your ammonia is falling that's a good sign. Hang in there!

Brew12 · Apr 18, 2017

RoryJ said:
You think it would be ok to add even if i have already used Fluval biological booster?

You can mix and match all the bacteria products you want. Eventually the strain of bacteria that best fit your tank will end up dominating and the other strains will die back.

RoryJ · Apr 21, 2017

Update as of 4/21/17:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 5ppm
Nitrate: 80 ppm..kinda hard to read
PH: 8.0

Ashish Patel · Apr 21, 2017

glb said:
I added biospira after a cycle stalled with Dr. Tim's. Long story short, it sped things up. I never had much nitrite during the cycle, just a trace. The bacteria boosters seem to convert the nitrites immediately to nitrates. I used API during my cycle and some of those colors are hard to tell apart, especially nitrates. If your ammonia is falling that's a good sign. Hang in there!

I've used API for years and I feel its excellent because it easy to use and reliable. I have my old kit thats 5 years old still giving accurate readings (after confirming with salifert and seneye). I have found that best way to test color of nitrate is to run the test vial over the color chart to the one that best blends the colors. If its bright yellow its always the first one. The colors are never 100% but main thing it to know if you have nitrate present and API does that.

Ashish Patel · Apr 21, 2017

I started my cycle 2 days ago with 4 raw shrimps. After day 1 I still tested 0 for ammonia. I got some bio-spira but wanted to wait until their is ammonia present before adding it. I mean why add bacteria until it has something to feed on right? I've used bacteria in the past and it runs the cycle for me in 2 weeks.

Also, when i got home yesterday my place spelled light raw shrimp

Travis91 · Apr 21, 2017

I'm new as well and my ammonia reading where weird. I had an API test which they commonly get bugged and read .25 even when ammonia is 0. I baught a Red Sea ammonia test kit for that reason. Also I had really high nitrates 160ppm. Which I knew I was going to have some because I seeded with cycled material. But make sure you shake the living crap out of your nitrate test solutions. I did that and my test went from 160ppm to 20ppm did a good water change and now under 5ppm. Also added my skimmer and a cheato algae! The nitrate tests will have crystals in the solution and if not suspended in the solution will give a false test. Give it a try and let us know you're results!! Best of luck with you're cycle!!!

Brew12 · Apr 21, 2017

Travis91 said:
I did that and my test went from 160ppm to 20ppm did a good water change and now under 5ppm.

One work of caution on this. If you use the test kit without shaking it up well then the remaining reagents in the bottle will be out of balance and you may never get a good reading from the kit. For instance, if you get a high reading from not shaking it up then your test kit will always read at least a little low when you do shake it up prior to use.

glb · Apr 21, 2017

Ashish Patel said:
I've used API for years and I feel its excellent because it easy to use and reliable. I have my old kit thats 5 years old still giving accurate readings (after confirming with salifert and seneye). I have found that best way to test color of nitrate is to run the test vial over the color chart to the one that best blends the colors. If its bright yellow its always the first one. The colors are never 100% but main thing it to know if you have nitrate present and API does that.

I use them for cycling. The nitrates test isn't accurate enough at lower levels for corals imo. But for fish, it's always worked for me.