Cycling questions

[Michael ross1]

I'm currently cycling my first saltwater tank..... I'm using Dr Tim's ammonium chloride and one and only..... My ammonia spiked eventually and now zero.....my nitrites are high in the purple with api test kit .... nitrate is 40 ppm..... Yesterday I put more ammonia in to get a reading and 24 hours later it is zero..... But nitrite is still purple....????? Is cycle done or wait a few days more to see if it goes away I'm doing fishless cycle but can't wait to get fish ..... almost there just wondering what to do or to wait

 

[dkeller22]

Nitites aren't as toxic to saltwater fish as the are to freshwater, but I'd wait a few days for them to come down, and they will. Nitrates just grow algae. Don't add any more ammonium chloride. Just wait for the bacteria to catch up.

 

[brandon429]

Trouble cycling - nitrite not going down

I understand that the clean liquid AC cycling is a better alternative than the shrimp method but since I already did the shrimp method I guess there's no turning back. I see a lot of people shrimp and bottle bacteria frequently. The general problem with this method is that the initial dosage...

www.reef2reef.com

linked so we can compare analysis between the two threads. this cycle has been pretty well fixed already so far. here's two posts that show we only factor ammonia in cycling, not nitrite:

see post 65

Cycling a new tank- am I doing this correctly?????

MN your rip clean study threads are really good and for the types of controls you enacted and charted, work threads would be unhelpful. you were measuring using lab precision testing ability the impact of various cleaning routines on saltwater rocks/surfaces, if we crowdsourced that info it...

www.reef2reef.com

plus that entire thread of itself applies to this post here, the critical timelines and ammonia control has been met. if you want to wait longer thats fine, but it does not make the tank safer to add fish.

 

[GillMeister]

Be patient. Cycling takes a varying amount of time depending on how much rock and sand you have. A cycled tank isn't a stable tank, either. That takes months of gradually increasing your bioload and letting the bacterial biome adjust to the new foodsource.

I have 250lbs of live rock in my tank and i can't get measurable nitrate or phosphate without dosing it. Even so, i don't add more than one fish or 15 hermit crabs at a time just to maintain stability.

 

[z0mbeh]

Be patient. Cycling takes a varying amount of time depending on how much rock and sand you have. A cycled tank isn't a stable tank, either. That takes months of gradually increasing your bioload and letting the bacterial biome adjust to the new foodsource.

I have 250lbs of live rock in my tank and i can't get measurable nitrate or phosphate without dosing it. Even so, i don't add more than one fish or 15 hermit crabs at a time just to maintain stability.

This is the best advice, rushing is only going to lead to issues.

 

[bxclent]

I'm currently cycling my first saltwater tank..... I'm using Dr Tim's ammonium chloride and one and only..... My ammonia spiked eventually and now zero.....my nitrites are high in the purple with api test kit .... nitrate is 40 ppm..... Yesterday I put more ammonia in to get a reading and 24 hours later it is zero..... But nitrite is still purple....????? Is cycle done or wait a few days more to see if it goes away I'm doing fishless cycle but can't wait to get fish ..... almost there just wondering what to do or to wait

Patience, Grasshopper....