Cycling

[Reef Life!!]

I’m about a month in on the cycle and have dosed dr Tim’s ammonia three times and still not to the 24 hr mark . Just curious how many times it took the ones who used it. Nitrates are about 20

 

[Spare time]

Have you dosed bacteria?

 

[Reef Life!!]

I did at startup

 

[Silent]

I had better luck with microbactor7.

 

[brandon429]

You are cycled for sure, a month in with any doser for bac is cycled, see the time axis on any cycling chart, and those were made before bottle bac came on the scene which speeds it up to about a week or much less (same day as added, fish in cyclers)


only ammonia control matters not the other two common params, none of the testers are very accurate so nitrite and nitrate issues can be found in posts for fully matured reefs as problem readings, it doesn’t make the testers more accurate to assume their every reading is accurate for a cycle tank.

your tester for ammonia is the issue not the bottle bac being dead or weak. A seneye tester would show that you are ready to start. There are no cases where someone a month underwater isn’t able to start, it’s why the cycle charts have the same time frames no matter which book or site they come from


*since our cycle authors, salesman et al have omitted that information from their sales YouTube videos, the end result is now thousands of people buy more bottle bac, to see if they can get api testers to read three params exactly right. The cumulative effect of testing for anything other than ammonia going down in 24 hours is to sell more bottle bac to ease implanted doubt.

 

[Reef Life!!]

I have some diatoms wouldn’t that be a indication of being cycled.

 

[brandon429]

100% confirmed. It’s not possible to have benthic growths without having full filtration ability underneath. By rule of reef life order of ops, bacteria we cant see colonize all submerged surfaces first. The growths we can see confirmationally have shown up where the cycling charts allow for them, the time axis where ammonia is controlled and never rises again (unless death in the tank etc) such a neat tie in


calling your cycle complete is easy for internetters lol time to test

add something, if tank isn’t cycled it will go cloudy and the something will die by the end of the day. Cycle mis calls have immediate consequence, there is no half, partial, or stuck cycles in reefing. It’s either going to die later today, or still be alive this weekend

all or most of water needs to be changed, it’s algae fuel mix and clean water above a month established biofilm is the right way to start, not with wastewater.

 

[Mppp]

I have some diatoms wouldn’t that be a indication of being cycled.

A month in and diatoms, listen to Brandon I had some of the same questions using Dr Tims (one/only and ammonium drops) where my nitrites would not go down, but ammonia did fall off so no need for more ammonium drops. Let ammonia go to zero one last time and/or do a pretty big say maybe 1/3-1/2 at least water change. I've had fish shipped to me for a week now eating like pigs w/ nitrites still showing, low nitrates and no ammonia for the record.