Cycling

[brandon429]

Randy is a neat reference to have. I bet if it weren’t for he and bingman nitrite detailing would be a big deal still.

if nitrite mattered, no MACNA convention could line up 400 reefs to start on time, they’d all have to show up a month early when the convention hall was being used to show art lol or have a rodeo

 

[Rmorrison23]

Nitrite Toxicity

Hey guys I have an aquarium system that has about 45gallons of water cycling so I Let it cycle for about week and I added seeded marine pure ceramic balls and the bacteria in a bottle. I had no choice but to add my 2 clownfish from my quarantine into the tank.. because I needed to put a sick...

www.reef2reef.com

Randy is a neat reference to have. I bet if it weren’t for he and bingman nitrite detailing would be a big deal still.

if nitrite mattered, no MACNA convention could line up 400 reefs to start on time, they’d all have to show up a month early when the convention hall was being used to show art lol or have a rodeo

Haha thats great point

 

[Rmorrison23]

Haha thats great point

Ok, about 4 weeks in now, found out test kit I was using was not accurate, expired or something. So, ammonia is showing trace amount(maybe none, idk), nitrites off the chart. Have changed about 60 gallons of the 200 and results the same. Should I continue to change water or add more turbo start or what can I do here to finish this cycle.

BTW, never doing add ammonia cycle again lol, should have just added fritz and ghost fed haha

 

[brandon429]

your cycle is done, post up a cycling chart and we can show why.

we wont be factoring nitrite or nitrate, so the # of days to ammonia control will be easy to cross reference.

also, unless your measures above are seneye, we may not need any data to call your cycle closed, if not on seneye, you'd default solely to what a cycling chart shows it takes to make ammonia stay down vs ever come up again. its ten days. all cycling charts have ammonia controlled by day ten and you added feed and boosters already, that made it quicker.


is your ammonia tester a seneye

 

[Rmorrison23]

your cycle is done, post up a cycling chart and we can show why.

we wont be factoring nitrite or nitrate, so the # of days to ammonia control will be easy to cross reference.

also, unless your measures above are seneye, we may not need any data to call your cycle closed, if not on seneye, you'd default solely to what a cycling chart shows it takes to make ammonia stay down vs ever come up again. its ten days. all cycling charts have ammonia controlled by day ten and you added feed and boosters already, that made it quicker.


is your ammonia tester a seneye

No, api that's why not sure if ammonia is really there, if it is its faint, like .25

 

[brandon429]

that info +30 days elapsed means you can begin reefing its all finished, nice wait. most would have started w fish already in the tank

 

[Rmorrison23]

Ok sweet, thoughts on first addition to the 200 gallon eventual mixed reef?

 

[brandon429]

Thats a huge water volume, it will handle anything you throw at it, most nowadays begin with a fish depending on their selected disease protocol. Some choose to do corals only a while allowing a fallow period to better prepare for fish, whichever your plan it will handle it

 

[Rmorrison23]

Yea gonna add like 2 fish, was thinking chromis, anthias, or clowns to start, maybe even like firefish

 

[Rmorrison23]

Wondering what anyone thought

 

[lapin]

Small shy fish first.

 

[Rmorrison23]

Thats a huge water volume, it will handle anything you throw at it, most nowadays begin with a fish depending on their selected disease protocol. Some choose to do corals only a while allowing a fallow period to better prepare for fish, whichever your plan it will handle it

I know you keep saying that nitrites don't matter but they are over 5ppm right now and even that article earlier in this thread said at 3.3 fish were struggling but not dead...concerned they might die...why won't nitrites go down?

 

[brandon429]

Fair question thank you for posting
it’s a classic challenge so many have


first we have to agree your test is infallible

get a second reading on a tank water sample from lfs post that one and your nitrite reading as comparison take a pic of their reading when they run it


if nitrites are there then we can trace out stalls. Nobody agrees any kit from api is immune to showing a sustained reading on a param otherwise safe. That’s everyday all day on api avenue, must get a second reading.


also

get the second reading on a non api kit. If that’s all they have, we are already onto something. Inability to verify accuracy. we would revert to this thread until another brand kit verifies the nitrite

Nitrite Toxicity

Hey guys I have an aquarium system that has about 45gallons of water cycling so I Let it cycle for about week and I added seeded marine pure ceramic balls and the bacteria in a bottle. I had no choice but to add my 2 clownfish from my quarantine into the tank.. because I needed to put a sick...

www.reef2reef.com

we could find no reason for you to be taking the measure. Inability to verify sample accuracy factors heavily in why we don’t use nitrite in cycling, and we can’t locate stalls on a false read. I know online videos and bottle bac maker posts say nitrite stalls a cycle. That link above says it won’t.

its better to track all the nitrite positive tests, the majority of tests ran, and see if anything is actually happening bad in the tank. I have a different thread tracking nitrite positive starts, it never mattered and we never had any non api verification data. We never knew if any of the readings were correct, no benchmarks avail

 

[Rmorrison23]

Water at last tested over 5 as well with api kit

 

[brandon429]

A different kit? when they get baselines for other kits here, it’s alternate brands ideally or a second kit same brand distant third place option.


the same kit can’t be its own verifier

if you search out api .25

those come down from higher levels, 2 ppm most common, now the hobby accepts the ammonia isn’t going to zero on most test kits

I would be curious to see what another test kit looks like for the nitrite.

cant be dip strips either, if we ran a poll asking which test kits are most accurate for low end readings they won’t choose api or test strips, so those don’t get to become the deciding say on accuracy here

 

[Rmorrison23]

At lfs I meant

 

[Rmorrison23]

Ah gotcha, ill have to try a different brand kit or see if the lfs can use a different one. Thank you for all the info!

 

[brandon429]

If there's nitrite positive we wouldn't get to cherry pick our sources either cycling is either predictable or its useless


Cycling charts show nitrite to take the longest to control.

Nitrate was never toxic, it trends to the upward in - most- systems, enough to make the charts official

But not all.

Where's my nitrate stalled cycle threads are numerous.


What if your nitrite bacteria are taking longer by happenstance, they could be but it's not an issue due to neutrality reviewed above. Macna conventions won't hold up a start date over nitrite, nobody tests for it. It is true in the old cycling ways, we tested for it.
Adding the water conditioner Prime causes direct false nitrite readings. Unspoken contaminants for nitrite testing abound.

Ammonia control runs independently to nitrite control nowadays we know. Independent studies not associated with labs but prepped to do linked nerd battle in forums has shown that nitrite doesn't matter ever, and owning the kit is torture we love heh.

Only ammonia matters
Ammonia control determines if a home move skip cycle worked

Or when you can add life to an emergency tank.

This allows for the nitrite and nitrate outliers to still reef, without having to buy things to unstick a situation that isn't stuck. They're reacting to the wrong params.


*the presence of nitrite and or nitrate has no bearing on ammonia control and keeping your fish corals and inverts alive even though others may disagree. we have the running tanks on file formerly nitrite positive.

If you were going to take time to source a second kit I'd take time to give my honest answer on potential positive confirmation.

You can reef right now consequence free.

Look how much this fella did on day one, you waited well.

Bio-spira works great

I just started a new tank a little over a week ago. I started with all dry rock and new sand. I added a bottle of Bio-Spira and put fish and coral the same day. Never saw any ammonia and fish and coral seem healthy.

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Rmorrison23]

Just for reference

 

[brandon429]

Hey that shows a solid conversion from ammonia to nitrite. Action, and that ammonia looks legit zero too/yellow, not greenish.

can u post the nitrate, we need to see if nitrite to nitrate is occurring

it does help to see those as a reference good pics, the nitrite looks clearly raised.