Do a waterchange or let it ride?

[AbjectMaelstroM]

As I'm slowly getting my tank together, I decided to start cycling my Marco dry rock so that when time comes to finally bring everything together, I won't have to wait a month for the tank to cycle.

So, I have a tote with 15gal of saltwater (red sea regular) with a heater and an mp40.

Dropped in a bottle of biospira and dosed ammonium chloride to 2pp (Dr Tim's). Tested ammodia 2 days later and it was 0.8 as per red sea kit. Waited a day, following morning was reading 0. Dosed back up to 2ppm and let it simmer. This was day before yesterday. Nitrites showed 1ppm (max range for red sea). Yesterday morning it was reading 0.8 again, let it go over night and it's at 0 ammonia this morning. Nitrites still reading very high, gain red sea only reads upto 1ppm and the solution looks like cranberry juice.

Should I stop dosing ammonia and let nitrite catch up? Because it seems while ammonia is getting processed with in 24-48 hrs, nitrite isn't going anywhere.

Do I need to do a 5 gal water change (30%) to bring nitrites down?

 

[Sparkymarc]

Personally, I would let it ride. When I cycled my tank, it seemed that the nitrite part of the cycle took a little longer. I just dosed ammonium chloride to 2ppm until ammonia and nitrite would reach 0 in 24 hours. To be safe, I did this three days in a row with 2ppm ammonia. Dr. Tim’s makes this so easy. Then I did a large water change to rid the tank of nitrates

 

[Quietman]

You'll need to keep dosing ammonia to feed the bacteria but it can be much less than 2 ppm and not every day. Just a small dose every couple days after than initial 2ppm did it for me.

I did water changes although do not have to. Most of the bacteria in on the rocks and not in the water column. Might want to wait until nitrites are 0 then WC to control nitrates (which is only way to remove). But the only thing WC will do is add a bit of time (and not much) to the cycle so if you're worried about very high nitrites - go ahead.

 

[evilchef70]

As I'm slowly getting my tank together, I decided to start cycling my Marco dry rock so that when time comes to finally bring everything together, I won't have to wait a month for the tank to cycle.

So, I have a tote with 15gal of saltwater (red sea regular) with a heater and an mp40.

Dropped in a bottle of biospira and dosed ammonium chloride to 2pp (Dr Tim's). Tested ammodia 2 days later and it was 0.8 as per red sea kit. Waited a day, following morning was reading 0. Dosed back up to 2ppm and let it simmer. This was day before yesterday. Nitrites showed 1ppm (max range for red sea). Yesterday morning it was reading 0.8 again, let it go over night and it's at 0 ammonia this morning. Nitrites still reading very high, gain red sea only reads upto 1ppm and the solution looks like cranberry juice.

Should I stop dosing ammonia and let nitrite catch up? Because it seems while ammonia is getting processed with in 24-48 hrs, nitrite isn't going anywhere.

Do I need to do a 5 gal water change (30%) to bring nitrites down?
[/QUOTE
nitrites take lot longer. let it ride. water change will mess up your cycle and take even longer.

 

[Idoc]

I vote no water change... you need the nitrite present in order for the next nitrifying bacterial colony to grow. The slower bacterial growth is between nitrite to nitrate for some reason.

You can give it a break for a few days with the ammonia... those bacteria aren't going to die.

 

[Auquanut]

I agree completely. Sounds like you have a while before the tank is ready. I would continue to fee the bacteria with small amounts of ammonia or flake food, and let it ride.

 

[Quietman]

Oh, and you may still have a mini-cycle when adding to your tank with new sand and such but yes, it should be much less with what you're doing. I would still check my cycle with a dose of ammonia and verify before adding livestock.

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

Sounds good, I'll let it simmer for a few days and retest nitrites. Going to hold off on ammonia for the time being.

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

Oh, and you may still have a mini-cycle when adding to your tank with new sand and such but yes, it should be much less with what you're doing. I would still check my cycle with a dose of ammonia and verify before adding livestock.

Yeah, that is what I suspected based on what I've read so far. Doing a mini cycle for a week or two is better than waiting a month or two with an empty tank. Hopefully the 80lb of dry rock will carry enough bacteria to do what I want to accomplish.

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

So, quick update.

It's the end of day 3 since last measurement. Ammonia reading 0 (red sea kit), Nitrites still through the roof (beyond 1ppm range of red sea kit).

Thoughts? Keep waiting or water-change to bring Nitrites down? Has it stalled out?

 

[AdamB]

I cycled with Dr Tims as well and seeded my tank. It took a while longer for nitrites to turn into nitrates. I though I was going to have to dose more ammonia but I just let it ride and was patient until I had 0 nitrites and then I dosed ammonia again and checked 24 hrs later and both were at 0.
so I think you are on your way getting there.Again I would just let it ride

 

[Auquanut]

Yeah. I would let it ride a little longer.

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

Heh, easy enough. I'll check again Friday night.

Should I dose some ammonia or let that be as well?

 

[Auquanut]

I personally would let it be.

 

[AdamB]

Heh, easy enough. I'll check again Friday night.

Should I dose some ammonia or let that be as well?

Let ammonia be.. all of a sudden your nitrite will be 0 .. that’s what happened to be and was sort of surprised ! My nitrites were very high too during that time .

 

[code4]

Let it ride votes have it.

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

Patience is very much a virtue, it seems.

Tested this morning, ammonia 0 nitrite 0.2. So it has dropped significantly in the last two days.

Going to get another reading tomorrow which should hopefully be 0. Then dose back up to 2ppm ammonia and see if it passes the 24hr test.? If it does, do a large water chnage to knock down the nitrates then keep dosing small amounts (.5-1ppm) ammonia till I'm ready to move it in the tank.

 

[Seadoc]

Patience is very much a virtue, it seems.

Tested this morning, ammonia 0 nitrite 0.2. So it has dropped significantly in the last two days.

Going to get another reading tomorrow which should hopefully be 0. Then dose back up to 2ppm ammonia and see if it passes the 24hr test.? If it does, do a large water chnage to knock down the nitrates then keep dosing small amounts (.5-1ppm) ammonia till I'm ready to move it in the tank.

Sounds good. Just side note. Remeber to compensate for water evaporation in the container. You don't want to be ready to use the rock and find out is in a very high salinity solution.

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

So a bit of a follow-up question.... Decided to check the phosphate levels and results are a bit concerning to me. I did two readings, which resulted in 0.09 and 0.11ppm on Hanna LOW (not ultra) version.

Tested my RODI storage Brute and it was reading 0ppm. Which leads me to believe either the Marco rock or the plastic tote is leeching phosphates. I didn't measure phosphates when I first filled the tote when i started rock cycle, but I have no reason to suspect phosphates were above 0.

Question(s) that I have is:

a. Which is more likely to be the root cause, the Marco Dry Rock or the Plastic bin? This is the one(very doubtful to be food safe):

https://www.lowes.com/pd/COMMANDER-27-Gallon-108-Quart-Black-Tote-with-Standard-Snap-Lid/3551290

b. If its not the Marco Rock, will those phosphates absorb INTO the Marco Rock then leech into the tank when they go in? Meaning, should I go buy another Brute can and move all the rock into that? Or would this be fine for another month or so until the tank is setup? Though I'm guessing since it leached out ~0.11ppm worth of phosphates in 2 weeks, in 4 more weeks it would be ~0.33ppm, which is pretty high.

Thoughts?

 

[BeejReef]

Glad to see progress on Nitrite. No reason to do water change since only the rock will be going to the DT.

Huge kudos for being one of the few with the foresight to pre-cycle their rock!!!

The phosphate is very likely from the rock and not the bin. Also very possible it was from your first batch of water. It doesn't leach out constantly or indefinitely. Once the surrounding water has reached it's max, it'll stop there. Kind of like a tea bag in a cup of water. It will become tea, but it will never become a tar like sludge.

I personally wouldn't be concerned about .1P. Frankly, that's the range a lot of people are aiming for these days.
When my tank finished cycling, Phosphate was at 3.0. Obv, I water changed that down to less than 1.0, but still crazy high. Four months of running a refugium and I had sucked all of the P out of the rocks and now have to dose it.