That ammonia is fine, alot of test kits will never go to a true zero best way is to tell 100% is add ammonia to get your levels to 2ppm and it should drop back down within 24hrs. As far as the Nitrite maybe you got a bad batch of reagent.Ammonia (a little less clear in the pic, by eye it was fairly obvious in the 0.2 band):
Nitrate:
Nitrite:
Both the last, to me at least, can't be anything other than the max reading on the card.
--Gray
www.reef2reef.com
Gray let me know your thoughts on the MACNA analogy related to your tank. If you were invited to bring this tank fully stocked to MACNA tomorrow, how could that be pulled off, what extra things or costs would you have to add here, so that your tank is in compliance with the others who are present and ready for doors open/customers to buy things out of your tank?
instead of just hashing details on one cycle, it’s handy to compare to big-picture cycling examples where dry systems and live rock transfer systems are made ready all by a given date. At aquashella Dallas 2019, several tanks were instant dry start tanks with fish and some corals to demo the abilities of bottle bac, what aspect of your cycle makes your tank not ready by day 20 prep, is it just the test kits not reading zero that makes it feel not ready?
you can easily find threads here where Randy states nitrite doesn’t factor, so focusing on your ammonia only seems prudent. **you have your calibrated zero ammonia reading above** so if it helps to know, you can dose that up to the next level change, stay below 2 ppm for tester quality reasons, and when it moves back down to color above thats testing proof you are cycled, hope that helps.
With updated cycling science we know the movement down is what counts, not the zero. When digital ammonia tests are used, we can see there isn’t a zero in reefing that’s key here. I’m offering for you to test differently, not to forego it. Adding fish wasn’t a guess, it was to show you are ready like the tons of threads we collect on this matter (I haven’t linked here but summarized) but you can still use this baseline test above to re-prove this tank is ready, even though ammonia has already dropped once prior.
Each time you register the drop it’s proof of cycle ready and one week bottle bac indeed working, your cycle isnt stalled at all its ready. It’s also handy if you wait till all three params line up classically, that helps us track how long it takes these non digital reads to allow a start compared to the known digital read systems out there.
either way this is a useful cycling thread.
* consider this detailed thread:
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.
the reason that applies to you, is fast ammonia control after bottle bac use vs waiting 30 days. its simply to show how people use updated cycling info, and to make what I type seem less crazy. in your tank I was remarking a couple clownfish and snails will be fine, thats because in his tank he puts a $300 anemone + full reef and eight fish on day one. You're + 20 more days development...the offer to begin with a typical start is framed against hundreds of threads like Ike's.
you can cycle as you please.
www.reef2reef.com
The Red Sea kit uses something call NOPOX (NO3O4-X, but the forum garbles it into a emoticon), which I believe is the equivalent of dosing ammonia. I just got a bottle of ammonia chloride solution with the Dr Tims bac, but haven't used any yet.
The kit had me dosing 8ml each day. I stopped when I first posted, day 9 was the last dose.
--Gray
The red sea reef mature kit is designed for live rock. I used it to start with on my tank (dry rock live sand also) before I found that out so I doubt your numbers will ever line up with their instructions. Once I learned that I just dosed ammonia to bring my tank up, poured in a bottle of bacteria and waited. Had a big bacteria bloom that lasted almost a week then the numbers started looking right.Today is Day 10 of my cycle. I am using the Red Sea Reef Mature system. Brand new tank, with new dry Marco (Macro?) rocks, mostly Nature's Ocean BioActive pink reef sand (the wet stuff), a little more fine Somoan Pink sand, and a couple handfuls of Florida Keys crushed coral. In addition to the Red Sea, I also added a bottle of Purple Helix at about day 2 or 3. Also have a 8x9" Brightwell Aquatics media plate in the sump. I have a skimmer, but am not running it yet.
Anyway, having never done this, I'm looking for reassurance that all is going well. According to the instructions, today's NH3 and PO2 should be 0, with Nitrate around 10. I don't see that happening.
Also, the instructions seem to think my dKH would be under 8.4, but it's only been under one time.
The brighter green marks when I swapped from the Red Sea test kit for that param, to a Hanna digital checker.
Thoughts?
Am I on the correct course? Or see anything that is obviously going badly?
Does it just take longer for pure dry rock to get cycling?
What should I expect over the next couple weeks?
--Gray
www.reef2reef.com
www.nature.com
