Fishes Cycle No Nitrites

[Bubblebass]

I've never done the fishes cycle thing before and thought it seemed more humane. I followed the instructions and watched Dt. Tim at the MACNA speech about it a few times. As he stated, temp to 82 and 20ppt salinity. Just added my third and final ammonia dose and I have seen zero Nitrites. Ammonia has stayed around 3-4ppm. At this point, I feel like I used snake oil or maybe the bacteria was not viable. I bought it from BRS and it was not expired. Used it within a couple days of receiving it.

1. Is there a chance my tank cycles at this point with nothing else to do?
2. If not, should I add another One and Only bottle? At this point with Ammonia at 4 I definitely am not going to add a fish.......
3. Anything else I'm not thinking of here?

 

[jgirardnrg]

I used Prodibio and Bio-Spira for my 60g cube and cycled in a week. I would dump a bottle of Bio-Spira in and turn off the skimmer and UV for 48 hours. I would hold off on adding more ammonia for sure.

Some questions:
How big is the tank?
How much rock is in there?
Live sand?
How long has it been since you started trying to cycle?

 

[Cell]

What Dr Tim's product are you using? It seems like you are just using the ammonia, but I'm not seeing any comment on One and Only, which is the cycle starter product they sell.

 

[jgirardnrg]

What Dr Tim's product are you using? It seems like you are just using the ammonia, but I'm not seeing any comment on One and Only, which is the cycle starter product they sell.

#2 in the original post asks if they should dump another bottle of One and Only in... assuming that means one has already been used.

 

[Cell]

Yep, missed that part, my bad. I'm curious what the directions are for ammonia dosing you are following. Do you wait for the ammonia to be processed after the first 2 doses? What ammonia test kit is being used? Have you tested for nitrates?

 

[Reef.]

Nitrites are the slowest to show I believe, how long have you been waiting?

 

[Cell]

Also, I have never heard of this 20ppt thing. I would set my s.g. where I plan on keeping it. Having to adjust it after cycling seems like an unnecessary headache. The elevated temp may help, but isn't needed either. This isn't the MACNA speech, but nothing is mentioned about lowering salinity and raising temp.

 

[Bubblebass]

Here’s a couple of slides from the macna speech. Either way, I’ve used a bottle of one and only in the 40g tank I’m cycling and have zero nitrites. Dr tims ammonia schedule is have it under 5ppm with three additions; once every few days.

 

[Cell]

Did you monitor ammonia through the first 2 doses? If I spike in ammonia and watch it get processed twice after adding quick cycle bacteria, I'm feeling pretty comfortable about my cycle.

Do you have nitrates?

Curious what @brandon429 thinks about the 20ppt salinity recommendation

 

[IslandLifeReef]

I've never done the fishes cycle thing before and thought it seemed more humane. I followed the instructions and watched Dt. Tim at the MACNA speech about it a few times. As he stated, temp to 82 and 20ppt salinity. Just added my third and final ammonia dose and I have seen zero Nitrites. Ammonia has stayed around 3-4ppm. At this point, I feel like I used snake oil or maybe the bacteria was not viable. I bought it from BRS and it was not expired. Used it within a couple days of receiving it.

1. Is there a chance my tank cycles at this point with nothing else to do?
2. If not, should I add another One and Only bottle? At this point with Ammonia at 4 I definitely am not going to add a fish.......
3. Anything else I'm not thinking of here?

Your tank will cycle if you don't do anything else, it just may take a while.

I would try Fitz turbo 900. Many people have better luck with that product. Dr Tims' is a good product also.

 

[Bubblebass]

Nitrate test shows around 2. But I have been testing everyday and have never had nitrites which makes me question that reading. Pic of the tank for reference.

 

[NatureHold]

Something seems off. I fish-less cycled my 60 gallon cube in my build thread and had nitrites within the first few days to a week. I did use fritz turbo start though. My nitrites went sky high and took the longest part of my cycle to come down. But when they came down, they were literally gone within 24 hours.

 

[brandon429]

how many days underwater has this tank had, in the current arrangement

we can now disfactor nitrites in reef cycling.

I realize that above says we must factor nitrites, but here below says we can disfactor them, and once there was a firm rule any reef under fifteen gallons couldn't be stable.

always be flexible in reef rules.

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

number of days underwater gives us final cycling clue, its the only missing detail above I can see.

omitting nitrite saves steps

 

[Bubblebass]

Something seems off. I fish-less cycled my 60 gallon cube in my build thread and had nitrites within the first few days to a week. I did use fritz turbo start though. My nitrites went sky high and took the longest part of my cycle to come down. But when they came down, they were literally gone within 24 hours.

That’s why I feel like the bacteria were not viable in the one and only.

 

[Bubblebass]

how many days underwater has this tank had, in the current arrangement

7

 

[NatureHold]

That’s why I feel like the bacteria were not viable in the one and only.

Has your ammonia went down at all?

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

Slow and steady. Add a different bacteria if needed. Nitrites don't make a huge difference is SW so we are really looking for ammonia drop off.

 

[NatureHold]

how many days underwater has this tank had, in the current arrangement

we can now disfactor nitrites in reef cycling.

I realize that above says we must factor nitrites, but here below says we can disfactor them, and once there was a firm rule any reef under fifteen gallons couldn't be stable.

always be flexible in reef rules.

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

number of days underwater gives us final cycling clue, its the only missing detail above I can see.

omitting nitrite saves steps

Good info. I have a question though as I am fairly new as well. If the bacteria that eat Ammonia, produce Nitrites as a byproduct of ammonia processing, why are nitrites not tracked as part of the cycle? I realize that Nitrites aren't as harmful to marine life as once thought, but if you have no nitrites, how do you know that the "ammonia eating bacteria" are doing their job? Other than the obvious reduction of ammonia.

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

Good info. I have a question though as I am fairly new as well. If the bacteria that eat Ammonia, produce Nitrites as a byproduct of ammonia processing, why are nitrites not tracked as part of the cycle? I realize that Nitrites aren't as harmful to marine life as once thought, but if you have no nitrites, how do you know that the "ammonia eating bacteria" are doing their job? Other than the obvious reduction of ammonia.

Cycling is typically over complicated imo. If you can measure ammonia dropping off then you are mid cycle. If you can see 2 ppt ammonia being processed in 24 hours then you are done. Nitries are just the middle ground with nitrate being the end point we want to watch.

 

[brandon429]

excellent


Neon
when ammonia moves down, no zero required, in the presence of surface area to attach to, you're cycled. no zero needed

we can find total confirmation in this way:

-ammonia motion down, from any prior setpoint, after dosing suspected live bacteria is indeed done by that method there's no other removal option within a short timeframe, bac were precisely matched to this param /nh3 for us is all we care about nowadays, its all MACNA cares about when starting a massive convention of skip cycles.

-nitrite can be skipped as well, a little nitrate shown here, anything other than hard zero, confirms us two for three

its ok to wait until all params line up, but by then we're waiting out a regular cycling chart not written for bottle bac speed cycling; we are paying extra to wait 30 days?