Fishless Cycle Complete

angus34081 · Jul 10, 2020

Thanks to everyone’s guidance I completed the fishless cycle in 12 days!
Ammonia =0
Nitrite=0
Nitrate=10ppm
Time to let my daughter pick out the first inhabitants tomorrow.

andrewey · Jul 10, 2020

Congrats! It's always more fun when you can reef as a family!

LeftyReefer · Jul 10, 2020

How many times did you dose ammonia during those 12 days?

I'm on day 5 of my cycle. I've dosed Ammonia up to 2ppm twice and both times it's dropped to .25ppm by the following day. Should I redose ammonia again?

angus34081 · Jul 11, 2020

LeftyReefer said:
How many times did you dose ammonia during those 12 days?

I'm on day 5 of my cycle. I've dosed Ammonia up to 2ppm twice and both times it's dropped to .25ppm by the following day. Should I redose ammonia again?

I think it took 3 dosings. after each dosing I waited until my levels were at 0 before dosing again. After the 3rd dose my levels were at zero 24hrs after the dose.

G Santana · Jul 11, 2020

Did you start off with dry rock or live rock?

angus34081 · Jul 11, 2020

G Santana said:
Did you start off with dry rock or live rock?

Yes, 10lbs live rock and 20lb live sand

LeftyReefer · Jul 11, 2020

My tank just tested 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and 20ppm nitrates so I just dosed mine up to 2ppm+ again. This will be the third time dosing ammonia. Hoping it tests 0 in 24 hours. If it does, I should be good to go?

andrewey · Jul 11, 2020

Yup, assuming it clears it, you should be good to go

angus34081 · Jul 12, 2020

Tested one more time today before adding fish and still at 0’s with only 5ppm nitrate. Going to turn lights on now too and start them about 4 hrs and ramp up from there

LeftyReefer · Jul 12, 2020

angus34081 said:
Tested one more time today before adding fish and still at 0’s with only 5ppm nitrate. Going to turn lights on now too and start them about 4 hrs and ramp up from there

Did you do any water changes to lower the nitrates?
Going by Dr Tim's fishless cycle timeline, he says add fish on day 9 and do a 25% water change on day 14.

I didn't plan on adding fish quite yet, so I'm not sure when I should do a water change. Or how much....

angus34081 · Jul 12, 2020

To backtrack a bit, I added ammonia and 24 hrs later I was at 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite. I waited another 24 and tested again (still 0) and then did a 25% water change. The nitrates have been dropping daily without any additional water changes.
I Plan on weekly changes of about 15% unless people suggest otherwise since I’m not running a skimmer.