Fishless cycle - concerned about stalling

[capito2007]

Right, gotcha. Okay so personally? I'd just ride it out. It's too much a hassle to do such a big water change and then well, gotta test everything again and so on and so on.

 

[capito2007]

So I think what I’m going to do is do a 25% water change tomorrow bringing me up to 50% in 72hours and then just left it ride for a week or so

 

[capito2007]

Update:
I did a 30% water change yesterday bring my 72hour total of 60%. I did a second serial dilution test and was able to verify my nitrite was ~1.5ppm.
This morning I retested nitrites and they were 0ppm!!
So I followed the advice in the attached thread @brandon429 attached dealing with ammonia and verifying your cycle.
I slowly introduced ammonia until I could read 1ppm. Tomorrow morning I’ll test for ammonia (expecting 0ppm) If this is indeed my result, I’ll consider my tank cycled!

 

[brandon429]

I truly am curious to see how it performs

 

[capito2007]

So jumping ahead a bit... I just tested my ammonia and in 8 hours I’ve already gone from 2ppm to 1ppm... I know my cycle is good.. at what point can I turn my skimmer on?

 

[brandon429]

literally at any point in a cycle. a skimmer will not change any aspect, outcome, date or timing. all set

*when we dose bac into a tank with a skimmer, that water column has to swirl a very long time before it all gets worked through a skimmer. a skimmer cannot remove all the bac we add, it may remove some however.

by the time the bac swirls all in the tank its landing on all kinds of catch points, the miniscule amount running through a skimmer are negligent plus the oxygenation afforded by the skimmer probably reinforces existing bac much better than it harms them in my opinion.

 

[capito2007]

literally at any point in a cycle. a skimmer will not change any aspect, outcome, date or timing. all set

*when we dose bac into a tank with a skimmer, that water column has to swirl a very long time before it all gets worked through a skimmer. a skimmer cannot remove all the bac we add, it may remove some however.

by the time the bac swirls all in the tank its landing on all kinds of catch points, the miniscule amount running through a skimmer are negligent plus the oxygenation afforded by the skimmer probably reinforces existing bac much better than it harms them in my opinion.

Perfect. Thanks buddy

 

[capito2007]

from left to right:
Initial level check; hour 0; 8 hours; 24hours

 

[brandon429]

Hey nice progression shot that’s darn good api work

 

[brandon429]

Plus you moved a lot that legit looks 2 ppm in less than a day

 

[capito2007]

Yea. Gotta say.. I’m kinda impressed with the little invisible warriors inside my tank. My Fritz 9 comes today. So I plan to add a dose of that once it gets here. So I can only assume that it’s just going to get better!

 

[brandon429]

Send it back thats a waste, the cycle has been ready for pages now.

 

[capito2007]

Send it back thats a waste, the cycle has been ready for pages now.

I got it because a lot of articles I’ve read and videos I’ve watched recommend periodically adding bacteria.. especially after cleaning your tank/water changes. It just helps keep a healthy population of bacteria. It’s a Fritz 9 I got, not the Fritz Turbo Start900. Didn’t need the 900 since my tank is cycled..

 

[brandon429]

They’re still making that part up though to get your cash

your reef works the same if you never do that, I’m fifteen years on my nano and it’s never seen anything but feed and water changes. Bottle bac sellers are taking cash from the masses on redose sales but it’s not any worse than the exercise supplement industry, lots of folks still buy amino acids to eat even though they just had two days allotment at lunch alone

its for our feel good, peace of mind, best sales tactic in the universe. Left undosed, these reefs work the same.


there are no attachment points in your system for new or refreshed bacteria, they’re sinked and skimmed out as floc. Cycled reefs can’t take on more bac, water shear and space limitation prevents it, send it back is the reco don’t be on the retail hook past the original cycle. It really is harmless to add more bac though, won’t hurt anything.

*not the case in reactive dosing emergency ammonia threads, ammonia risk tanks don’t need more bac and oxygen-sapping aerobes they need cleaning and removal of the source


adding bottle bac during times oxygen may already be in distress is not indicated at all in reef tank rescue, but a normal reef can add it just fine