Fishless cycle question!

SuperReefNoob · Apr 13, 2024

Doing a fishless cycle in my new 40 gallon breeder, ive been following the directions on Dr. Tims fishless cycling recipe and im on day 7 of the instructions and my test results are thus : Ammonia .75ish ppm, Nitrite 3.5ish ppm and Nitrate is like FORTY ppm...did i do something wrong? what should i do? water change or let it ride?

Fish Fan · Apr 13, 2024

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

You did nothing wrong

There's lot of opinions and "tweaks" on cycling tanks, I'm not an expert, and others may advise you better, but I say let it ride. Your nitrates are getting high, but you don't have any livestock yet, so I wouldn't do a water change at this point (keep your lights off so you are not fueling algae growth). I did the Dr. Tim's fishless cycle on my last two tanks, I'm fuzzy on the details at the moment, but I'd keep following his suggestions. Here's a great, in-depth talk he gave on the subject, maybe this will help.

Good luck with your new tank!

PharmrJohn · Apr 30, 2024

Fish Fan said:
Welcome to Reef2Reef!

You did nothing wrong

There's lot of opinions and "tweaks" on cycling tanks, I'm not an expert, and others may advise you better, but I say let it ride. Your nitrates are getting high, but you don't have any livestock yet, so I wouldn't do a water change at this point (keep your lights off so you are not fueling algae growth). I did the Dr. Tim's fishless cycle on my last two tanks, I'm fuzzy on the details at the moment, but I'd keep following his suggestions. Here's a great, in-depth talk he gave on the subject, maybe this will help.

Good luck with your new tank!

+1. You're cycling normally. Just don't get impatient with the process. Back in the 90s I added fish WAY too early and killed off a few in the process. I was, granted, not taught a thing and forums weren't around. The Internet was still owned by AOL! By the time I tried again in 09, things were different. Did fishless like you. Worked great. But it seemed like it took FOREVER!