Untamedrose
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So like the worst ever congrats. way to kill everything!
Help understanding cycle
- Thread starter 91Atrac
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Let me ask this too was curious
Have you dosed any dr tims or bottle bac
Have the rinsed rocks been underwater in sw for 30 days (trying to see when the bac that created nitrate had time to mature in numbers)
Have you dosed any dr tims or bottle bac
Have the rinsed rocks been underwater in sw for 30 days (trying to see when the bac that created nitrate had time to mature in numbers)
Just a reminder that vulgarity and masked vulgarity are not appropriate postings, or allowed per the TOS. I went through and deleted and edited out the vulgarity.
The water additives are likely nitrifying in suspension causing the nitrate. It is bac conversion of ammonia but at the wrong locus, need a little longer to stick on the rocks and grow
Given enough time you'd be able to do a full water change, add no bottle bac, dose to 1ppm ammonia and it still would go to zero in 24 hrs all from active rock surfaces
Have you dosed raw ammonia
Given enough time you'd be able to do a full water change, add no bottle bac, dose to 1ppm ammonia and it still would go to zero in 24 hrs all from active rock surfaces
Have you dosed raw ammonia
You are dealing with group b rock in that pic what else is alive on the rocks besides coralline? Any algae, fanworms, maybe a pod? if your natural ammonia levels are that high there may be none. Amazing the coralline isn't bleached
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We show ID examples beyond coralline (which seems to be plenty there) to know if your rocks are live now after being underwater this long.
Freshwater rinses aren't necessarily lethal depending on details, you still may have seeded benthics. A freshwater rinse does not kill off filtration bacteria they are too deep in that rock, the coralline never bleached white and dead coralline isn't purple and red.
if the ammonia naturally showing can't go to zero in 24 hours then it's not ready yet. Get a backup test reading to know, Red Sea misreads too.
Freshwater rinses aren't necessarily lethal depending on details, you still may have seeded benthics. A freshwater rinse does not kill off filtration bacteria they are too deep in that rock, the coralline never bleached white and dead coralline isn't purple and red.
if the ammonia naturally showing can't go to zero in 24 hours then it's not ready yet. Get a backup test reading to know, Red Sea misreads too.
FishLover01
Active Member
The 15 gallon is perfect. 5ppm is very reasonable. The 150 gallon has problems. If the tank has fully cycled there would be no nitrites and definitely no ammonia. The only thing that should be present is nitrates which ideally should be 10ppm or below if you have coral and invertibrates. If this is a fish only tank, 20ppm is acceptable for nitrates. Let's say the nitrates is at 40ppm. The best way to get them to 20ppm is a 50% water change. You can do 25% one day and 25% the next day. You can cut your nitrates in half simply by doing water changes of half the tanks volume. At the start of the cycling process, ammonia needa to be added to the tank. I use pure ammonia. Get the ammonia reading to 4ppm and leave it there. In about 3-4 weeks, you'll see the ammonia readings lower in concentration but you'll start seeing nitrite readings. This is still a bad stage for fish. Fish don't like ammonia and don't like nitrites. The third and final stage takes place about 4-6 weeks after the cycle process started. You'll be getting nitrate readings and hopefully you won't have any ammonia and any nitrites. If you ever have ammonia and nitrites, then the tank is not cycled. After the cycle process is complete, 30% water change should be sufficient. If the nitrates are higher, then you may need to change more water. Hope this helps. This is not the only way to cycle a tank but it's how I do it and I've not lost a marine fish in over 2 years. Good Luck.
