help with tank cycle

[nater]

Got my 220 up and cycling now about two weeks. i am using all dry marco rock. been using seachem stability for bacteria. been dosing this for two weeks as well. so today i tested again for the three. ammonia , nitrite , nitrate. i last tested about three days ago and they where zeroed out . and today here is what i got.

ammonia 50ppm
nitrite 50 ppm
nitrate 5 or 10 ppm

how am i doing and what should i begin to expect? i have a royal gramma and a pair of clowns in the tank doing well. eating and happy. should i do a water change ? any insight would be greatly appreciated.

 

[_Alex_]

your tank is far from cycled with that reading!!! your good bacteria is trying to catch up and with you adding fish to the system it is going to make it take even longer! the fish should be taken out and put into a cycled tank. readings of ammonia and trites that high can be detromental to the fishes health! i would get some brightwells mb7 and add it. Aquarium Biological Water Conditioner: Brightwell Aquatics MicroBacter7

you need some nitrates bad to help get the other 2 numbers down and as of right now the trates you have cant keep up with the incoming ammonia and nitrite from the fish waste and any food you are putting in.

you edited as i was typing. but even with taht low of trates its goign to take a bit to get trites and ammonia down. you can try doing a water change but on a system that size its going to have to be a pretty large one to make a difference. if you could add some nice live rock that has been cycled for a while that would help a ton!

 

[nater]

ouch !! don't want to loss my clowns i can add some of my live rock from my tank to the mix. i was trying not too. i also have a bottle of mb7 sitting here. i can move my fish to my tank if need be as well. now i'm a little worried. i don't want to lose my clown pair for sure. i will be taking them out tonight or tomorrow for sure and adding them to my established tank. so , i should add some mb7 to the mix?

 

[nater]

i'm actually going to pick up a fresh bottle of mb7 tomorrow. not going to trust my old bottle. as for the clowns i'm going to move the into my 90 gallon established. i don't want to risk losing them one bit. i'm going to leave the royal gramma in. hopefully my tank isn't too crowded for them a bit worried about my other tank mated not getting along. i just added a couple chunks of my live rock to the tank. should i be really worried about the fish? or can they make it through ? i'm afraid of how stressed they will be from another move.

 

[_Alex_]

i would think if you can get enough good live rock in there it will hopefully be enough to get your cycle on the downhill slide. just keep an eye on it!!!

 

[nater]

I here you loud and clear Alex and appreciate your input 100% I may also grab some live rock from my lfs too boot. I don't think a little over 5 pounds from my tank will do it. As for the the fish, I may setup a 20 gallon plumbed into my system for the clowns. I don't want to loose them. I will keep an eye on the levels and report tomorrow. Hopefully I can get what I need to get done tomorrow. I do have the ability to do a large water change, but I wouldn't want to stunt the cycle.

 

[Acrokeeper3729]

If you only have a couple of clowns and 1 or 2 other fish in a 220 you should be fine with just adding some live rock and doing a 10% water change. Even 5lbs of live rock will greatly jump start the cycle. If you add the live rock and, or, even a couple scoops of sand from your established tank you should be fine.

 

[nater]

Thanks Nick. I thought the stability would be my source for bacteria and the fish would be the source of ammonia. I'v been reading around and the cycle process makes sense but is still hard to understand. I will get bit more rock tomorrow and get the water change going as well. Think I was and am getting ahead of myself and I don't want to those the clown pair. They are sweet man. Snowflakes. I want to understand what's really happening in the tank though. The bio chemistry going on is something I want to know more about. If anyone has any links for me , that would be awesome. The fish don't seem to stressed and are eating well, hopefully it's a positive sign.

 

[geaux xman]

i think you mean 0.50 ppm ammonia. 50ppm, all livestock would die on the spot.

your tank has not finished cycling. some might choose to cycle tanks with fish, but i find it cruel, especially if its a fish i intend to keep long term.
your ammonia and nitrite should be zero before any livestock is added. zero of each is an indication the cycle is complete. i think your cycle is only about midway complete. nitrite takes a little while to clear during a cycle.

my suggestion is to remove all livestock and wait patiently.