High ammonia during cycle?

[Uptightjoker]

Hello friends,

I am on day 3 or 4 of my cycle of my first reef tank, and I think I either over dosed ammonia or have a bad test kit.

All other parameters are where I'd expect them.

Sg: 1.026
Ph: 8.2
Nitrite: .1
Nitrate: 1
Temp: 77.6

I dosed using Dr tims ammonium chloride, and followed the instructions to dose up to 2 ppm ammonia, but my test kit turns much darker than any options on the card. This is a red sea marine test kit, and I've read the instructions and done the test 3 times, all with the same result.

Is this an issue with my test kit or did I somehow overdose? If I over dosed do I just do a water change to fix it?

Thank you ahead of time for any help.

 

[Webslinger]

patience is a virtue

 

[Uptightjoker]

patience is a virtue

Not impatient, I just don't want to stall my cycle by dosing too much ammonia ^_^ I'm fully prepared for this to take a couple months since I'm not dosing any kind of bottled bacteria or using live rock

 

[Webslinger]

I just throw a shrimp in and wait a month.

 

[brandon429]

what if this is live rock, which shows up cycled and needs no bac help but ammonia reduction


vs

white rock, where we would add it/proceed w bac

all cycle assess threads start w pics before test readings, so we know which lane we're in

*those who write cycle teaching info need to tell us this pls as well, that we cycle in polar opposite ways based on the substrate we chose. it will be saving a million live micro brittle stars posing on coralline zones from being burnt right up.

what kind of rock do you have here

 

[Auquanut]

@brandon429 brings up a VERY valid point. How we cycle a tank with live rock vs dry rock can be completely different. Especially if you experience a certain amount of die off from the live rock and add an ammonia source as well.

 

[Uptightjoker]

Haha I thought I had mentioned the setup, but I must have done it in my head and not typed it. This is natures ocean dry rock from Amazon. I also soaked it in RODI for about 3 days prior to setting up to get most the dust off it. I also have caribsea Fiji pink live sand.

 

[brandon429]

proceed w the burning



if that was kp aquatics sat in the box +1 day too long true live rock, we'd have you changing water like CPR doing the specific opposite of adding any liquid ammonia. dry start is ammonia + bottle bac + wait two weeks and change water, done. compounding bac additions came with wet sand, give em time to adhere to dry surfaces.

 

[brandon429]

if a hospital ER was ran like cycle authors have taught cycling then 100% of patients who present are getting the juice paddles as first go.

bicycle wreck + tibial contusion? youre getting the volts, lemme see that sternum right now


clear!

 

[Uptightjoker]

proceed w the burning



if that was kp aquatics sat in the box +1 day too long true live rock, we'd have you changing water like CPR doing the specific opposite of adding any liquid ammonia. dry start is ammonia + bottle bac + wait two weeks and change water, done. compounding bac additions came with wet sand, give em time to adhere to dry surfaces.

Awesome! Thank you so much!