If you are concerned about knowing the start date for your reef aquarium post here and we will name the date you can begin carrying a bioload plus its feed plus its generated waste. The whole point of the thread is that you think your cycle is stuck because some cheap test kits said so, and it isn't. If you will devote 20 mins reading to the four threads listed in this post, you will never fail to cycle a reef tank again and that means without testing for anything, we don't use cheap test kits here like other cycle threads.
cycles don't stall like we've been told. if you are posting a single set of api or Red Sea readings ranging from ammonia to nitrate, you're in direct violation of the thread already lol
edit those out of your opening pic, but still introduce your tank and we will unstick any claimed stuck cycle quickly and without you having to buy anything.
read below to see how when posting cycle readings, its three pics of your
ammonia reading we don't want to see the other two measures of nitrite and nitrate. the thread below on 100% water change is an example of calibrated ammonia readings using API, a set of three pics because it shows movement of ammonia vs static reading.
You dont have to do this test; reef tanks cycle at the same timeframe per method of setup so testing here is only if you must proof your own cycle. If you'll trust 25 logged pages of results in predictive cycling then post a pic of your reef, state the mix, number of days underwater, and we'll tell you when its ready
with no testing from you required
Reason we don't want to see nitrite posted here, omit it from your pics:
Nitrite cannot harm your cycling reef, its chemically neutral,
we don’t want to see nitrite data here as it’s the #2 cause of false assumed stuck cycles and its a neutral param. even if positive, its not harming your cycle or animals. chances are you don't own two different kits, one digital, to proof your stated readings; nitrite from API or red sea didn't just become the world's most accurate data source because there aren't any other sampling competitors, the nitrite reading is still subject to the same handling/interpretation issues as famous .25 ammonia readings.
nitrite is chemically neutral for us in all presentations here.
if there are special interesting cases, I'll ask to see your nitrite readings (such as if you own a hanna digital nitrite meter)
mostly they'll mislead us,
don't post any nitrite measurements.
———————————-First example using a reef tank for unsticking a cycle————————->
Do you see how his API kit said he had eight parts per million ammonia below, not cycled, but after one water change the aquarium was instantly ready and then turned into a reef?
Just perfect! Ok we watch for number three pic in 24-48 hours, really great. This is a clear documentation can’t wait Even if it takes till Sunday to get motion down that means cycled. but If no change in color by Sunday nite, a stuck cycle, my worst fear lol this is like when you bet your...
www.reef2reef.com
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every cycle umpire from every reef board in the world would say that cycle isn’t ready, wait weeks longer. What did one full water change accomplish, did he have to wait weeks? Stalled cycles are a false notion invented by bottle bac sellers to create a buying impulse for bottle bac already dosed at the start of a cycle
consider this quarantine cycle challenge below
One water change and it’s carrying bioload just fine plus feed
nothing was added to help the cycle, a water change was done to reveal working bioslicks under the initial wastewater.
20 gallon QT tank set up 30 days ago. I do not have a DT set up yet, just trying to get a jump on fish to add to my tank and make sure they're healthy and pest free right from the get go. Like I said tank was set up 30 days ago. Sponge filter and HOB filter running sponge and ceramic. Used...
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**Think about the two case studies you just read. The top example is fixing a claimed stuck cycle reef tank with one full water change past day ten wait of a cycling chart's ammonia line. JackAlexander takes time to run proofed api ammonia testing, three pics, for absolute proof he was ready to reef after day ten of wait in his overdosed mix of bottle bac and way too much ammonia. The bac were fed well, not killed by his overdose. Your tank is going to cycle in the same timeframe Jack's did, it doesnt matter if your levels are higher or lower than his. the water change resets it all, revealing a fully working filter underneath the former wastewater.
bottle bac sellers set maximum ammonia limits as a buying impulse, so you buy new bac to replace claimed dead ones
we just disproved high ammonia levels kill out a cycle above
The second case study is doing the full water change in a quarantine tank after discerning he's using enough surface area to hold the cycle, but we skip the 10th day testing verification as ALL reefs of sufficient surface area and boosted approach will be fine on this date, after a big water change. He does not have to run the three point api ammonia test, all quarantine and display setups meeting his specifics will be ready we don't need to test them.
A cycling chart's ammonia line shows it, that's how fast ammonia-handling organisms implant and adhere to surface area you're upcycling.
It doesn't matter what random mix of bacteria and feed you sustain in the water, the time it all stews/# of days underwater is what matters and a cycling chart shows us that around day ten that ammonia drops
what that means to you is if you change your water out like we've done twice above on day ten or later, free ammonia won't rise back up if you are using the common degree of surface area such as rocks and sand in a reef or a big sponge bubble riser setup in a common quarantine setup and some mix of bacteria and feed.
ammonia will stay safely controlled on that
date after submersion because all cycles will complete after that many days in boosted systems, well enough to make 80 year old charts on it.
your filter bac endured any initial variation on dosing and feed, mild overdoses of ammonia fed your bac better, not worse, just do a water change if you're concerned and 100% of reefs will pass this thread.
your red sea and api ammonia tests are prone to misread, and mislead, so we don't rely on them here we turn out timely cycles where you can message any entrant a year later to see how things fared.
There are no stuck cycles in reefing. nearly everyone that will post here has been running longer than ten days on a bottle bac mix, so expect 100% of responses to state a past ready date, not a future one.
What you should be concerned about is fish disease, if you are a new cycler read this entire thread below to give your fish the best chance, ammonia and nitrite hasn’t killed anyone’s newly started reef but disease sure does— we will be the first cycling works to include fish disease study before the study of ammonia control. Read this thread fully
I’ve had a 30 gallon set up since november. I have lost a tangoroa goby, two Midas blennies, a blackcap Basslet and all of the sudden one of my saddleback clowns just died. I’ve had the pair of clowns since January no problems. Please help any input would be much appreciated. What keep happening...
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There are no bottled dosers you can buy to add to a display tank to treat or reduce disease, they don’t work.
People still tend to run API tests anyway, its how we've been trained to reef by bottle bac sellers. One common comparison to proof a bad cycle is to run ammonia testing on distilled water, and get a yellow zero, and then on a suspected reef setup and it reads slightly green, which is interpreted as proof of a failed or stuck cycle
(and always leads to a new purchase, read the cycle trend threads yourself to see this pattern of doubt/buy/resolve training)
******so why does my api show true zero when I test distilled water or Ro Di vs my tank***************
because only your tank has nitrification going on to over report via non digital testing. If your distilled water had nitrogen compounds in it they couldn’t sell it to you as distilled. We expect distilled to test as zero when it does.
Your tests are reading total ammonia from your display water sample, we only care about the free form nh3 amount of ammonia and your test kit instructions show how to see that converted number… your initial habit is to report total ammonia, we only use free ammonia or nh3 levels in updated cycling science.
You need to report your current ammonia levels
ten times lower in order to attain nh3 conversion; nh3 is ten times less than nh4 at the pH and temp levels we run, paraphrased from Dan and Randys posts in the chem forum.
* all stuck cycle posts you can find on the internet are cycle umpires taking a total ammonia stated read as an indication or weakened or killed bacteria. They’re not factoring nh3, and we do in updated cycling science.
Certain additives like Prime and other water conditioners are largely unstated additives;
they directly cause misreads. Did you put prime in your distilled water when benchmarking? we don't want guess testing here; that's what runs all other cycle threads. Posting a single pic of your api ammonia nitrite and nitrate and us not knowing about confounds or a green-tinted kitchen light is everyone's common stuck cycle thread.
we don't want the unverified test kit picture as your opening proof.
if you want to test and know ammonia accurately in your reef buy and
calibrate a seneye ammonia meter, then report those levels to us. Don’t forget to trim and calibrate it so it reads correctly, search out trim threads for the device.
in our thread we dont ask about your alkalinity nor salinity nor pH nor nitrite and yet we turn out pages of cycled reefs, that’s because those troubleshooting details aren’t required, cycles don’t stall with these common setup variances.
nearly every reef that posts here for the next twenty pages was ready when they first posted, notice this trend. they're all ready, none were before ready I can see on hindsight inspection.
does that mean your reef now is likely ready or not ready? You're already at the disease control options step, you're past being ready to begin carrying fish
skipping quarantine like you read the sage reef aquarists doing is killing fish by the bucketload, that's what makes them masters...they get to have ideal outcomes by using methods you and I can't replicate in the fish disease forum. Copy what works there as best practices:
A forum for discussing treatment and diagnosing saltwater reef fish.
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A mere four study links gets you all you need to know about cycling a reef tank. Its about disease control, the cycle was so easy you couldn't mess it up if you tried.
There are no stuck cycles in reefing, there’s only pre water change no TAN conversion forgot to mention Prime panic posts.
bottle bac doser companies, retailers, don’t fix that panic cycle because they’re profiting off it and from peers who continually resell bac to each other in false stall cycle posts. Don’t be that poster
I really bet the dosed bottle bac has the nh3 within spec after this long, we do that water change so that Red Sea and api owners won’t freak out on adding fish to a seemingly high ammonia level 
