Is my tank fully cycled?
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NY_Caveman
likes words, fish and arbitrary statistics
I would redo the Ammonia test for sure. Did you use dry or live rock? I have never used a bacteria product so cannot day as far as days. A cycle is just the beginning. Your aquarium will benefit from time to mature before adding much livestock. Maybe ease in some clean up crew (CUC) first. Definitely go slow after only five days.
NY_Caveman
likes words, fish and arbitrary statistics
If you used live rock and dosed a bacteria product, five days is definitely doable. But still go slow. If you have good live rock, and you let it mature before stocking a lot, your tank will do well.
mike werner
2500 Club Member
I agree with the caveman.go slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow
Tony Thompson
Active Member
Hi @Tony888, bet you can`t` wait to get the stuff in the tank, 
I know exactly how you feel. Patience is always a virtue in this hobby, unfortunately the temptation can sometimes be overwhelming. As this is the first step in creating a living space for your animals I would certainly proceed with caution. For the tank to cycle it would normally go through a number of stages. Without the intermediate stages its very difficult to make any conclusions about what is happening or what has happened.
Do you have any fish in the tank or anything that would be give an initial ammonia content? (Bio Load)
Do you have any other test results previous to the 5 day point that showed the presence of Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate.?
Looking at the test results you displayed. It could be possible that a cycle of the bacterial colony you added may not of even started. I would certainly monitor it carefully a little longer.
If you have no animals in the tank, adding a small amount of ammonium chloride (you can buy this from any store that stocks Dr Tims) to the water and testing to monitor its process to zero, should give you a better indication of whether the bacterial colony is sufficient to effectively take care of any additional bio load.
If you know anyone who has a seneye that you can borrow, this can be invaluable in monitoring the total ammonia content. Some NH3+NH4 test kits are certainly capable of showing a false negative. If there had been a level of ammonia sufficient to kick start your bacteria dosing, I would normally expect to see an indication of Nitrate. Your test seems to show zero.
Hope it all goes well for you, good luck.
I know exactly how you feel. Patience is always a virtue in this hobby, unfortunately the temptation can sometimes be overwhelming. As this is the first step in creating a living space for your animals I would certainly proceed with caution. For the tank to cycle it would normally go through a number of stages. Without the intermediate stages its very difficult to make any conclusions about what is happening or what has happened. Do you have any fish in the tank or anything that would be give an initial ammonia content? (Bio Load)
Do you have any other test results previous to the 5 day point that showed the presence of Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate.?
Looking at the test results you displayed. It could be possible that a cycle of the bacterial colony you added may not of even started. I would certainly monitor it carefully a little longer.
If you have no animals in the tank, adding a small amount of ammonium chloride (you can buy this from any store that stocks Dr Tims) to the water and testing to monitor its process to zero, should give you a better indication of whether the bacterial colony is sufficient to effectively take care of any additional bio load.
If you know anyone who has a seneye that you can borrow, this can be invaluable in monitoring the total ammonia content. Some NH3+NH4 test kits are certainly capable of showing a false negative. If there had been a level of ammonia sufficient to kick start your bacteria dosing, I would normally expect to see an indication of Nitrate. Your test seems to show zero.
Hope it all goes well for you, good luck.
Randy Holmes-Farley
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Having no ammonia doesn't say anything about cycling unless there's a source of ammonia, which I didn't see mentioned?
NY_Caveman
likes words, fish and arbitrary statistics
I do not want to create any confusion here, but I have to disagree with dosing Ammonia. If one starts with live rock and sand, dosing Ammmonia to 2 ppm, as one might do with dry rock, risks killing some beneficial life in the rock.
For some more detailed information on cycling I suggest these threads:
General cycling information:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/cycling-an-aquarium.306554/
Differences in cycling with dry and live rock:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-microbiology-of-reef-tank-cycling.214618/
Hope that helps!
For some more detailed information on cycling I suggest these threads:
General cycling information:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/cycling-an-aquarium.306554/
Differences in cycling with dry and live rock:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-microbiology-of-reef-tank-cycling.214618/
Hope that helps!
Hi Tony,Hi @Tony888, bet you can`t` wait to get the stuff in the tank,
Do you have any fish in the tank or anything that would be give an initial ammonia content? (Bio Load)
Do you have any other test results previous to the 5 day point that showed the presence of Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate.?
Looking at the test results you displayed. It could be possible that a cycle of the bacterial colony you added may not of even started. I would certainly monitor it carefully a little longer.
If you have no animals in the tank, adding a small amount of ammonium chloride (you can buy this from any store that stocks Dr Tims) to the water and testing to monitor its process to zero, should give you a better indication of whether the bacterial colony is sufficient to effectively take care of any additional bio load.
If you know anyone who has a seneye that you can borrow, this can be invaluable in monitoring the total ammonia content. Some NH3+NH4 test kits are certainly capable of showing a false negative. If there had been a level of ammonia sufficient to kick start your bacteria dosing, I would normally expect to see an indication of Nitrate. Your test seems to show zero.
Hope it all goes well for you, good luck.
Do you recommend adding a fish to help with the ammonia spike or is the Dr Tim solution a better alternative to start with first? I just started testing my water last night but we continue to monitor it daily.
Tony Thompson
Active Member
Hi again. unfortunately the subject "Cycling" is one of much debate amongst reefers and can often lead to some confusion amongst beginners, like me and you.
. Firstly, I would like to say that in my own opinion I find it totally un necessary to cycle a tank using live fish. This applies to using bacterial colony dosing as well. Modern reefing provides us with all the tools necessary to eliminate this aspect of reef keeping. Ammonia poisoning of fish can cause damage to the animals central nervous system and eventually death. If the fish is not killed it may lead to permanent damage to the fish or at least cause it great stress.
If you use ammonium chloride as the ammonia source you can certainly eliminate the use of a live fish. Also please be aware that you do not have to dose at 2 ppm. You can just add a little , see if it registers on your test and wait for 24 hours to see if it drops to zero. The usual dosage of Dr Tim's Ammonia Chloride is one drop per US gal (this may have changed so read the instructions carefully). In my experience, if you have added a bio culture beforehand then the reading will be well below 2 ppm almost instantly. For this reason do not continue dosing till you reach the 2ppm. just do dosage as per the instructions on the bottle take a reading and wait 24 hours then take another reading.
If you read the articles linked by @NY_Caveman you will see what I mean by confusion. Both articles include some excellent information.
First liked article, Brew12 suggests
"How do I recommend doing it?
I’m glad you asked! I’ll start from the point where the tank is set up, filled, has flow, and temperature is in the normal range. It doesn’t matter if you used live or dry rock.
I will either use pure ammonia or ammonium chloride to raise the total ammonia to 2ppm. "
Second linked article, Brandon429 suggests
"II. don't add ammonia to live rock. If you are dealing with live rock you withhold ammonia, not add some. Adding ammonia is for dry rock cycling"
To be honest I can not understand where the ammonia source will come from in the second article.
As you seem to have some confusion about the subject may I suggest you do nothing more until you are able to complete a little more research into the basics of cycling a saltwater aquarium. Personally I think Tim Hovanec has some excellent information on the subject. Just do an internet search for Dr Tim Hovanec and Aquarium cycling. Armed with the information from a qualified and respected resource such as Tim, you should be sufficiently knowledgeable to make your own informed decision.
In conclusion, I would certainly agree with both @Randy Holmes-Farley and @Mikedawg suggestions. I can see no way of assessing your tanks current parameters without a positive comparison reading.
Thank you, Tony. I'll take this approach and return with my findings.Hi again. unfortunately the subject "Cycling" is one of much debate amongst reefers and can often lead to some confusion amongst beginners, like me and you.
Firstly, I would like to say that in my own opinion I find it totally un necessary to cycle a tank using live fish. This applies to using bacterial colony dosing as well. Modern reefing provides us with all the tools necessary to eliminate this aspect of reef keeping. Ammonia poisoning of fish can cause damage to the animals central nervous system and eventually death. If the fish is not killed it may lead to permanent damage to the fish or at least cause it great stress.
If you use ammonium chloride as the ammonia source you can certainly eliminate the use of a live fish. Also please be aware that you do not have to dose at 2 ppm. You can just add a little , see if it registers on your test and wait for 24 hours to see if it drops to zero. The usual dosage of Dr Tim's Ammonia Chloride is one drop per US gal (this may have changed so read the instructions carefully). In my experience, if you have added a bio culture beforehand then the reading will be well below 2 ppm almost instantly. For this reason do not continue dosing till you reach the 2ppm. just do dosage as per the instructions on the bottle take a reading and wait 24 hours then take another reading.
If you read the articles linked by @NY_Caveman you will see what I mean by confusion. Both articles include some excellent information.
First liked article, Brew12 suggests
"How do I recommend doing it?
I’m glad you asked! I’ll start from the point where the tank is set up, filled, has flow, and temperature is in the normal range. It doesn’t matter if you used live or dry rock.
I will either use pure ammonia or ammonium chloride to raise the total ammonia to 2ppm. "
Second linked article, Brandon429 suggests
"II. don't add ammonia to live rock. If you are dealing with live rock you withhold ammonia, not add some. Adding ammonia is for dry rock cycling"
To be honest I can not understand where the ammonia source will come from in the second article.
As you seem to have some confusion about the subject may I suggest you do nothing more until you are able to complete a little more research into the basics of cycling a saltwater aquarium. Personally I think Tim Hovanec has some excellent information on the subject. Just do an internet search for Dr Tim Hovanec and Aquarium cycling. Armed with the information from a qualified and respected resource such as Tim, you should be sufficiently knowledgeable to make your own informed decision.
In conclusion, I would certainly agree with both @Randy Holmes-Farley and @Mikedawg suggestions. I can see no way of assessing your tanks current parameters without a positive comparison reading.
Randy Holmes-Farley
Reef Chemist
Staff member
Super Moderator
Excellence Award
Expert Contributor
Article Contributor
R2R Research
My Tank Thread
That's the difference between curing live rock, and cycling. Live rock has lots of organisms on it. Rip it out of a tank or the ocean, transport it, and put it into your tank, lots of things will die. Those are the things that generate ammonia, and that's the curing of live rock: waiting for the die off to wind down, and nitrogen cycling to catch up the the increased ammonia load.
NY_Caveman
likes words, fish and arbitrary statistics
Exactly. With dry rock you are adding Ammonia and trying to keep it elevated. With live rock you are doing the opposite, containing the Ammonia from the die off and trying to lower it (with water changes for example).
I know it is confusing and there are many opinions for sure.
