New to the hobbie. Cycling help

[Salty1962]

Welcome to R2R!

 

[Wankell]

Wow, i wouldve never thought that but it makes perfect sense. You guys are the ****! I will pick up some dr tims tmw. Wish me luck!

No worries man, remember if they have Fritz get that instead. And yes that's why I mentioned fish right away, they help promote the bacteria to do its job, and get rid of the ammonia in the process.

 

[coronarex]

No worries man, remember if they have Fritz get that instead. And yes that's why I mentioned fish right away, they help promote the bacteria to do its job, and get rid of the ammonia in the process.

Hello, I have couldn’t find fritZ so I went with dr Tim’s. How long should I wait before adding fish? Can I add immediately after? As I mentioned early(not sure if you saw) it was recommended I remove my skimmer, purigen, and ChemiPureBlue, can I add these back on as well. My salinity is 1.022. Cal is 400, dkh is 12. Phos is O. My Amm is 2ppm Bc I added amm chloride the other day. Should I add prime before dr. Tim’s or just add dr. Tim’s, have that take care of ammonia and allcomate fish? Thank you

 

[Brew12]

Hello, I have couldn’t find fritZ so I went with dr Tim’s. How long should I wait before adding fish? Can I add immediately after? As I mentioned early(not sure if you saw) it was recommended I remove my skimmer, purigen, and ChemiPureBlue, can I add these back on as well. My salinity is 1.022. Cal is 400, dkh is 12. Phos is O. My Amm is 2ppm Bc I added amm chloride the other day. Should I add prime before dr. Tim’s or just add dr. Tim’s, have that take care of ammonia and allcomate fish? Thank you

No, you do not want to get fish yet.
There is no reason not to put the skimmer, purigen, and ChemiPure back on line. Just add the Dr Tims without the Prime. If you don't have fish in the system there is no reason to use Prime. Think of Prime as an emergency use tool to bind ammonia to make it safe for 2 days for a system with fish in it.

You really want your tank to be able to go from 2ppm ammonia to 0ppm in a 24 hour period prior to adding fish.

 

[coronarex]

No, you do not want to get fish yet.
There is no reason not to put the skimmer, purigen, and ChemiPure back on line. Just add the Dr Tims without the Prime. If you don't have fish in the system there is no reason to use Prime. Think of Prime as an emergency use tool to bind ammonia to make it safe for 2 days for a system with fish in it.

You really want your tank to be able to go from 2ppm ammonia to 0ppm in a 24 hour period prior to adding fish.

OKay thank you very much. I will add Dr. tims and test daily until until ammonia cycles to 2 to 0 in 24 hours.

 

[Brew12]

OKay thank you very much. I will add Dr. tims and test daily until until ammonia cycles to 2 to 0 in 24 hours.

I recommend waiting until it reads 0ppm (or 0.25ppm if using an API test kit) and then dosing back up to 2ppm. I know Dr Tim recommends dosing up to 2ppm daily but I find that builds up too much nitrate and requires a larger water change at the end. It does speed the process up a little but not worth it IMO.

 

[coronarex]

I recommend waiting until it reads 0ppm (or 0.25ppm if using an API test kit) and then dosing back up to 2ppm. I know Dr Tim recommends dosing up to 2ppm daily but I find that builds up too much nitrate and requires a larger water change at the end. It does speed the process up a little but not worth it IMO.

Okay i will do as you suggest. I will be patient and let it run its course. Thanks for your help. If I need any additional help I will reach out to you. Thanks again friend.

 

[brandon429]

a false .25 started the concern here

we need to see that test on the clean water makeup, to see if .25 remains. that part never got closure, the follow up test pic of the api vial on a known-clean sample

Your tank is cycled because it sat w water for 75 days, regardless of whats added. you can either change water and continue light reef starting/fish qt, or test further. need to know if the test is working imo if that mode is chosen. in the least, it seems we shouldn't use that original api test to gauge the new 2ppm run.

consider online cycling charts, there's thousands of them on goog. the max time is 40 days, and the 99% average time stamp on all thousands of them is 30 days. there are no 75 day cycling charts, its done by then regardless of approach taken. You have the option of either trusting that and starting with a typical non fish bioload, or, waiting further arbitrarily which is never harmful. the bacteria require absolutely nothing from you to support themselves, other than keeping things wet.

 

[brandon429]

75 days is really nice wait. if you really wanted to give the cycle a kick, dosing the bottle bac is the right move if you must assist something, the ammonia is ok but not required.

after 75 days you have biofilm coverage for sure, on all filtration surfaces/substrates. Adding bottle bac delivers them right to that sticky matrix for even more plumpening



if you did run a 2 ppm digestion test after unassisted cycling all this time, that sure would reinforce the matter. don't use api/ get salifert imo

 

[coronarex]

a false .25 started the concern here

we need to see that test on the clean water makeup, to see if .25 remains. that part never got closure, the follow up test pic of the api vial on a known-clean sample

Your tank is cycled because it sat w water for 75 days, regardless of whats added. you can either change water and continue light reef starting/fish qt, or test further. need to know if the test is working imo if that mode is chosen. in the least, it seems we shouldn't use that original api test to gauge the new 2ppm run.

consider online cycling charts, there's thousands of them on goog. the max time is 40 days, and the 99% average time stamp on all thousands of them is 30 days. there are no 75 day cycling charts, its done by then regardless of approach taken. You have the option of either trusting that and starting with a typical non fish bioload, or, waiting further arbitrarily which is never harmful. the bacteria require absolutely nothing from you to support themselves, other than keeping things wet.

Okay i understand what you are saying. I added ammonia on sunday(2ppm) and this morning it was still 2ppm. When i get home I will make some saltwater and test. I have 3 test kits. A saltwater, freshwater, and a reef test kit that all have their own ammonia test. I will test using each and compare. What do you think?

 

[brandon429]

yep it would be helpful to see fully non API results alongside the api results showing a zero reading to get it squared away. also can you post pics of the tank, looking for # of rock and sand details etc. to have zero movement of ammonia within 24 hours after 75 days submersion is against normal cycling outcomes we can see from online trends so that makes your post a neat challenge.

we've had lots of ammonia challenge threads lately, interesting pattern. Getting kits to register things consistently poster to poster has been a challenge, can't wait to see salifert ammonia readings in some of these tough cases

you mentioned some growth on the rocks, coralline. that plates long after bac are established in typical cycle threads.

its likely a form of early cyano, again same details. bac are plated first before other benthic creatures we can actually see, so that's a neat supporting biological detail against there being zero bacteria

if the tank has simply been filled for that long and none of it was recent, it will be very helpful to see non api reading details on the 2/ 24 hours test

 

[coronarex]

yep it would be helpful to see fully non API results alongside the api results showing a zero reading to get it squared away. also can you post pics of the tank, looking for # of rock and sand details etc. to have zero movement of ammonia within 24 hours after 75 days submersion is against normal cycling outcomes we can see from online trends so that makes your post a neat challenge.

we've had lots of ammonia challenge threads lately, interesting pattern. Getting kits to register things consistently poster to poster has been a challenge, can't wait to see salifert ammonia readings in some of these tough cases

you mentioned some growth on the rocks, coralline. that plates long after bac are established in typical cycle threads.

its likely a form of early cyano, again same details. bac are plated first before other benthic creatures we can actually see, so that's a neat supporting biological detail against there being zero bacteria

if the tank has simply been filled for that long and none of it was recent, it will be very helpful to see non api reading details on the 2/ 24 hours test

 

[coronarex]

yep it would be helpful to see fully non API results alongside the api results showing a zero reading to get it squared away. also can you post pics of the tank, looking for # of rock and sand details etc. to have zero movement of ammonia within 24 hours after 75 days submersion is against normal cycling outcomes we can see from online trends so that makes your post a neat challenge.

we've had lots of ammonia challenge threads lately, interesting pattern. Getting kits to register things consistently poster to poster has been a challenge, can't wait to see salifert ammonia readings in some of these tough cases

you mentioned some growth on the rocks, coralline. that plates long after bac are established in typical cycle threads.

its likely a form of early cyano, again same details. bac are plated first before other benthic creatures we can actually see, so that's a neat supporting biological detail against there being zero bacteria

if the tank has simply been filled for that long and none of it was recent, it will be very helpful to see non api reading details on the 2/ 24 hours test

I would like to say first that my tank has not been cycling for 75 days, the correct number of days is actually 50. I looked at the calendar wrong. Here are some pics of my tank as requested. I only had two amm test kits, both API. I made a batch of fresh saltwater and tested. The two test tubes to the left are of the freshly made saltwater. The two on the right are from my tank water. The two foreground pieces of rock are caribsea so ignore there purple color. Ignore the small rocks also, those and the two rocks up top are covered in coraline bc they came from an established tank. My efforts to salvage any bacteria on them obv failed lol. I am seeing some purple on the far left/right rocks. Very hard to see in a picture. anyway, I ordered some dr.tims from amazon, should be here tmw. Also tank will stay barebottom, i like the look. heard its easy to clean too. Also I checked out your planted tanks, INCREDIBLE!

 

[brandon429]

gotcha on the shorter submersion time

The live rock portion brought in bac, and so did the caribsea


With no live sand, agreed on the cleaning, that puts lots of work on just the rocks agreed regarding oxidation testing

Very nice scape, accessible for early algae scrubbing very sharp

How many drops of ammonium chloride did you have to add to the overall tank to get to 2 ppm?




Though you cycled twenty days less, you stated two powerful sources of bacteria that certainly did xfer into your tank it's atypical to have zero movement even though the time cycling was much shorter.

Thank you for checking out the tiny planted tanks ~ they sure are maintenances free but I never get to keep any cool fish so I secretly envy the larger setups

Do you have any way to get non API readings of the current ammonia levels just as a side reference? Am asking just to try and eliminate variables. We have a thread in Randy's chem forum now where a poster has that much green API after adding no ammonia to an 8 month old tank...but she had been using the additive prime and it was causing the reading. Your zero readings are clear above, just checking to see if any other ammonia tester is avail

I noticed prime was mentioned a few times earlier, that can directly cause the consistent readings if applicable, if it's been used. Most people that buy it will use it during setup

Another neat gauge is to lift out the known fully live rock and set it in a bucket and digest test it to 1 ppm there, just to be able to see how much movement something we know is full of bac can do. That would be a few gallons of new prep water, no prime etc