No ammonia or nitrites one week into cycle?

[ryanaperez]

Good Evening, this is my first post on here after reading many different threads and getting back into the hobby.

I began cycling my tank on 8/15. I started dosing one capful of Microbacter 7 daily as well as introducing 2 green chromis from day 1 and feeding once daily.

I started with salt water fresh from the ocean as well as live sand. Dry rock was used.

I am now approaching 1 week, and although I am using API test kits (I am aware of all the bad reviews on them) in conjunction with a seachem ammonia monitor. I have not received anything above 0 PPM on both ammonia or nitrites.

Based on what I have read could it be that the microbacter 7 daily is enough nitrifying bacteria to control levels produced by the 2 green chromis? I appreciate all input on this matter.

Thank you very much!

 

[Spare time]

How big is the tank? If its not a tiny tank, this is to be expected.

 

[exnisstech]

Have you tested for nitrates? Maybe the live sand and MB7 gave you an instant cycle. Just throwing it out there.

 

[Tired]

Sounds like you're cycled. It's a long way to a mature tank starting with dry rock, but bottled bacteria, including the bottled stuff they put in bagged "live sand", can cycle a tank very quickly if not instantly.

FWIW, cycling should be confirmed before adding fish, just in case.

 

[ryanaperez]

How big is the tank? If its not a tiny tank, this is to be expected.

It is a 20 gallon water cube

 

[ryanaperez]

Have you tested for nitrates? Maybe the live sand and MB7 gave you an instant cycle. Just throwing it out there.

I have and it was also reading 0, will reconfirm shortly

 

[exnisstech]

I have and it was also reading 0, will reconfirm shortly

Probably not cycled then. I asked because its really the only thing I test for when cycling these days. Once I see nitrates I call it cycled and move forward slowly adding livestock.
EDIT: I have never done a fish in cycle.

 

[brandon429]

No testing is required for this cycle at all. The fish plus feed plus bacteria will cycle it within the timeframes a cycling chart shows for each line. This load, small fish in decent dilution isn’t like dosing with 2 ppm ammonia so don’t expect cheap test kits to show anything. Simply continue, by day 15 it’s fully cycled in that a full water change couldn’t strip the bacteria off surfaces. Cycling isn’t the risk at all here and no testing is required, it’s introducing uronema into the system via those fish. #1 carriers

what you measure in this type of cycle is the number of days stewing and nothing else. What you bench it against is any common cycling chart. For example on day ten, if you had a seneye sensitive ammonia meter, you could pull the fish and do a test load of ammonia and it would go back to baseline within fifteen minutes. There’s no need to actually test that because you’ll notice all cycling charts are set to ten days for ammonia control

the other two params don’t even factor at all. Only ammonia control matters in cycling reef tanks.

= new cycling science rules for fish - in cycles, no testing required. It’s time based only

old cycling science will never relay disease risks and will focus on bacteria even though your fish are fine and all other fish in cycles we can search are fine. Old cycling science will pick and choose when you should believe api test kits, in your case whatever they say will be accurate despite the thousands of searches where they weren’t (Stocked and aging reef tanks don’t run at zero ammonia, when you get some, it’s not expected to be zero, old cycling science says any reef with detectable ammonia is a broken cycle)

 

[Dan_P]

Good Evening, this is my first post on here after reading many different threads and getting back into the hobby.

I began cycling my tank on 8/15. I started dosing one capful of Microbacter 7 daily as well as introducing 2 green chromis from day 1 and feeding once daily.

I started with salt water fresh from the ocean as well as live sand. Dry rock was used.

I am now approaching 1 week, and although I am using API test kits (I am aware of all the bad reviews on them) in conjunction with a seachem ammonia monitor. I have not received anything above 0 PPM on both ammonia or nitrites.

Based on what I have read could it be that the microbacter 7 daily is enough nitrifying bacteria to control levels produced by the 2 green chromis? I appreciate all input on this matter.

Thank you very much!

I have doubts about Microbacter 7 being a quick starter. If you had used BioSpira or Fritz Turbo Start, the answer would have been yes. Microbacter 7 might take a week to start no matter how much you add. The aquarium is likely not cycled.

Unless you are weighing the amount of fish food you are adding to the aquarium, there is really no way to explain the lack of ammonia accumulation. The lack of nitrite is a possible indicater that Microbacter 7 is doing nothing. A lack of nitrate could be a definite indication of no activity if we knew how much fish food is being added every day.

Because you performed a kind of non-traditional start up where nitrification is confirmed, you will need to keep an eye on ammonia for awhile so you don’t get surprised by an ammonia build up.

 

[ryanaperez]

No testing is required for this cycle at all. The fish plus feed plus bacteria will cycle it within the timeframes a cycling chart shows for each line. This load, small fish in decent dilution isn’t like dosing with 2 ppm ammonia so don’t expect cheap test kits to show anything. Simply continue, by day 15 it’s fully cycled in that a full water change couldn’t strip the bacteria off surfaces. Cycling isn’t the risk at all here and no testing is required, it’s introducing uronema into the system via those fish. #1 carriers

what you measure in this type of cycle is the number of days stewing and nothing else. What you bench it against is any common cycling chart. For example on day ten, if you had a seneye sensitive ammonia meter, you could pull the fish and do a test load of ammonia and it would go back to baseline within fifteen minutes. There’s no need to actually test that because you’ll notice all cycling charts are set to ten days for ammonia control

the other two params don’t even factor at all. Only ammonia control matters in cycling reef tanks.

= new cycling science rules for fish - in cycles, no testing required. It’s time based only

old cycling science will never relay disease risks and will focus on bacteria even though your fish are fine and all other fish in cycles we can search are fine. Old cycling science will pick and choose when you should believe api test kits, in your case whatever they say will be accurate despite the thousands of searches where they weren’t.

Thank you for your response!

 

[Spare time]

It is a 20 gallon water cube

Eh if you are being good with not having lots of food waste, and are reliably dosing mb7, I wouldn't worry.

 

[KrisReef]

Any update on the status of this start up?

Did you ever notice that the water was getting slightly cloudy? If yes, has the water cleared up yet?

Hopefully everything is OK.

 

[buruskeee]

I have doubts about Microbacter 7 being a quick starter. If you had used BioSpira or Fritz Turbo Start, the answer would have been yes. Microbacter 7 might take a week to start no matter how much you add. The aquarium is likely not cycled.

Unless you are weighing the amount of fish food you are adding to the aquarium, there is really no way to explain the lack of ammonia accumulation. The lack of nitrite is a possible indicater that Microbacter 7 is doing nothing. A lack of nitrate could be a definite indication of no activity if we knew how much fish food is being added every day.

Because you performed a kind of non-traditional start up where nitrification is confirmed, you will need to keep an eye on ammonia for awhile so you don’t get surprised by an ammonia build up.

+1 for this advice.

Be careful with ammonia as you didn’t have any bacteria to start. Bac7 is more of a bacterial supplement than a starter. If you started with live rock you’d be ok most likely, but with starting dry, I’d be very cautious until you see the nitrification process actually taking place.