Not another cycling question! Am I missing something?

Punchanello · Apr 19, 2018

Hi all,

I've been cycling my tank for 3 weeks but made my first mistake: I didn't bother testing the first two weeks. I honestly assumed it would take a while and lazily ordered my test kits when the tank was filled. I've been testing for a little over a week now and can't work out where my cycle is at.

I'm using dead live rock. I added half a prawn 2 weeks ago and removed it a few days later. I assumed there were plenty of organics in the rock already so haven't really done much else. I'm using Salifert test kits. I'm using RODI water (0 TDS). Water in the tank seems clear, just that salty, mild ocean smell. No algae or film at all.

I assume I have missed the ammonia spike and maybe the nitrite spike as well. My ammonia seems to be dropping very slowly but honestly it's hard to tell with the colour card. My nitrates are off the charts and my nitrites haven't been doing much at all. Here's the last 8 days of testing -

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Any thoughts? Does this look normal? None of the graphs I've seen online seem to show these kind of readings.

redfishbluefish · Apr 19, 2018

You haven't cycled yet....but you have a killer of a rock cure going on with that enormous nitrate spike from the rock leaching out the death from within. You might wish to consider a water change....and at this point, 100% wouldn't be a problem.

Punchanello · Apr 19, 2018

redfishbluefish said:
You haven't cycled yet....but you have a killer of a rock cure going on with that enormous nitrate spike from the rock leaching out the death from within. You might wish to consider a water change....and at this point, 100% wouldn't be a problem.

When you say "might want to do a water change" do you mean, if I feel like it or "do a GD waterchange!"? I'm willing to overlook my casual hands-off philosophy thus far if it's the later.

Punchanello · Apr 20, 2018

A couple more questions if anyone can help -

Would sky high nitrates:

a. Have any effect on the accuracy of my ammonia and nitrite tests?
b. Stunt the cycle process?

redfishbluefish · Apr 20, 2018

I have never heard of high nitrate causing a cycle to stall. However, I wouldn't be overly concerned about the cycle, because you now have plenty of time for that cycle to happen while the rock cure happens. It's the cure that is going to take a good month or two.

Water changes during a cure is how high nitrates/phosphates are lowered to continue to allow the cure to happen. The cure is "done" when the N and P no longer rise, but actually decline to a low and acceptable level.

Punchanello · Apr 25, 2018

Hi alll, back again!

My Nitrites and Ammonia have zeroed out and I'm now getting loads of algae fast. I'm kid of excited to see the algae actually.

I did a 200 litre water change. Unfortunately my water change infrastructure isn't quite set up so realistically I can remove and a maximum of 100 litres on a work day. It would take me a few days to replace all the water if I tried a 100% water change all in one go and I assume that would cause another ammonia spike and cycle.

Would it be ok to do 10% water changes every day to try to being those Nitrates down? Would floating a chunk of chaeto in the DT also help?