Not new but feel like it

BangedUp · Mar 2, 2018

ok, cycling my 3rd salty after cycling prob a half dozen fresh.....never had this happen though. Suggestions to help it or I’m fine and need to wait. My tanks bacteria is burning through 2-2.5 of ammonia in like 6-8 hours....very good! My problem is mynitrite level is staying high even though those bacteria are producing nitrate rather quickly. The highest I had the ammonia to was prob 3-4 ppm which isn’t crazy. Could this tank just be very different? Info advice or just tell me shut up it’s fine just needs xtra long time lol

mjlash22 · Mar 2, 2018

What all is in your tank/sump? That may help pin point an issue, if there is one at all.

Greybeard · Mar 2, 2018

I've been through a fairly large number of tank startups... I've never seen one that wouldn't eventually start processing nitrites into nitrate, though it does sometimes take a while.

How long has it been processing ammonia? What are the nitrite and nitrate testing at? Good quality test kits, reasonably fresh reagents?

A brief sketch of the system... size of tank, available bio surface (rock, sand, etc), in place filtration methods... might be helpful.

I"m not usually one to jump on these cure in a bottle products, but one of the bacteria in a bottle products (Dr. Tim's, Red Sea) might be something you can 'kickstart' the process with... I tried Red Sea's break in process last time around, and was very happy with my results.

jt17 · Mar 2, 2018

I'm currently in the same spot with my cycle. I read that the bacteria that consume ammonia reproduce quicker than the bacteria that consume nitrite. So there will be elevated nitrites until they catch up. I am doing water changes to manage nitrite and nitrate levels while continuing to dose ammonia.

BangedUp · Mar 2, 2018

Greybeard said:
I've been through a fairly large number of tank startups... I've never seen one that wouldn't eventually start processing nitrites into nitrate, though it does sometimes take a while.

How long has it been processing ammonia? What are the nitrite and nitrate testing at? Good quality test kits, reasonably fresh reagents?

A brief sketch of the system... size of tank, available bio surface (rock, sand, etc), in place filtration methods... might be helpful.

I"m not usually one to jump on these cure in a bottle products, but one of the bacteria in a bottle products (Dr. Tim's, Red Sea) might be something you can 'kickstart' the process with... I tried Red Sea's break in process last time around, and was very happy with my results.

Ammonia I’ll dose to 2, nitrites are 4 converting to about 40-50 ppm of nitrate, just seems so weird that the nitrites won’t 0, ammonia been converting for about a week now, dosing ammonia every other day to keep feeding bacteria, don’t want it to die but also don’t want ammonia too high because I do t won’t nitrite skyrocketing over 5

BangedUp · Mar 2, 2018

jt17 said:
I'm currently in the same spot with my cycle. I read that the bacteria that consume ammonia reproduce quicker than the bacteria that consume nitrite. So there will be elevated nitrites until they catch up. I am doing water changes to manage nitrite and nitrate levels while continuing to dose ammonia.

Yeah Ive got the rodi running now, figured I would do a wc also lol, I usually don’t like to wc until cycle is completely done though

BangedUp · Mar 2, 2018

jt17 said:
I'm currently in the same spot with my cycle. I read that the bacteria that consume ammonia reproduce quicker than the bacteria that consume nitrite. So there will be elevated nitrites until they catch up. I am doing water changes to manage nitrite and nitrate levels while continuing to dose ammonia.

How long has it been for you? Usually it only takes like two days more, I’m not co planning though as it seems like I have a tremendous amount of ammonia eating bacteria already

BangedUp · Mar 2, 2018

mjlash22 said:
What all is in your tank/sump? That may help pin point an issue, if there is one at all.

Just running some marine pure now man, no other filter media no skimmer .... used dr Tim’s ammonia, not food or shrimp

BangedUp · Mar 2, 2018

Greybeard said:
I've been through a fairly large number of tank startups... I've never seen one that wouldn't eventually start processing nitrites into nitrate, though it does sometimes take a while.

How long has it been processing ammonia? What are the nitrite and nitrate testing at? Good quality test kits, reasonably fresh reagents?

A brief sketch of the system... size of tank, available bio surface (rock, sand, etc), in place filtration methods... might be helpful.

I"m not usually one to jump on these cure in a bottle products, but one of the bacteria in a bottle products (Dr. Tim's, Red Sea) might be something you can 'kickstart' the process with... I tried Red Sea's break in process last time around, and was very happy with my results.

And sorry, it’s a 32 gallon cube, 25 pounds of rock and 2 quart box of marine pure....the ammonia eating bacteria is flourishing ....yeah the Red Sea is a little more in depth than just bacteria in a bottle .....maybe I should consider that at this stage

Smprc · Mar 2, 2018

My 2 cents...I started my tank up using Dr Tim's...it took a while to be honest. However, I started with dry rock and sand. Which based on what I read can take longer to cycle. Took 5 weeks or so to finally balance out and cycle. Be patient. Don't over dose ammonia, that will stall the cycle. I also added Purple Helix to seed with coraline and more bacteria, I feel that seemed to help the most. Again, I'm just sharing my experience I'm new as well. And I didn't bother changing water until I was sure the tank had cycled and I needed water to quarantine. Good luck...oh and did I mention patience

Greybeard · Mar 2, 2018

BangedUp said:
And sorry, it’s a 32 gallon cube, 25 pounds of rock and 2 quart box of marine pure....the ammonia eating bacteria is flourishing ....yeah the Red Sea is a little more in depth than just bacteria in a bottle .....maybe I should consider that at this stage

OK, that's more than sufficient growth media for bacteria...

You've said Ammonia has been processing for a week now... You may wake up tomorrow and find this is a moot point. Taking up to 15 days to establish a bio filter is not rare.

You're using Dr. Tim's ammonia, did you start with Dr. Tim's bacteria? I'd probably go that route at this point (if you need anything), rather than the Red Sea thing... it's really made to start from ground zero.

BangedUp · Mar 2, 2018

Smprc said:
My 2 cents...I started my tank up using Dr Tim's...it took a while to be honest. However, I started with dry rock and sand. Which based on what I read can take longer to cycle. Took 5 weeks or so to finally balance out and cycle. Be patient. Don't over dose ammonia, that will stall the cycle. I also added Purple Helix to seed with coraline and more bacteria, I feel that seemed to help the most. Again, I'm just sharing my experience I'm new as well. And I didn't bother changing water until I was sure the tank had cycled and I needed water to quarantine. Good luck...oh and did I mention patience

That’s what I did, dry everything, one hitchhiker on live rock is one to many imo

BangedUp · Mar 2, 2018

Greybeard said:
OK, that's more than sufficient growth media for bacteria...

You've said Ammonia has been processing for a week now... You may wake up tomorrow and find this is a moot point. Taking up to 15 days to establish a bio filter is not rare.

You're using Dr. Tim's ammonia, did you start with Dr. Tim's bacteria? I'd probably go that route at this point (if you need anything), rather than the Red Sea thing... it's really made to start from ground zero.

Yup exactly what I used, I feel better now from you guys, think it just needs more time