Question on cycling

[bucfan]

Piscean if you could throw in a pinch of fish food wait till day ten that’s perfect, give them some feed per dr reefs thread

the on day ten or eleven can do a large water change to start clean and begin with a light common starting bioload

Here is todays readings, it has been 16 days since starting cycle.

 

[waterbox100.3aus]

From my experience there’s no shortcut to proper cycling. I tried 3 different bacteria at the end of the day it’s going to take atleast 4 weeks or more. The api test kit is fine, if you can convince your local fish store to donate you one of their bio balls from an established tank or scoop of gravel out of there system will get you going.

Mine took 5 weeks, from that point on I just started adding coral every day.

 

[brandon429]

removed

 

[bucfan]

From my experience there’s no shortcut to proper cycling. I tried 3 different bacteria at the end of the day it’s going to take atleast 4 weeks or more. The api test kit is fine, if you can convince your local fish store to donate you one of their bio balls from an established tank or scoop of gravel out of there system will get you going.

Mine took 5 weeks, from that point on I just started adding coral every day.

I could have added rock from my established 200g tank to expedite things but decided not to do so I don’t introduce any undesirables in this new tank.

At what point did you introduce corals? This is going to be an acro/chalice only tank so I may need things to settle fully before I can add any.

 

[bucfan]

Buc we need the three part pic to put the final say. bottle bac has time frames on the labels and its possible to use ammonia to verify, but single point reads wont help. if you want the test kit to allow the start date, have to show motion

time to dose ammonia up slightly from that reading, if you choose to go opaque green we'll wait another five days...but if you raise it barely above what ammonia shows above, then in 1-2 days its back to the pic above in color

and that re proves the cycle

post #17 is a three part motion series pic
I'm certain if you changed your water out you can start.

but we like to verify things online, and I like collecting those results. single pic ammonia no longer works for cycling its too dated a method. there was no benefit in exchanging test accuracy for arbitrary wait times, we simply needed a way to know if a tank is ready and post# 17 shows one way to make all the ammonia test kits work

even when we do wait the thirty days after adding 5 day bottle bac, the one-off tests still show not ready we see those posts always. actually knowing the real allowed start date does not have to be just solely a triplicate single test read amm 0 trite 0 and nitrate some

that causes cycles to take between 2-90 days to complete, but its an exacting process. waiting past the cycle end date does NOT get us more bacteria, the surfaces are ready/taken up once the cycle is closed, once ammonia shows three part control

I was using the API kit before this and ammonia was between 0.5 and 1 so I’m not sure how reliable those numbers are. I’ll do another test and pic in 2-3 days to show where things stand. Also nitrates by Salifert test is up to 10 from 2 last week.

 

[brandon429]

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[waterbox100.3aus]

I went to town on coral as soon as I knew the media had enough power to remove ammonia. I would add as much as you can afford except the acros. It took time for my sps to become happy. That’s 2 months old approx my tank.

I’m not sure why everyone is so worried about introducing unwanted things from established tanks. Any of the coral you add even with dipping is bound to carry something across.

PS I’m no expert but this is just my experience as a newbie.

 

[bucfan]

Here are ammonia readings from 9/21, 9/22, 9/24 (left to right)

 

[bucfan]

Here are nitrite readings on 9/21 and 9/24
Nitrate is now 50

 

[waterbox100.3aus]

I would do a 50% water change and you should ready to add fish. Also I would use Aqua forest nitrifying bactaria drops and use it everyday for another two weeks. The water change should clear you residual ammonia

 

[bucfan]

I would do a 50% water change and you should ready to add fish. Also I would use Aqua forest nitrifying bactaria drops and use it everyday for another two weeks. The water change should clear you residual ammonia

Have a bare bottom set up so I believe no water change yet. Planning to let it go as is another 2-4 weeks. Nitrites are still reading high so I suppose nitrification bacteria not there yet. Then again this is the first time I’m doing a full cycle so I’m not sure.

 

[waterbox100.3aus]

Why are you going bare bottom out of curiosity? I think the initial start up will be harder but long term may be better. I like the look of substrate.

 

[bucfan]

Why are you going bare bottom out of curiosity? I think the initial start up will be harder but long term may be better. I like the look of substrate.

Going to be a predominant acro tank with a lot of flow so do not want sand that can move around.