Refresh me regarding cycling:

[pdiehm]

I tore down the 120 to replace the overflow box. Added sand back and the rocks had dried.

Filled tank, and dosed with 1ppm ammonia. Do I keep dosing ammonia? Or dose once and wait for it to hit zero?

Previously, I kept dosing but at the end had nitrates well over 100 because I kept dosing. Should I increase the dose to say 3ppm and wait?

 

[thehammer1985]

After nitrogen cycle begins (nitrites detected )add one half of the original dose and allow the cycle to go through

 

[pdiehm]

Right. Should I up the dose to 3ppm or is 1ppm ok?

 

[thehammer1985]

2-3 mg/ml for initial start once it stars falling it'll stay at 1 or below. Detect nitrate and add half a dose. Be careful at this point and do not allow nitrites over 5 mg/ml. Do this by only adding 1/4 dose every 3-4 days Until your nitrites drop

 

[pdiehm]

Mg/ml? Lost me

 

[thehammer1985]

I'm sorry my phone was autocorrecting mg/l

And essentially 1 mg/l = 1 ppm

 

[pdiehm]

Ok. I dosed to 3ppm. Wait for the ammonia to drop. Test for nitrites.

What I did last time (and I think I did it wrong) was: add ammonia, when it fell to zero, added more ammonia, nitrites were not 0, redosed ammonia. Nitrites never did hit 0, however I had (if I had to guess), almost 200ppm nitrates. 3 50% water changes didn't get it under 50ppm.

So this time, I am trying to not have an insane amount of nitrates.

Essentially, should I dose once and wait for ammonia AND nitrites to hit zero before adding more?

 

[thehammer1985]

No wait for ammonia to lower and nitrites to show than add half the first dose . After that every 3-4 days dose a quarter of it until you no longer read ammonia or nitrites. Keep an eye on your nitrites and don't dose so much you get over 5 ppm