Starting a new, pest free tank

[Seifeimui]

Good afternoon! New to the forum but not the hobby.

I've successfully cycled three saltwater tanks but never using dry rock and sand. I'm not quite sure what I was expecting.

I am cycling a 30 gallon tall for some seahorses. I used bleached/dried rock and dry sand. The current tank is between 82 and 84. I wanted a completely pest free system. Anyway, I've been dosing with Brightwell Microbacter 7 and unscented household ammonia. I bought the ammonia up to 4 ppm and dosed regularly for the past week and a half. I've been dosing with roughly 1.5 capfuls of the Microbacter for nearly two weeks. My tests are still reading 4ppm and they are not declining. I tested for nitrites and nothing. I haven't bothered testing for nitrates yet. I knew this was going to take a long time but I feel like I'm doing something wrong.

Maybe something is wrong? Or am I just not being patient enough?

 

[Lenny_S]

I was in the same boat with my previous tanks. I was using flake food for an ammonia source and Fritz Zyme 9. It always took weeks to cycle. With this most recent tank, I just dosed 3 ppm of Dr. Tim's ammonia and Prodibio BioClean (BioDigest + Bioptim) the beginning of this week. Today I tested and ammonia started falling and nitrites were rising (basically 3 days elapsed).
I don't know if unscented household ammonia will work the same, but it probably should. I just started a thread today because I was surprised at how fast it seemed to be going this time https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/somewhat-odd-fishless-cycle.221327/#post-2548928
That Brightwell is probably similar to the Fritz Zyme, there is just a very long lag for the bacteria to kick in. Mine were always 2-3 weeks before any sign of activity and 4-6 weeks before it was ready for fish. So far I have to say, the Prodibio stuff has been far superior, maybe you can get some and see if that speeds things along.

 

[Seifeimui]

Hi Lenny!

Thanks for the response. After reading your post, I am going to give my method a little more time. It probably has a lot to do with my impatience. I am just tired of doing multiple water changes in my hospital tank. If the ammonia doesn't budge in the next two to three weeks, I will try your advice.

Through a comedy of errors and poor lfs advice, I am left with two seahorses without a home. Good news is that I was able to save them and have them in a good place. Bad news is they have no home to go to. So you can imagine my impatience. Lol I will behave myself though.

 

[Lenny_S]

No problem, keep me posted, and best wishes.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I agree that waiting longer should help. You should also verify that your kits reads lower ammonia values correctly by testing some salt water you believe has little to no ammonia.