Starting to cycle?

[90addict]

So today I added 40lb of live rock from LFS aquarium. Also added about 20lb dry rock. Moved it all around where I kinda like it. Poured in Dr tims one and only. Also did 2 tsp of ammonium chloride (for 50gl water) to feed the bacteria. Am I on the right track? How long should I go in between testing? Also, do I keep adding ammonium chloride thru out the cycling process? Pic of water tests are after rock and dosing so I can have a "control"

 

[vetteguy53081]

So today I added 40lb of live rock from LFS aquarium. Also added about 20lb dry rock. Moved it all around where I kinda like it. Poured in Dr tims one and only. Also did 2 tsp of ammonium chloride (for 50gl water) to feed the bacteria. Am I on the right track? How long should I go in between testing? Also, do I keep adding ammonium chloride thru out the cycling process? Pic of water tests are after rock and dosing so I can have a "control"

Clarity of water is often a good sign. Im always leery of API test readings, but ideally, I suggest addition of ammonia chloride which will make the ammonia rise and then add Liquid bacteria such as MicroBacter xlm at 1.5ml per ten gallons daily for next 2 weeks will assure bacteria is sufficient and supported.
When ammonia rises then falls and holds a steady reading of Zero for at least 5 days and also nitrate rises and falls and holds at 20 or below- you are cycled.

 

[fishyjoes]

If you got 40lbs wet rock that had been in an active aquarium for a long time and put it in your tank - you are done. You have pre-purchased a "cycle".

You don't need to dose ammonia over and over and wait for weeks.

Since you already dosed a bunch of ammonia you now have to either wait for it to clear or do a large water change to remove it (maybe there's another way).

Either way, once that ammonia is gone you can add some fish. Just start with a few and think/learn about quarantine and disease prevention.

 

[Dburr1014]

If you got 40lbs wet rock that had been in an active aquarium for a long time and put it in your tank - you are done. You have pre-purchased a "cycle".

You don't need to dose ammonia over and over and wait for weeks.

Since you already dosed a bunch of ammonia you now have to either wait for it to clear or do a large water change to remove it (maybe there's another way).

Either way, once that ammonia is gone you can add some fish. Just start with a few and think/learn about quarantine and disease prevention.

What he said^^^^^

Shouldn't take long just to process what you put in. <24 hours.

 

[90addict]

If you got 40lbs wet rock that had been in an active aquarium for a long time and put it in your tank - you are done. You have pre-purchased a "cycle".

You don't need to dose ammonia over and over and wait for weeks.

Since you already dosed a bunch of ammonia you now have to either wait for it to clear or do a large water change to remove it (maybe there's another way).

Either way, once that ammonia is gone you can add some fish. Just start with a few and think/learn about quarantine and disease prevention.

Holy crap! Are you serious!? Lol

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

So today I added 40lb of live rock from LFS aquarium. Also added about 20lb dry rock. Moved it all around where I kinda like it. Poured in Dr tims one and only. Also did 2 tsp of ammonium chloride (for 50gl water) to feed the bacteria. Am I on the right track? How long should I go in between testing? Also, do I keep adding ammonium chloride thru out the cycling process? Pic of water tests are after rock and dosing so I can have a "control"

2 teaspoons? Seems like way too much (and your test results indicate it was)
As for whether or not you're cycled, you show 0 nitrates or nitrates, so I would venture to guess you don't have enough nitrifying bacteria yet.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

.

 

[90addict]

2 teaspoons? Seems like way too much (and your test results indicate it was)
As for whether or not you're cycled, you show 0 nitrates or nitrates, so I would venture to guess you don't have enough nitrifying bacteria yet.

2tsp was what the bottle says for 50gl of water. It was measuring 4ppm which is in between 2-5 which is recommended I read. I know I'm not cycled lol. I literally just dosed

 

[305 Steve]

Holy crap! Are you serious!? Lol

i wouldnt worry about the ammonia at this point. water change isnt going to do anything beneficial for you right now. now that you have added ammonia like he said you now just wait for it to convert to nitrite then nitrate and you will removed the nitrate from your tank with a large water change at the end of your "cycle". this is honestly also a fine way of doing it because although yes it is possible to have a skip cycle by purchasing live established base rock and sand, it will only be cycled to handle a certain bioload and as soon as you increase that bioload it will still have a period of nitrification adjustment.

 

[90addict]

i wouldnt worry about the ammonia at this point. water change isnt going to do anything beneficial for you right now. now that you have added ammonia like he said you now just wait for it to convert to nitrite then nitrate and you will removed the nitrate from your tank with a large water change at the end of your "cycle". this is honestly also a fine way of doing it because although yes it is possible to have a skip cycle by purchasing live established base rock and sand, it will only be cycled to handle a certain bioload and as soon as you increase that bioload it will still have a period of nitrification adjustment.

Makes sense! So my "large" water change would be how much of the 55 gl tank? After that, how frequently should I change and percentage? Thank you!!

 

[305 Steve]

Makes sense! So my "large" water change would be how much of the 55 gl tank? After that, how frequently should I change and percentage? Thank you!!

you could do a 30% water change and if nitrates are within a tolerable range like under 20 then you can maintain with 10-20% weekly

 

[Fish Fan]

Congrats on your purchase of the 40 pounds of live rock from your LFS!

To hopefully clarify a few things, and drawing off what others have already said, as you know there's more than one way to cycle a tank. Generally, you use bottled bacteria such as Dr. Tim's One and Only and bottled ammonium chloride when you start with all dead, dry base rock and sand. These products help establish (Tim's) and grow (NH4Cl) beneficial, nitrifying bacteria that populate the dead rocks, making them "live" in time.

In your case, you started your tank using enough live rock that has effectively been pre-cycled for you. It already has plenty of good bacteria to get your tank going, and your tank was more-or-less fully cycled on setup.

For this reason, in your case, it was really unnecessary to add the Dr. Tim's One and Only (which will not hurt a thing) or the ammonia chloride (which *might* now be harmful). This is because you already have a healthy population of beneficia bacteria on your live rock.

In theory, if you dose ammonia chloride to your tank to a level of 2.0 ppm, the live rock in your tank should be able to process that fairly quickly. Ideally, in 24 hours or less you should be recording 0.0 ppm ammonia, in your case maybe two days or so since your tank is so very new.

However, in my humble opinion, the question is did you dose so much ammonia that you may have now hurt the beneficial bacteria on your live rock. If your API test is anywhere accurate - and most here would say they are not - you appear to be well over the recommended 2.0 ppm concentration for ammonia.

I also think you should to a large water change, I would personally do at least 50% and maybe more. I think what you want to do now is bring down the level of ammonia in your tank to less than 2.0 ppm, and maybe even much lower if you can. Give the rock a little time to recover, and then I think you'll be good to go. But for now, it looks like you've overdosed the ammonia, and need to lower that concentration down.

As always, I hope that was some help, and best of luck with your build!

 

[90addict]

Congrats on your purchase of the 40 pounds of live rock from your LFS!

To hopefully clarify a few things, and drawing off what others have already said, as you know there's more than one way to cycle a tank. Generally, you use bottled bacteria such as Dr. Tim's One and Only and bottled ammonium chloride is when you start with all dead, dry base rock and sand. These products help establish (Tim's) and grow (NH4Cl) beneficial, nitrifying bacteria that populate the dead rocks, making them "live" in time.

In your case, you started your tank using enough live rock that has effectively been pre-cycled for you. It already has plenty of good bacteria to get your tank going, and your tank was more-or-less fully cycled on setup.

For this reason, in your case, it was really unnecessary to add the Dr. Tim's One and Only (which will not hurt a thing) or the ammonia chloride (which *might* now be harmful). This because you already have a healthy population of beneficia bacteria on your live rock.

In theory, if you dose ammonia chloride to your tank to a level of 2.0 ppm, the live rock in your tank should be able to process that fairly quickly. Ideally, in 24 or less you should be recording 0.0 ppm ammonia, in your case maybe two days or so since your tank is so very new.

However, in my humble opinion, the question is did you dose so much ammonia that you may have now hurt the beneficial bacteria on your live rock. If your API test is anywhere accurate - and most hear would say they are not - you appear to be well over the recommended 2.0 ppm concentration for ammonia.

I also think you should to a large water change, I would personally do at least 50% and maybe more. I think what you want to do now is bring down the level of ammonia in your tank to less than 2.0 ppm, and maybe even much lower if you can. Give the rock a little time to recover, and then I think you'll be good to go. But for now, it looks like you've overdosed the ammonia, and need to lower that concentration down.

As always, i hope that was some help, and best of luck with your build!

Much appreciated for the info and guidance! Very easy to understand for a noobie like me. Tomorrow morning I will check the ammonia and if it's still high I will do the 50%! Thank you

 

[Fish Fan]

Much appreciated for the info and guidance! Very easy to understand for a noobie like me. Tomorrow morning I will check the ammonia and if it's still high I will do the 50%! Thank you

Others here did the heavy lifting, I just do my best to spell it out as clearly as I can. Glad to be of some help; good luck!

 

[305 Steve]

Congrats on your purchase of the 40 pounds of live rock from your LFS!

To hopefully clarify a few things, and drawing off what others have already said, as you know there's more than one way to cycle a tank. Generally, you use bottled bacteria such as Dr. Tim's One and Only and bottled ammonium chloride is when you start with all dead, dry base rock and sand. These products help establish (Tim's) and grow (NH4Cl) beneficial, nitrifying bacteria that populate the dead rocks, making them "live" in time.

In your case, you started your tank using enough live rock that has effectively been pre-cycled for you. It already has plenty of good bacteria to get your tank going, and your tank was more-or-less fully cycled on setup.

For this reason, in your case, it was really unnecessary to add the Dr. Tim's One and Only (which will not hurt a thing) or the ammonia chloride (which *might* now be harmful). This because you already have a healthy population of beneficia bacteria on your live rock.

In theory, if you dose ammonia chloride to your tank to a level of 2.0 ppm, the live rock in your tank should be able to process that fairly quickly. Ideally, in 24 or less you should be recording 0.0 ppm ammonia, in your case maybe two days or so since your tank is so very new.

However, in my humble opinion, the question is did you dose so much ammonia that you may have now hurt the beneficial bacteria on your live rock. If your API test is anywhere accurate - and most hear would say they are not - you appear to be well over the recommended 2.0 ppm concentration for ammonia.

I also think you should to a large water change, I would personally do at least 50% and maybe more. I think what you want to do now is bring down the level of ammonia in your tank to less than 2.0 ppm, and maybe even much lower if you can. Give the rock a little time to recover, and then I think you'll be good to go. But for now, it looks like you've overdosed the ammonia, and need to lower that concentration down.

As always, i hope that was some help, and best of luck with your build!

I love your advice, though i do think the ammonia is still not in the realm where it would affect nitrification especially being that his PH is within range to sustain it. The biome will build and eat away that ammonia in the natural cycle process as it adjusts to the new bioload of the added ammonia. Obviously the ammonia being added has now made this process longer but also may in turn make it more robust of a colonization when it does finally level out.

 

[Fish Fan]

I love your advice, though i do think the ammonia is still not in the realm where it would affect nitrification especially being that his PH is within range to sustain it. The biome will build and eat away that ammonia in the natural cycle process as it adjusts to the new bioload of the added ammonia. Obviously the ammonia being added has now made this process longer but also may in turn make it more robust of a colonization when it does finally level out.

I think you're right. I'd do a water change and let it ride. The bio filter will catch up, and the OP will be fine.

Had this been real ocean rock from like Tampa Bay Saltwater, the overdose of ammonia may have been much, much more concerning.

But like you said, at worse, this will jus stall the cycle a little.

Thanks for your reply!

 

[305 Steve]

Much appreciated for the info and guidance! Very easy to understand for a noobie like me. Tomorrow morning I will check the ammonia and if it's still high I will do the 50%! Thank you

Fish Fan did a great job of explaining it, here is another easy to understand resource of how the process works to familiarize yourself with it and get a better understanding of whats going on in the tank! https://aquaticcreationsgroup.com/n...l grow,specific gravity between 1.0000-1.0038.

 

[90addict]

I think you're right. I'd do a water change and let it ride. The bio filter will catch up, and the OP will be fine.

Had this been real ocean rock from like Tampa Bay Saltwater, the overdose of ammonia may have been much, much more concerning.

But like you said, at worse, this will jus stall the cycle a little.

Thanks for your reply!

So it's been a couple days. Ammonia came down on it's own from close to 5ppm to 2ppm. After that, it seemed to have stalled. I did a 30% water change today and ammonia is down to the 1ppm range. Do I just keep waiting in your opinion or should I add more nitrifying bacteria? If I had bacteria, do I dose that with more ammonia? (God I'm scared of that stuff now) lol...I really hope I didn't harm my 300$ worth of live rock!

 

[Fish Fan]

So it's been a couple days. Ammonia came down on it's own from close to 5ppm to 2ppm. After that, it seemed to have stalled. I did a 30% water change today and ammonia is down to the 1ppm range. Do I just keep waiting in your opinion or should I add more nitrifying bacteria? If I had bacteria, do I dose that with more ammonia? (God I'm scared of that stuff now) lol...I really hope I didn't harm my 300$ worth of live rock!

What I think is I'd probably just let it go a little longer after your most recent water change. At this point I think time and patience are your friends. I don't think you fatally harmed your live rock, it just may need some time to catch up between the move to your tank and the ammonia you've added. The good bacteria will persist and continue to grow and do their job.

I wouldn't add extra ammonia at this point. Wait until it goes to zero, if at all.

Keep in mind if you're still using the API brand test kit, those may not be the most accurate tests in the world, so take the results with a grain of salt.

Are you testing for and are you seeing any nitrates yet? When you see nitrates start to accumulate and rise, that's a sure sign the bacteria are processing the ammonia to nitrite, and then to nitrate, which is what you want to see.

 

[305 Steve]

Also understand ammonia more and your fears will lessen. In a tank new like yours id put the ammonia down and let nature do its thing and enjoy the ride. your 1ppm ammonia will benefit something as it gets converted into nitrates.

check out this thread, dont get lost in it as it is more geared towards matured biomes but it gives you alot of insight into how it all works and alot of posters have linked great articles to read. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/ammonia-is-our-friend-2-article-outline.1069937/page-2