Stumped on what to do??

[Rafaelpadro24]

Hello everyone, having issue and question about my reeftank cycling. Began the cycle on 8/20/22 using Dr.Tims fishless ststem followed the instruction and ammonia was of the charts using the redreef test kit and nothing with nitrite and nitrates. Someone suggested to use a API test kit that will give me bigger range reading so I did and surely ammonia was high but everything else was negible. So I let the tank continue cycling Finally ammonia began to drop nitrite and nitrites be gan to rise. Well for the past 2 week the test with API is showing no ammonia, high nitrites and high nitrates. I decided to cross test with the RedSea kit and it shows no ammonia, high nitrites but very low to none in nitrates. I have posted these results and I'm getting conflicting answer from let the cycle continue to do a large water change because my cycle is done. Really stumped on what to do.
PS tried to get some feedback from Dr. Tim's group really disappointed on the service level . I guess they are to busy figuring bacteria jokes to post in Facebook and Instagram.

 

[IslandLifeReef]

I looked at your other threads and don't see this one being any different. You will still get conflicting opinions.

IMO, you are safe to do a water change and call your cycle complete. NO2 isn't toxic to saltwater fish.

 

[Mark Novack]

Wait until you see zero nitrite and positive nitrates before the water change. I see no reason to change water before the cycle is complete including nitrite eating bacteria. Its probably 2 days away. When the bacteria have populated it drops fast.

 

[Reefer Matt Verified Media Partner]

Does your tank have live sand or live rock?

 

[Rafaelpadro24]

Does your tank have live sand or live rock?

Dry rock and sand. Began with sterile system

 

[Reefer Matt Verified Media Partner]

Dry rock and sand. Began with sterile system

Okay. I personally like to wait until there is zero ammonia and nitrites, with an elevated nitrate level. Then I do a water change to adjust nitrates to the level I want to run with.

 

[Rafaelpadro24]

How long does the nitrite cycle takes? It's been good 2 weeks with almost no change to test results?

 

[brandon429]

How to unstick any seemingly stuck cycle

Updated Cycling Science in Action This is a testless reef tank cycling thread, the only one from any board. If you ever had trouble with reef tank cycling in the past, you won't any longer after working some jobs with us. chances are you are using/about to use a method of reef tank cycling...

www.reef2reef.com

Rafael, you're cycled because we're at 33 pages of telling folks when they're cycled and they put in fish that live fine, as proof


so there's opinions, and then theres 3 years / 33 pages/ 1 of ten threads on the matter/ of assigned specific cycle closed dates


you were able to carry fish on day 1. by day 5, the bacteria from the bottle had implanted onto rocks and no degree of water changes could unstick them; that means you were cycled in a few days after start like all other bottle bac threads, and your api doesn't matter, not any of it.


in your case however, that ammonia reading is a clear pass/yellow/good to go.


remember, even though your tank can carry fish, skipping disease preps will kill most/all of them by month 8

check the disease forum today to see what tanks less than 8 mos old who stock fish wind up posting before long/help/my fish are dying.

all your concern over the cycle ends today, forever, don't test for ammonia and nitrite again here.

focus all fears on fish disease quarantine and fallow preps, per the fish disease. begin your reading and studies there

 

[IslandLifeReef]

How long does the nitrite cycle takes? It's been good 2 weeks with almost no change to test results?

You could literally put the sand, rock, and water in the tank and nothing else and let it sit for 30 days and it would be cycled. If you added so much ammonia that the Red Sea test kit was off the chart, and now your tank shows 0.0 ppm, you are cycled. Don't worry too much about NO2/NO3 right now. Those levels would have to be extremely high to have an effect on your fish. With a 180 gallon tank, adding a few fish won't exceed the capability of your tank to process the ammonia. The bacteria that convert NO2 to NO3 take longer to become established.

Waiting won't hurt, but without a water change, it may be a while before you see NO2 at 0.0 and low NO3. So, it's up to you, you can wait and watch a tank of water, or you can get 2 or 3 fish and start planning the rest of your stocking.

 

[Rafaelpadro24]

You could literally put the sand, rock, and water in the tank and nothing else and let it sit for 30 days and it would be cycled. If you added so much ammonia that the Red Sea test kit was off the chart, and now your tank shows 0.0 ppm, you are cycled. Don't worry too much about NO2/NO3 right now. Those levels would have to be extremely high to have an effect on your fish. With a 180 gallon tank, adding a few fish won't exceed the capability of your tank to process the ammonia. The bacteria that convert NO2 to NO3 take longer to become established.

Waiting won't hurt, but without a water change, it may be a while before you see NO2 at 0.0 and low NO3. So, it's up to you, you can wait and watch a tank of water, or you can get 2 or 3 fish and start planning the rest of your stocking.

So it is ok to introduce a few fish at this time. Should I do a partial water change prior to putting fish in?

 

[brandon429]

whats your disease plan? skipping all disease preps has the ending of no fish left in tank? you can see the disease forum currently, study that before adding fish.

your tank can carry multiple fish now, that's what bottle bac does well.

you need to be quarantining and fallowing/terms defined in the disease forum/before adding fish.

 

[brandon429]

**in days past before seneye, and when api determined all cycles so everyone viewed all cycles as stuck, nobody harped about disease and 10000% of people harped on how mean it was to put fish into noncycled ammonia systems


well that day has passed, we have seneye now and can see that bottle bac works on day 1


so the new harping is fish disease. sorry to say, but skipping preps and putting them in is meaner than putting them into a non cycled tank, because an entire forum exists for you to head off this problem with some short studies (the disease forum) and at no time was anyone actually adding fish to an ammonia tank in the past times it was just all their testers reading as nh4 and panicking everyone.


if you skip fish disease preps given this as a first tank, all white rock, no live components, common food from a can is coming, fish are coming from a pet store, expect them to die in succession over a few months. preps=required sorry to break the bad news. your issue is not a cycling issue, it's putting fish into a tank with no disease preps that kills these new fish lots in tanks we track after cycling. if any of the immediate factors above were reversed, I could see skipping some preps.


new cycling science= when a tank is cycled we immediately stop discussing the cycle, and heavy focus on disease preps, it's right in the link for 33 pages.

 

[IslandLifeReef]

So it is ok to introduce a few fish at this time. Should I do a partial water change prior to putting fish in?

Yes to both. I would recommend a water change of 20%.

 

[Rafaelpadro24]

I have a LFS that has a 2 week medcated protocol and I was planning on a couple of captive bred clown fish. I picked up a 32 gal biocube to set up for quarantine protocol.