Tank won't cycle

[Mandrew]

Dry rock can be readied in three weeks pretty easy by adding liquid ammonia shown there at 1 or 2 ppm constant reading and dosing bottle bac every few days until the system digests ammonia in 24 hours. By week three if the system does that, it doesn't matter what nitrite and nitrate read so we don't test for anything else. Pretty handy one param cycling

What is the preferred bottle bac? And say I use bio spira but only use one large bottle for my 75g, do I use the bacteria then the ammonia or ammonia then bacteria? And If only one large dose is made, will that be enough to cycle quickly?

 

[brandon429]

order of addition doesn't matter, there will be slight variations if you add more or less bac + ammonia but three weeks is average. the final stop date must be determined by a salifert ammonia test down from 1 or 2 ppm to zero in 24 hours. anything shy of that is a guess (non salifert ammonia indicators)

one large dose of bottle bac or guessed amounts added 3x a week, not much difference. id add the 3x a week amounts, roughly the amounts the directions say. this will all work out in about three or so weeks. if you don't have salifert ammonia testing, go for 4 weeks until whatever tester you have shows as close to zero ammonia as possible down from the 1-2 it could best indicate prior.

none of this has to be exacting, approximates are fine for this kind of cycle.

 

[Mandrew]

I was assuming since the large bottle of bio spira says it treats 75g that it meant a one time use, so would I need multiple bottles?

 

[cnseekatz]

For your first experience with saltwater, I wouldn't worry about trying to skip steps, speed things up, or trying to bypass your cycle all together. You'll have a lot more success if you are patient (I know it's almost impossible), and learn all you can about what's going on in your tank. I thought it was kind of fun to see diatoms popping up in my brand new tank, and understanding why they were there and what was happening when they disappeared, and were replaced by reddish growth, then green. Staring at an empty tank is torture, but it's worth the patience to help you learn, and for the future stability of your tank.

 

[brandon429]

if you added only 1 bottle of bac and held the 1-2 ppm ammonia it would still cycle in about a mo or less. I see cycling either kind of rock as being able to digest ammonia or not... the live rocks will initially, the dry ones wont, when live rocks leak ammonia its not due to loss of bacteria, we can always move live rock in ways that wont cause it to leak ammonia, API test kits mislead about 90% of cyclers, these were the high points.

if you want to add another bottle bac midway that's fine, some added is good enough.

You don't even have to add anything other than water to cycle these tanks w dry rock...filled up and left 3-6 mos untouched the bacteria would still get in, self seed, self feed, multiply and take over the surfaces. all we do is choose the time frame we want for the exact same ends.

http://www.drtimsaquatics.com/resources/how-to-start

they mention nitrite detailing the in thread but we skip that. see how their chart shows nitrite complying when ammonia does? we just keep the ppm ammonia low, not much above 1 is how to keep it all in line. must use accurate kit for measuring ammonia, or its the very same as guessing between light green or light yellow