what do? low ammonia cycle

[sleepy.sunny]

hI! hopefully you guys can help, I’m on day 7 of cycling using fritz turbo start and the aglae barn nitrocycle/ pns substrate sauce, this is my first reef tank so i’m really nervous and was wondering if my cycle has stalled? or if i just need to be PATIENT? my ammonia is very low so i’m not sure what to do, should i ghost feed and keep waiting with no water change? or what do , pls send help photo is of todays tests, graph is overall from week

 

[fishski13]

So with these API test kit especially ammonia, they are notorious for being false positive. So it may be that you have 0 ammonia.

It looks like your nitrite is pretty high which signifies that your cycle probably started and all your ammonia got converted to nitrite. From your graphs you can see the ammonia went up and as it decreased your nitrite increased. Which is what normal cycle consist of. Now you see that the ammonia went down to 0 and the nitrite is slowly going down and nitrate is slowly going up. I would say you have a couple days left on the cycle until nitrite hits 0. This will probably result in nitrate somewhat high. So before your introduction of the first few pieces of livestock to the tank I would do a water change. You should also start to see algae blooms after the cycle finishes to signify it did finish. I would added any coral until a little bit after this.

 

[sleepy.sunny]

So with these API test kit especially ammonia, they are notorious for being false positive. So it may be that you have 0 ammonia.

It looks like your nitrite is pretty high which signifies that your cycle probably started and all your ammonia got converted to nitrite. From your graphs you can see the ammonia went up and as it decreased your nitrite increased. Which is what normal cycle consist of. Now you see that the ammonia went down to 0 and the nitrite is slowly going down and nitrate is slowly going up. I would say you have a couple days left on the cycle until nitrite hits 0. This will probably result in nitrate somewhat high. So before your introduction of the first few pieces of livestock to the tank I would do a water change. You should also start to see algae blooms after the cycle finishes to signify it did finish. I would added any coral until a little bit after this.

yayy awesome, thank you so much for your help!

 

[Jekyl]

Do a water change and add a fish or 2

 

[brandon429]

That’s correct here’s why:

Dr. Reefs bottle bac thread charts Fritz as fastest adhering to surfaces, done in 24-48 hours max. It doesn’t actually matter what the kits read, the # of days has passed for the investment made. It wasn’t cheap bac, and that sauce simply boosted and diversified it all anyway. It’s a good setup, it’s done. Given this long and those additions it can’t not be done, the test kits don’t matter, all you needed was a low level constant anyway this whole time. All factors are set, done.


it would have carried fish on day one just the same, with bacteria only in suspension / pre-attachment. Then in a day they’d lock onto surfaces and no water change could undo them. The specific reason you can do a water change is because no % of water changed now could ever remove the cycling bac, they are adhered.

 

[brandon429]

This is the exact progression your tank will take: after the recommended water change above and begin, your tank will carry the life you want it to, this is what all cycling threads show. The intended life, being carried daily just fine.

if you stop testing for ammonia and nitrite from here on out, you will enjoy reefing more than if you test for them using any kit


a secondary rule of updated cycling science is that after an assigned start date based on boosters used in a cycle arrangement, no further testing of ammonia and or nitrite is required for the life of the tank. The reason why: your cycle bac will never fail to control them, testing for something we already know is a waste of time.


there is no time from this day forward you need to test for ammonia or nitrite ever again, it won’t be a causative for any condition the display reef packed in surface area will ever see.

if fish die, that’s disease it’s not ammonia rising before a fish loss. Nitrite is never going to matter in your display, see Randy’s nitrite article online.

spend your days tinkering with all other params if you must


but not ammonia and nitrite, ever again, it’ll save you the worlds biggest waste of time tests in reefing.



there is no tank ever posted to this entire site that ever lost its cycle after having one established. The two most unneeded to own tests in reefing are, by poll actually on file already, ammonia and nitrite. Nitrite is the #1 most not needed to know param in all reefing, ammonia is second (what ammonia does is predictable without measure, it’s already been charted in your arrangement for example)

 

[brandon429]

Lastly, the reason a specific start date matters vs an open ended wait is it gives the keeper a clear marker for where waiting longer for a tank to get ready can’t make it safer for fish. There comes a time in cycling where the tank carries beyond what we want it to carry, and if we want to excel in fish disease prep we apply the stickies from the disease forum, to the new cycled tank, before stocking with fish. The tank will be able to carry fish long before any decent disease plan allows for you to stock fish



it’s not possible to make your tank safer for fish by waiting any longer. I know it’s hard to believe high nitrite isn’t toxic, but it’s got the top spot in most unneeded to know param in reefing specifically because saltwater happens to neutralize it. If this was freshwater we could legit panic. Because it’s saltwater, in a system packed in rock dosed with the top cycling arrangement in reefing given seven times the needed wait, ur all set. Choose a disease plan or just wing it like most do at the start. The tank will carry the intended bioload.

 

[sleepy.sunny]

Lastly, the reason a specific start date matters vs an open ended wait is it gives the keeper a clear marker for where waiting longer for a tank to get ready can’t make it safer for fish. There comes a time in cycling where the tank carries beyond what we want it to carry, and if we want to excel in fish disease prep we apply the stickies from the disease forum, to the new cycled tank, before stocking with fish. The tank will be able to carry fish long before any decent disease plan allows for you to stock fish



it’s not possible to make your tank safer for fish by waiting any longer. I know it’s hard to believe high nitrite isn’t toxic, but it’s got the top spot in most unneeded to know param in reefing specifically because saltwater happens to neutralize it. If this was freshwater we could legit panic. Because it’s saltwater, in a system packed in rock dosed with the top cycling arrangement in reefing given seven times the needed wait, ur all set. Choose a disease plan or just wing it like most do at the start. The tank will carry the intended bioload.

oh my goodness thank you so much for the deeper explanation! just what i needed to understand now, if i want to make a 10 gal quarantine, could i just plop a piece of bioblock from this system to create the qt? is it instantly cycled after putting that biomedia from my current tank? or should i wait for it to mature more?

 

[brandon429]

agreed that's instant cycle for the material moved over but the key is this: you need to approximate the placement and degree of surface area that a known running quarantine tank already uses in order for that to be safe. QT tanks don't use biobricks in 98% of setups, copy what works...a sponge filter or a hang on back filter packed with media. water hits a biobrick and flows around it, not through it, bypassing true filtration. unlike a HOB filter where water is literally channeled by pressure across the high surface area inserts.

Using the tests above it will be hard to discern if your quarantine is cycled again not due to any lack of bacteria, but the complexity of those nondigital kits always reading low level ammonia vs zero and using atypical filtration means meant for quarantine tanks.

placement matters as well: I have some folks take a bag of cycled spheres/media/and place them on the flooring of a QT


that's not the same as in a forced pressure channel filter, only the swirls of water that go down low randomly will be filtered in that setup where the biomedia is scattered on the floor of a tank. The keeper was better off putting their filter media as it's designed: in a canister filter to work all the water through the contact area

Your best way to make a quarantine is this: create one copying someone else's design and volume for the fish you want to house during observation. once you have the whole tank built and matching a known working setup, put in some more of this cycle mix you have into that quarantine then wait a week and change it's water, now that new QT is cycled. I wouldnt even bother testing much at all for it/the tests mislead.

if you apply fritz + feed + seven days wait to any surface area properly installed, it will carry the fish you want after that small wait.


for ammonia alerts in a qt, buy a seachem ammonia alert badge so you know when to change water in the qt weekly if that's required. among non digital test kits, that's a close helpful one to own.

 

[Trew321]

hI! hopefully you guys can help, I’m on day 7 of cycling using fritz turbo start and the aglae barn nitrocycle/ pns substrate sauce, this is my first reef tank so i’m really nervous and was wondering if my cycle has stalled? or if i just need to be PATIENT? my ammonia is very low so i’m not sure what to do, should i ghost feed and keep waiting with no water change? or what do , pls send help photo is of todays tests, graph is overall from week

I use the same test kit, my ammonia is 0 and my nitrite is same as yours. I have two clown fish, goby fish and a hermit crab all living in it for a month now.

 

[131696]

Dont be in a hurry, be patient this is your first reef tank, learn patience first just wait 6 weeks then test, Learn to be patience first thing in this hobby. Don't add fish do nothing just wait.