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Ammonia

Qckslvr

Qckslvr

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So my wife and I kicked off the 90 with Dr Tim’s All in One, and fed the tank Ammonium Chloride. Dr Tim’s claims ready same day, etc. I picked up a Salifert test kit, and it has been two days now. Each time I test the tank it is in the .15 range. Do we give it more time? Put more Dr Tim’s in?

The tank isn’t all virgin rock, we took two of the large rocks from our 30 and put them in the sump.
 
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Fishless cycle usually takes 2weeks to a month. You add dead rock and live rock to seed. Then bottle bacteria ( optional ). You add your ammonia to whatever the bottle says. Then you wait. Ammonia will go up then down. Nitrite will go up then down. Nitrate will go up then down. Then your cycle is complete. You have a new baby aquarium that is just born. You need to treat it like a baby. Slow and steady. At this point. You can add more ammonia and it should be all gone in two to three days. That’s how your supposed to do a Fishless cycle.
 
How much all in one did you use, and how much ammonia? Ammonia stalling when you used the bottle bac and when seeded with existing rocks seems unexpected.

No chance you dumped a crap ton of ammonia in there? Additionally are you confident in your ammonia reading? Salifert hopefully is reliable, but I know the API ammonia test can give incorrect non-zero readings.

Also if you're adding any more ammonia, I'd pause on that. For me, once I see ammonia zero I'd consider it good to go for initial items.
 
highly recommend waiting until undetectable or at minimum exceedingly low ammonia reading before adding livestock of any kind. To answer directly, yes, give it more time.

Adding seeded media can speed this up significantly. If ammonia is not decreasing, I wouldn’t add any more for the time being
 
Despite what companies claim on the bottle, there is no such thing as an instant cycle. I once did an experiment (in freshwater, but still relevant) where I tried different bottled bacteria products compared against pre-cycled media and a control.

Below was a picture of my setup. Four containers with water, ceramic media, and an airstone for some water movement.
1770210554715.png


I dosed each container with 2ppm ammonia and measured every couple of days. Guess which finished first? Yep... cycled media. After 19 days, neither bottled product made a significant dent in the ammonia.

1770210618561.png


That's not to say the bottled products do nothing, both finished faster than the control:
1770210780099.png


I was surprised it took 32 days to clear ammonia using these products as directed! Definitely not instant. Low temps in my house (60F-70F) probably slowed things down a bit. My takeaway is that pre-seeded media is far more effective than any product you can buy in a bottle.

Definitely wait for that ammonia to clear before adding livestock. Add more seeded media if you want to speed it up. As others pointed out, the club has seeded polyp lab blocks you can borrow.

Good luck!
 
PizzaOven said:
Despite what companies claim on the bottle, there is no such thing as an instant cycle. I once did an experiment (in freshwater, but still relevant) where I tried different bottled bacteria products compared against pre-cycled media and a control.

Below was a picture of my setup. Four containers with water, ceramic media, and an airstone for some water movement.
View attachment 77119

I dosed each container with 2ppm ammonia and measured every couple of days. Guess which finished first? Yep... cycled media. After 19 days, neither bottled product made a significant dent in the ammonia.

View attachment 77120

That's not to say the bottled products do nothing, both finished faster than the control:
View attachment 77121

I was surprised it took 32 days to clear ammonia using these products as directed! Definitely not instant. Low temps in my house (60F-70F) probably slowed things down a bit. My takeaway is that pre-seeded media is far more effective than any product you can buy in a bottle.

Definitely wait for that ammonia to clear before adding livestock. Add more seeded media if you want to speed it up. As others pointed out, the club has seeded polyp lab blocks you can borrow.

Good luck!
Click to expand...


Great experiment and duly noted for future tank starts!
 
richiev said:
How much all in one did you use, and how much ammonia? Ammonia stalling when you used the bottle bac and when seeded with existing rocks seems unexpected.

No chance you dumped a crap ton of ammonia in there? Additionally are you confident in your ammonia reading? Salifert hopefully is reliable, but I know the API ammonia test can give incorrect non-zero readings.

Also if you're adding any more ammonia, I'd pause on that. For me, once I see ammonia zero I'd consider it good to go for initial items.
Click to expand...
We use a whole 8oz bottle of One and Only, and 4 teaspoons of Ammonium Chloride. 4 drops per gallon, 100 drops = 1 teaspoon, tank is roughly 100 gallons.
 
It’s a cool experiment
But if you’re trying to cycle your tank, I recommend you get some bio from all the good reefs you can,
just a little sander or rubble, bio blocks in the dbtc,
 
I have a rock you can have from @Darkxerox dad's tank that's was running for 27years if I remembercorrectly. Covered in yellow sponges. Would be the best media you can start a tank with.

I can with 99% assurance say that Vermatids are the only possible pest.

I broke down my frag system today and I had 4 of them in the sump.
 
MichaelB said:
I have a rock you can have from @Darkxerox dad's tank that's was running for 27years if I remembercorrectly. Covered in yellow sponges. Would be the best media you can start a tank with.

I can with 99% assurance say that Vermatids are the only possible pest.

I broke down my frag system today and I had 4 of them in the sump.
Click to expand...
That is gold you have and newbies don’t even know it.
 
I second the yellow gold slime on live rocks! Every tank I start with it instantly cycles with no need for bottled bacteria. Plus there’s no ugly stage. But combining with new rock will set you back a bit. But regardless I normally let the tank chill for a few weeks so everything gels plus rearranging finalizing the scape a few times. You move one rock or coral then it’s like a domino and want to shimmy others!

@Qckslvr
With your info appears tank is not cycled plus without knowing the original ammonia levels in the beginning? Frankly I never bother wasting time and testing until a couple weeks have past in general but dosing ammonia or ghost feeding every two-three days or so is important to keep beneficial bacteria going strong.
Add enough pure ammonia so tank reads about 2.0ppm, then retest in 24 hrs. Ammonia will have gone up then drop down plus nitrates will be moving around. Don't bother testing for nitrites during your cycle. After 24hrs If ammonia is zero then you should be close. You can run another 2 ppm ammonia test to verify results... Add some pods a few cucs crab or two and feed them every couple days. Do a water change a few days before adding a fish and just go slow. The good bacteria basically has build and catch up upon every fish being introduced in system. I think your limited existing live rock is better used up in the main display for now since theirs alot of living organisms growing on it for critters to pick and feed off like a dog bone!
Good luck !
 
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