Simulated Fish Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 Hello! I'm currently establishing my bacteria filter and I'm beginning to worry a little bit. I bought Pukani dry Rick and dry tropical edan flaks sand. I did a vinager scrub on the Pukani and cleaned it as best as I could. I know there is die off that I couldn't get to and I expected to just use that to provide an ammonia source for the cycle. I used aquavitro seed to provide the bacteria. Right now I am looking at about 2 weeks since I added water. 3 - 4 days into establishing my bac ammonia hit 4ppm and my nitrite started to rise. Awesome I thought the ball is rolling. Then a couple of days later my ammonia was still between 4-8ppm and nitrates were maxing out the test kit 5ppm+ but no nitrates... Maybe 5ppm but I doubt it. Waited a couple days but no change in levels so I did a 20% water change on day 9. This brought levels back down ammonia 2ppm nitrates 2ppm. So here I am on day 13 ammonia 4-8 ppm nitrates 5ppm++ and little to ZERO nitrates, honestly I think I'm just wanting it to read 5ppm but it is zero lol. Should I just wait it out? Should I get some biospira? IDK if the SEED bac had what I needed, plus it had been opened about 5 months ago when I got my Biocube. I considered getting some live rock but with the ammonia so high I worry it would kill off anything that comes for the ride. Should I pull the rock and do another vinager bath and start over? I know the sand will still have live bac in it but seems like a waste to kill it all in the rock. So I'm looking for your guys thoughts and comments since I have never used dryrock. I know it takes longer but I expected nitrate production by now. Link to comment
MLS_Reef Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 Your ammonia is sufficiently high... Sop feeding the tank stop waterchanging .. If you have nothing live in the tank (critters) turn the temp up to 82 ans wait until the ammonia ddrops to zero.. The elevated temp will increase the speed of the cycle... Link to comment
Simulated Fish Posted January 25, 2016 Author Share Posted January 25, 2016 Your ammonia is sufficiently high... Sop feeding the tank stop waterchanging .. If you have nothing live in the tank (critters) turn the temp up to 82 ans wait until the ammonia ddrops to zero.. The elevated temp will increase the speed of the cycle... I haven't been dosing any ammonia, it is the left over dieoff that I couldn't clean in the Pukani. Temp is 78 but I don't have a good heater. We have a great HVAC system so I only have a little heater to bump it up that extra 3-4 degrees. I'll go buy a larger heater tomorrow. So you suggest bump the temp and wait it out? Link to comment
MLS_Reef Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 If your rock has such a huge die off you could just rinse it in fresh water to get rid of the debris. The way the cycle works is about ammonia elimination. Ammonia to nitrite is the first step and your cycle becomes solid by eliminating a constant feed of ammonia. Until your tank zeros out its ammonia its not worth measureing the rest... Increasing the temp and waiting for zero ammonia is what i would do... Link to comment
Tamberav Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 Day 13 isn't very far into a dry rock cycle. I generally give mine 4-6 weeks. Even if you add bottle bacteria, it still takes time compared to live rock. Do not run any lights, this will help prevent algae before you get to the big water change stage. Link to comment
CronicReefer Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 If you want to speed up the process I'd recommend a product like Microbacter7. Without constantly adding bacteria you are going to wait much longer for them to multiply. Average tank cycle is 30-45 days when doing the fishless cycle without the addition of bacteria. Took me 8 days with dosing Microbacter7 with initial ammonia at over 10ppm. And like others have said the die off will just increase the time of cycling until the bacteria are able to catch up. Link to comment
Simulated Fish Posted January 25, 2016 Author Share Posted January 25, 2016 Day 13 isn't very far into a dry rock cycle. I generally give mine 4-6 weeks. Even if you add bottle bacteria, it still takes time compared to live rock. Do not run any lights, this will help prevent algae before you get to the big water change stage. That's what I expected but I've only cycled with LR so the levels have me worried. Nope no lights! Just ambient light from household lighting sources. Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.