GNT Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 Would appreciate any feedback on the subject the group might have. I am curing 25lbs of dry Pukani Rock. Typical setup, brute can, power heads, 82 degrees. My ammonia spiked in the first few days starting 1/23. 9 days later 2/1 and I still don't see any signs of nitrite. Question is, what is a typical timeframe by which I should expect to see some traces? I anticipated seeing something by now. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Link to comment
Mariaface Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 Has ammonia come down at all? Nitrite will spike when the bacteria that use ammonia do. You can dose bacteria using something like Stability, Microbakter, Bio Spira, etc, but it's really a matter of time. It can be weeks before they get settled (especially if some sort of chemical is prohibiting them). Link to comment
GNT Posted February 2, 2016 Author Share Posted February 2, 2016 Thanks for the response. Ammonia has been off the hart 8.0+ and have not seen any drop. I used to water and was surprised at how high ammonia went. Is there any negative impacts to having ammonia so high ? Happy to wait, just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something. Of course now that I have asked for directions nitrites will show up Link to comment
GNT Posted February 2, 2016 Author Share Posted February 2, 2016 By the way, fantastic tank! Link to comment
Mariaface Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 Having ammonia higher than around 3-4ppm will actually debilitate the bacterial growth. A water change might be in order, and then you'll be on your way! Thanks! I'm actually waiting until I've got a metric ton of corals glued down this week, so I can update the thread. Sheesh, it's been so long. Link to comment
GNT Posted February 2, 2016 Author Share Posted February 2, 2016 Thanks. Will do and keep you posted. Link to comment
Simulated Fish Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 Would appreciate any feedback on the subject the group might have. I am curing 25lbs of dry Pukani Rock. Typical setup, brute can, power heads, 82 degrees. My ammonia spiked in the first few days starting 1/23. 9 days later 2/1 and I still don't see any signs of nitrite. Question is, what is a typical timeframe by which I should expect to see some traces? I anticipated seeing something by now. Any help would be greatly appreciated! It is a silly question but did you add any bottled bacteria? Link to comment
GNT Posted February 3, 2016 Author Share Posted February 3, 2016 No silly questions, but no I didn't. Is it fair to say bacteria are not present if I utilize dry rock to begin with? Any my tank arrives tomorrow ! Anticipate just cleaning as much organic material from the Rock and they cycling/curing in the tank. Will figure it all out before I introduce fish Link to comment
Simulated Fish Posted February 3, 2016 Share Posted February 3, 2016 No silly questions, but no I didn't. Is it fair to say bacteria are not present if I utilize dry rock to begin with? Any my tank arrives tomorrow ! Anticipate just cleaning as much organic material from the Rock and they cycling/curing in the tank. Will figure it all out before I introduce fish The bacteria are not there, rather any that naturally makes it in will take forever to multiply. So as of now you really don't have any bacteria in the water to break down into the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate cycle. Your doing exactly what I did with my pukani. Unless your wanting to wait a 3,4,5,6,1561873 months for the p04 to leach out I would do a vinegar/acid dip a few times and throw it into the tank and then add the bacteria into the tank. I used microbac 7 to get my cycle going and within 3 days my cycle was jump started. I am at day 20 and the bacteria is keeping the ammonia levels at zero from the organics I could not get out of the rock. Before adding microbac 7 it was holding at 4-8ppm without any drop. Right now my nitrites are still 5ppm+ but nitrates have spiked over 120ppm in 2 days. so i am doing a large WC first chance I get. then waiting another week to make sure nitrites can zero out. Link to comment
brandon429 Posted February 3, 2016 Share Posted February 3, 2016 team don't forget, nitrites/zero are no longer required in tank cycling. Totally established tanks can show them, they matter not. Thought it would help to free up your times by discounting whatever nitrites say. Your ammonia digestion and your nitrate matter, just not the trite to any degree. Proofs buried here: http://reef2reef.com/threads/new-tank-cycling-tank-bacteria-and-cocktail-shrimp-live-rock-no-shrimp.214618/ Google Nitrite in the reef aquarium by RHF Link to comment
GNT Posted February 3, 2016 Author Share Posted February 3, 2016 All, appreciate the feedback. Tank arrives today and plan to get system set up and cycle/cure in the tank. I didn't realize it until I removed the rock, but there was significant organic matter in the bottom. Old sponge, etc. spent a few hours and think I got the majority of it. Lack of bio load makes sense now. When I cycled my first tank many moons ago I used live rock. It makes sense there was already an established bacteria load present and makes sense as to why I see different results using dry rock. I will cycle tank until I see an ammonia spike and then add some bacteria to help the next level. Will keep you updated on this thread and my tank build as well. Link to comment
Simulated Fish Posted February 3, 2016 Share Posted February 3, 2016 All, appreciate the feedback. Tank arrives today and plan to get system set up and cycle/cure in the tank. I didn't realize it until I removed the rock, but there was significant organic matter in the bottom. Old sponge, etc. spent a few hours and think I got the majority of it. Lack of bio load makes sense now. When I cycled my first tank many moons ago I used live rock. It makes sense there was already an established bacteria load present and makes sense as to why I see different results using dry rock. I will cycle tank until I see an ammonia spike and then add some bacteria to help the next level. Will keep you updated on this thread and my tank build as well. Trust me that amount of organic crap in Pukani you can add the bacteria day one with no worries Link to comment
GNT Posted February 3, 2016 Author Share Posted February 3, 2016 Very good. Was hoping that was today. Unfortunately tank arrives with a side caved in. BRS customer service said they would handle it and get a new one out to me early next week. We will see. Link to comment
Simulated Fish Posted February 4, 2016 Share Posted February 4, 2016 Very good. Was hoping that was today. Unfortunately tank arrives with a side caved in. BRS customer service said they would handle it and get a new one out to me early next week. We will see. That is never fun. I keep hearing about this more and more... Link to comment
GNT Posted February 4, 2016 Author Share Posted February 4, 2016 The GOOD news is the guys at BRS were a class act. Got a tank out same day. Link to comment
GNT Posted February 20, 2016 Author Share Posted February 20, 2016 Tank is in the process of a good cycle. Appreciate the note on bacteria. Ammonia is zero and nitrites/nitrates are elevated as scheduled Link to comment
Simulated Fish Posted February 20, 2016 Share Posted February 20, 2016 Tank is in the process of a good cycle. Appreciate the note on bacteria. Ammonia is zero and nitrites/nitrates are elevated as scheduled Glad to hear it's on track, can't wait to see it stocked! Link to comment
GNT Posted February 26, 2016 Author Share Posted February 26, 2016 Looks like Nitrates have peaked and are now and the descent. Diatoms are blooming. At what point do I add the CUC? Is it after cycle or as I see diatoms ? Thanks all! Link to comment
brandon429 Posted February 26, 2016 Share Posted February 26, 2016 Diatoms are hand removed independent of the cycle and cuc ideally. The tank doesn't benefit by leaving them in...since cuc is a bioload, and you won't be able to spike ammonia with them in tow, they go in only after ammonia digestion is verified and the cycle is done. No other parameter other than ammonia going from some to zero is handy to know in a cycle. Link to comment
GNT Posted February 26, 2016 Author Share Posted February 26, 2016 Thanks Brandon. My Ammonia spiked and dropped to zero. Nitrite and Nitrate are still present and looks like Nitrite is on the downward. I will scrape the algae and wait for full cycle completion before assign CUC of any kind. Thanks for the quick response.. Now I understand the "itch" to get stuff in the pretty tank! Link to comment
Mariaface Posted February 26, 2016 Share Posted February 26, 2016 Make sure you keep dosing ammonia to get to 1-2ppm every day; you want to come back and see 0ppm 24 hours later. It'd be bad to have your ammonia-processing bacteria starve by the time nitrites came all the way down.. :/ Link to comment
Simulated Fish Posted February 27, 2016 Share Posted February 27, 2016 Make sure you keep dosing ammonia to get to 1-2ppm every day; you want to come back and see 0ppm 24 hours later. It'd be bad to have your ammonia-processing bacteria starve by the time nitrites came all the way down.. :/ Good point I definitely assumed he was ghost feeding Link to comment
GNT Posted February 27, 2016 Author Share Posted February 27, 2016 I have not been ghost feeding. The dry rock I am using has a bit of material left on it. I was making the assumption that it was enough to start and maintain the cycle until I added my first stock. Should I be dosing pure ammonia to artificially elevate prior to stocking? If so, do big box box retailers sell and if so what brand, etc? Link to comment
Simulated Fish Posted February 27, 2016 Share Posted February 27, 2016 I have not been ghost feeding. The dry rock I am using has a bit of material left on it. I was making the assumption that it was enough to start and maintain the cycle until I added my first stock. Should I be dosing pure ammonia to artificially elevate prior to stocking? If so, do big box box retailers sell and if so what brand, etc? You can get pure ammonia at most hardware stores it's usually only a couple dollars. The die off from Pukani is really heavy. Did you do an acid bath at all or vinegar bath? I did vinegar and still had enough die off I didn't need to add any additional ammonia. I did not sure mine though, straight to the tank after a bath and rinse. Link to comment
joines77 Posted February 27, 2016 Share Posted February 27, 2016 I did the same with my pukani. Bleach bath, vinegar bath then soaked i ro/di and prime for a couple of days I also scrubed all the nastys off in between each process. Link to comment
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