Drewposi Posted April 12, 2016 Share Posted April 12, 2016 So I'm on day 12 of my new cycle of the nuvo 20 reef I've put together. I used the shrimp technique for about 48 hours as well as using a marineland bacteria product designed to "instantly cycle" a new tank. I did not test water levels for the first 9 days due to a death in the family and not having time to get a quality water testing kit. I have one now on day 12 and my numbers look like this. Ammonia - .25 to .50 Nitrite - 4 to 5 Nitrate - 5-10 PH - 7.8 Now my question is does this seem right for only 12 days? It sucks that I wasn't able to test after the shrimp decayed for 2 days. I took the shrimp out on day 5 and fired up the Ghost desktop skimmer. The water is crystal clear but I've got no algae growing at all.. I'm concerned that I didn't get an amonia spike. I've never used this bacteria stuff and didn't know if it was possible for the cycle could be this close done after only 12 days. HELP! I feel like I'm over thinking the whole thing what do you think?!?! Link to comment
Jai Sakura Posted April 12, 2016 Share Posted April 12, 2016 Your cycle is currently working. The bottled bacteria which consists of bacteria consuming ammonia and nitrite are doing their job. Let your bacteria consume all of the ammonia and nitrite. Once your parameters are: Ammonia: 0 Nitrite: 0 Nitrates: (5-10) + (Whatever is produced in the next couple days) Your cycle will be complete. At this point, I would recommend a water change to reduce the nitrates to about 5-10 ppm. Nitrates are much harder to remove as it is hard to produce the environment for nitrate consuming bacteria and because it is hard, most tanks have very little nitrate consuming bacteria. You will need to research up on what method you would like to use to remove nitrates. Link to comment
Laybackk Posted April 12, 2016 Share Posted April 12, 2016 You're just over thinking bro, no worries. The process will take a while, so just continue to change the water and test. Link to comment
tsouth Posted April 12, 2016 Share Posted April 12, 2016 Don't let algae be an indicator of your cycle either! You're definitely on the right track. The fact that you have ammonia in your tank is a great start, and even better that you've got it coming on the down. Best of luck Link to comment
Drewposi Posted April 12, 2016 Author Share Posted April 12, 2016 Yea. I'm hoping its on the way down. I could be wrong because I never checked it right after the shrimp was in there. Could be on the way up guess I'll just have to keep checking. Thanks for all the responses! Link to comment
Drewposi Posted April 15, 2016 Author Share Posted April 15, 2016 So did another test tonight. Amonia at 0!! Nitrites off the chart (higher than 5 ppm) and Nitrate is like 30-40!! Only on like day 15 or so. Should I do a little 5 gallon change to get those down or just let it roll? Also I've been adding a pinch of flakes every couple days should I stop that till I add my CUC? Again I've been out of the game for awhile need some help! Thanks! Link to comment
Drewposi Posted April 15, 2016 Author Share Posted April 15, 2016 WTF!! did a water change last night. And now today tanks all cloudy and Amonia is back testing at .5 ppm! Wtf is going on.. Link to comment
Dylan.N Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 Maybe a bacterial bloom? Patience is key here. Link to comment
Drewposi Posted April 15, 2016 Author Share Posted April 15, 2016 Maybe a bacterial bloom? Patience is key here. Yea I know it just sucks! I'm thinking maybe the water I used. Used my filtered tap water but didn't condition it. That's probably the culprit. Link to comment
Dylan.N Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 Always use distilled if you don't have RO/DI Link to comment
Drewposi Posted April 19, 2016 Author Share Posted April 19, 2016 Day 15. Still no amonia and Nitrites somewhere between 1 and 2 ppm. Hoping it's ready by the end of the week! Link to comment
Clown79 Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 You shouldn't do a water chsnge during a cycle. You disturbed the cycle and its starting again. A Water changes should be done once ammonia and nitrites are at 0, then test for another week. If after that those 2 remain at zero, then the cycle is done Link to comment
Drewposi Posted April 24, 2016 Author Share Posted April 24, 2016 So quick question. I had to move this weekend. I'm in my new place now and got the tank back setup. I drained the majority of the water into 2 6 gallon jugs and moved it across town. Set it back up about an hour after taking it down and let it clear up for a couple hours. I then did another test and amonia still at 0 and Nitrites and STILL lingering around 1-2 ppm. With moving the tank and disturbing everything did I screw anything up? Link to comment
Clown79 Posted May 5, 2016 Share Posted May 5, 2016 So you set the tank couldn't test the first 9 days. Then the ammonia and nitrite dropped to zero. You then did a water change and it went back up. You then moved the tank and now have nitrites reappearing. When you started cycling what did you do to get the cycle started? How much liverock do you have in the tank? Its a fairly new tank and moving a newly cycled tank may have spiked a mini cycle. Link to comment
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