Cycling help please!

[L.bacchus88]

Hey guys, I've been cycling my 29G biocube for 30 days using dry rock/live sand and dosing with ammonia drops. The tank can zero out 3 ppm of ammonia in 24 hours, but it takes about 48 hours to zero the nitrite. I also haven't seen much algae at all, literally like a couple tiny dots of it, that's it. Does this seem right? My question is should I keep dosing with ammonia? How much longer do you think I'm going to be waiting before I can add anything? Thanks!

[Rural]

imo once the tank can safely handle 10-15 ppm ammonia you are solid. start with CUC and also get some small new real LR to add as the cycle did havoc on the original as well if real LR, but as it was dry, you still need to add some stuff to get what you seek (more life)... it will reseed easy as well. that should take less than a week usually.

 

again imo, once the tank can support a full CUC and you can feed like your feeding a fish, but there are none in it for 2 days, and tanks params are ok, then add fish now as you have proven it can be done safely.

 

or, if you have no soul, just add everything now!

[CronicReefer]

If your tank can handle that much ammonia in 24 hours you can start adding some livestock. I'd start with one small fish till you see some more algae then add your clean up crew. Nitrite is not toxic in saltwater except at levels your tank could never achieve. Sounds like things are progressing well for your tank. Nitrates should also be under 20ppm before adding any fish but should ultimately be close to 0ppm.

[Cencalfishguy56]

Hey guys, I've been cycling my 29G biocube for 30 days using dry rock/live sand and dosing with ammonia drops. The tank can zero out 3 ppm of ammonia in 24 hours, but it takes about 48 hours to zero the nitrite. I also haven't seen much algae at all, literally like a couple tiny dots of it, that's it. Does this seem right? My question is should I keep dosing with ammonia? How much longer do you think I'm going to be waiting before I can add anything? Thanks!

once you start adding things you'll start seeing algae, I did dry rock and sand, introduced macros and a fish after my cycle and had not seen an algae bloom till I introduced livestock then bam got my algae cycles haha

[L.bacchus88]

Thanks guys! Yeah I wasn't sure if I should add the CUC crew before I had an algae bloom or not. I was also under the impression that the ammonia and the nitrite had to be completely clear within 24 hours, but idk. I didn't want to use any live rock because I prefer zero hitchhikers. We'll see how it goes. :-) I am a little nervous to add anything yet with the high nitrite reading after 24 hours. It does go go 0 within 48 hours but it's very high at 24 hours. I just wasn't sure if I should be adding more ammonia every day. Maybe I'll wait another couple weeks to be safe.

[brandon429]

Agreed so far

 

Your live sand is probably doing much of the work until rock catches up, but 2 ppm is higher than most entry bioload so it doesn't matter. We can search around and find nitrite readings (test brand matters too) in years old tanks who simply rearranged rock then took a nitrite/amm tests and found one or both. Doesn't mean those readings were accurate, or sustained past ten mins, or significant. We like to forego nitrite testing altogether and go off the known submersion time frames and ammonia behavior

 

For sure if you are thirty days submerged adding ammonia, it digests a few ppm 24 hours, and you seeded the tank (live sand part) you can begin

 

When you see that algae start next month, remove it by hand never set your tank up for an invasion. While it's appearance signals the maturing new reef, keeping it on purpose in the system is not required.

[Clown79]

You'll get hitchikers even through adding coral. They can come in on the tiniest but of rock.

 

Most hitchikers are beneficial ones.

 

I have always preffered adding 10% LR in my tanks-no issues with cycle, seeds my dry rock quickly.

[L.bacchus88]

I was going to add a yellow head Jawfish as my first occupant and wait a few weeks to add anything else. You think I'm ok to add him at this point? I don't want to f anything up. Lol

[Rural]

inverts and clean up crew first. then let that stabilize and after you can simulate added bioload of fish by adding uneaten fish food as descibed above, then you KNOW you can handle the fish

[L.bacchus88]

Ok, maybe I'll add some snails, feed them fish food, and add the jawfish in a couple weeks. Thanks

[CronicReefer]

Ok, maybe I'll add some snails, feed them fish food, and add the jawfish in a couple weeks. Thanks

There is no need to wait for fish. You already waited by cycling the tank past 2ppm in 24hours. A couple nassarius after the fish has been in the tank for a few days would be good for cleaning up extra scraps. You also need to have a proper sand bed for long term health of the jawfish so make sure you have provided that as well.

[L.bacchus88]

Yeah, I have about 5-6 inches of sand in the back of the tank with a ton of rock rubble, shells, etc. the fish store told me to add 1 fish before the inverts. I'll double check all my levels after a big water change and make sure. :-)

[Cencalfishguy56]

Yeah, I have about 5-6 inches of sand in the back of the tank with a ton of rock rubble, shells, etc. the fish store told me to add 1 fish before the inverts. I'll double check all my levels after a big water change and make sure. :-)

you can do either one but they are probably saying the fish because they will create a bigger bioload