Water results. Help.

[Jayva]

The light is driving me crazy. Just took these tests.

 

Ammonia in natural light.

 

 

Ammonia in my kitchen light.

 

 

Nitrates in my kitchen light.

 

 

Nitrites are 0 it's blue. But last night I got a 1PPM spike and now it's 0.

 

Am I done cycling?

6.5lb live cured rock from established system.

10lbs live sand.

Dumped 100ML biospira in there.

[ReefWeeds]

How long has your tank been cycling? You want to make sure it has enough biofiltration to handle livestock.

[fishfreak0114]

The ammonia looks like 0ppm to me, and if nitrites are zero too, then yes, the cycle is done. Technically the nitrogen cycle never stops because the bacteria are always converting ammonia to nitrite to nitrate, but it is established. I would do a 50% water change and add a small CUC. Keep a close eye on parameters once they're in to make sure there's no spike.

[Jayva]

The ammonia looks like 0ppm to me, and if nitrites are zero too, then yes, the cycle is done. Technically the nitrogen cycle never stops because the bacteria are always converting ammonia to nitrite to nitrate, but it is established. I would do a 50% water change and add a small CUC. Keep a close eye on parameters once they're in to make sure there's no spike.

I'll give it another day or two before touching it. I'm gonna check the ammonia and nitrites again later tonight.

How long has your tank been cycling? You want to make sure it has enough biofiltration to handle livestock.

Like 5 days lol. But the rock was from a 3 year old tank. Kept in a bucket under water for about 10 mins and placed in this one.

[xilez]

Why not just wait another week?

[Jayva]

Why not just wait another week?

Probably will. I'm gonna dose it with 1 or 2 PPM of liquid ammonia and see how it looks in the morning. If it's 0 I'll do a WC. And add 3 hermits and 2 snails see how they do.

[NYfishies]

I would wait at least another week. Let my first tank cycle about 45 days and second tank 60 days. Let's not even talk how long we let the planted tank cycle lol.

 

Patience!!

[Jayva]

I couldn't find any clear ammonia. So leaving it alone. I don't got $50 bucks for fishes anyway til next week. I spent all my play money for the week lol.

[Clown79]

I'd wait. Did you have any nitrates?

I'd do a water change after a week, test, get cuc, test, then a fish.

 

I always check the test in natural light, all other light really makes it hard to tell- not much easier in natural either but better. Lol.

[ReefWeeds]

I couldn't find any clear ammonia. So leaving it alone. I don't got $50 bucks for fishes anyway til next week. I spent all my play money for the week lol.

pick up some Dr. Tim's ammonium chloride. It's only a few bucks on Amazon.

[ReefSafeSolutions]

Like 5 days lol. But the rock was from a 3 year old tank. Kept in a bucket under water for about 10 mins and placed in this one.

 

This right here is the important piece of information...the rock is 3 years old, certainly cured, and has been kept wet. Your cycle is for sure done.

 

If the rock is cured you might see a tiny little cycle, if you had anything die on the rocks while moving them, but you kept them underwater, so I don't think this is an issue.

 

Your tests are also proving the cycle is done. No ammonia, no nitrites...well, you saw a spike last night, but now it's gone. Cycle complete, as it only took 24 hours to process the nitrite.

 

 

 

If you think about it, how do all the companies who set up tanks at trade shows, conferences, MACNA, etc, have a tank set up so fast with fish and coral in it? I'm certain they didn't cycle the tanks in a day...

[Clown79]

It is possible. I had a very short cycle because I used cured rock as well. My cycle was done in 7 days but I continued slowly for fear of spikes.

 

All my other tanks took 3-6 weeks

[brandon429]

ReefSafe you are right, we wanted pics of this rock a few days ago to prove that point, likely cycled on day one as persistent low level .25 doesn't occur using live rocks transported in any manner where other living organisms can be seen crawling around, as stated, you called it. pending pics~

 

there is no time I can recall that moving live rocks caused sustained low level ammonia in our giant cycling threads unless clouds of detritus were moved too. am awr its claimed on lots of threads and tests fully agreed, but in our detailed cycling threads using live rocks we make it not occur.

 

I could tell that this thread was likely a skip cycle as well based on written details, the living items in the tank etc

 

people that set up tanks at giant marine aquarium conventions break similar rules its good trick.

[brandon429]

Ill add another thing as well regarding this cycling, its not about rushing vs not rushing...that's the common admonition. its about hesitancy and being unsure when there are options to predict what a reef tank does its entire lifespan. The reason its important to detail and know the cycling accuracies here, leaving nothing in question, is because at one point non hesitation actions will be required to save the tank, and the keeper will want to skip cycle with such actions. To not know them, to be unsure, to base every major action on a test kit that wasn't easy to discern true levels is simply the opposite of being deliberate, and the oldest reefs in the world are ran deliberately.

 

I could link ten threads where a decisive action was required to save a tank, a cycle was feared, no action was taken and either a crash or a huge algae invasion lasting mos took hold, all from that original cycling frame of reference (everything I do in minutiae causes cycling, not so)

 

 

 

 

this nerd detailing controls the lifespan of your tank and your $$, its not really about cycling. pending pics your cycle was completed in some other tank or ocean.