How much to Ghost feed?

[Picogoby]

I am cycling dry rock in a small 3gal tank ready for the new tank. I have added 3 types of bacteria blends and test so far are showing 0.75ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrite and nitrate rising about 2ppm a day form 0 to now 6ppm.

i have ghost fed a frozen mixed food cube a day, each day for the past 3 days and it is great to see the ammonia going to nitrate and no nitrite, but the ammonia never drops below 0.5ppm? 
should I skip a ghost feed for a day and see if ammonia totally disappears in 24hrs?

[Picogoby]

2 hours ago, Picogoby said:

I am cycling dry rock in a small 3gal tank ready for the new tank. I have added 3 types of bacteria blends and test so far are showing 0.75ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrite and nitrate rising about 2ppm a day form 0 to now 6ppm.

i have ghost fed a frozen mixed food cube a day, each day for the past 3 days and it is great to see the ammonia going to nitrate and no nitrite, but the ammonia never drops below 0.5ppm? 
should I skip a ghost feed for a day and see if ammonia totally disappears in 24hrs?

Bump!

[Clown79]

 

 

Ghost feeding method is harder to control with obtaining certain levels because you don't know how much to feed to get to the levels you need.

 

That's why ppl started ammonia dosing. With that you try to achieve 2ppm of ammonia to process in 24hrs.

 

Your numbers look like your cycle is just starting. 6ppm nitrate isn't very high. Did your ammonia ever get to 1ppm? 

[Picogoby]

1 minute ago, Clown79 said:

 

 

Ghost feeding method is harder to control with obtaining certain levels because you don't know how much to feed to get to the levels you need.

 

That's why ppl started ammonia dosing. With that you try to achieve 2ppm of ammonia to process in 24hrs.

 

Your numbers look like your cycle is just starting. 6ppm nitrate isn't very high. Did your ammonia ever get to 1ppm? 

Ammonia went from 0- 1.5ppm over the first 4 days and has now dropped back to 0.5ppm for the past 2 days. Nitrate was reading 0 on the first day and was up to 6ppm yesterday afternoon.

the bit that is confusing me is that I have never had a nitrite reading, it has stayed at 0ppm the whole time?

[Picogoby]

Maybe I should add 2 cubes a day?? Which would be more than double the amount I would normally be feeding when the tank is established?

[SaltyGallon]

I'd go with what Clown said - could you get hold of some ammonia like below? That way at least you'd know what you're putting in. You're getting nitates, so that's good, but typically you'd expect much higher nitrates like 80ppm when the cycle's completed. 6ppm or similar would suggest that your cycle is only partially completed or you haven't put enough ammonia in to begin with.

 

https://store.drtimsaquatics.com/Ammonium-Chloride-Solution-for-Fishless-Cycling.html

[Clown79]

8 hours ago, Picogoby said:

Maybe I should add 2 cubes a day?? Which would be more than double the amount I would normally be feeding when the tank is established?

The problem with ghost feeding is that you need to wait for it to break down and create ammoni, there is no way of controlling it, it also adds waste into the tank.

 

Ammonia dosing is preferable because you can control it and its cleaner 

 

Unfortunately, there is no set amount of food to determine the amount of ammonia you need to produce which is 1-2ppm processed in 24hrs.

 

0.50-0.75 indicates the beginning of your cycle. 

 

A fresh deli shrimp in a media bag might be more effective.