How to keep bacteria alive?

[roblox84]

How much ammonia should I add to my 20 gallon to keep bacteria alive after a tank cycle? Should i keep adding enough ammonia to bring it up to something like 3ppm and then wait until it goes back down again to redose?

[patback]

1 hour ago, roblox84 said:

How much ammonia should I add to my 20 gallon to keep bacteria alive after a tank cycle? Should i keep adding enough ammonia to bring it up to something like 3ppm and then wait until it goes back down again to redose?

If the tank cycled there is no reason to add ammonia.  

[SliceGolfer]

If the tank is cycled, add livestock 

[Clown79]

Once the tank is cycled, you don't need to add more ammonia.

 

The bacteria will not die, it takes drastic measures for bacteria to die, like taking the rock out and letting it dry up 

[roblox84]

9 hours ago, SliceGolfer said:

If the tank is cycled, add livestock 

I can't. All pet stores are closed in my area, and I can't get fish shipped here.

 

It'll be a month or two before the lockdown is lifted and I'll be able to order fish.

[KMitch]

8 minutes ago, roblox84 said:

I can't. All pet stores are closed in my area, and I can't get fish shipped here.

 

It'll be a month or two before the lockdown is lifted and I'll be able to order fish.

You can just put a little bit of fish food into the tank and let the bacteria break it down. It's called "ghost feeding" the tank

[Tamberav]

38 minutes ago, roblox84 said:

I can't. All pet stores are closed in my area, and I can't get fish shipped here.

 

It'll be a month or two before the lockdown is lifted and I'll be able to order fish.

 

The bacteria won't just die off easily. Can you get a CUC shipped? 

 

I would probably turn on the lights and add a cuc and let the tank goes through its normal processes so its super ready for fish and corals when the time comes 🙂

[roblox84]

53 minutes ago, Tamberav said:

 

The bacteria won't just die off easily. Can you get a CUC shipped? 

 

I would probably turn on the lights and add a cuc and let the tank goes through its normal processes so its super ready for fish and corals when the time comes 🙂

I probably could if Reefcleaners is still shipping. But only thing is all my packages are being delivered a few days late so it would depend on how long a CUC can last in shipping.

 

Even if I did add a CUC wouldn't they eventually just die in my tank due to no algae?

[Tamberav]

15 minutes ago, roblox84 said:

I probably could if Reefcleaners is still shipping. But only thing is all my packages are being delivered a few days late so it would depend on how long a CUC can last in shipping.

 

Even if I did add a CUC wouldn't they eventually just die in my tank due to no algae?

 

Tanks can certainly have algae without needing any fish. If only it was that easy!! Everything poops ;d Worms.. the cuc... the coral!

 

You can still get fish from LA, Bluezoo, NY Aquatic atm. Coral venders are still going.

 

No tank needs fish to run properly. Many small pico's don't have them. 

 

If you want to pick up fish locally to save on shipping, you can wait on those and just get your cuc and coral life going instead. 

 

You can also do nothing, I put cycled rock in a bin in my basement with flow... for a year and it was still full of worms and live asterina stars a year later with no feeding and no light. Must have been living off debris and bacteria. The rock was certainly still cycled.

[roblox84]

30 minutes ago, Tamberav said:

 

Tanks can certainly have algae without needing any fish. If only it was that easy!! Everything poops ;d Worms.. the cuc... the coral!

 

You can still get fish from LA, Bluezoo, NY Aquatic atm. Coral venders are still going.

 

No tank needs fish to run properly. Many small pico's don't have them. 

 

If you want to pick up fish locally to save on shipping, you can wait on those and just get your cuc and coral life going instead. 

 

You can also do nothing, I put cycled rock in a bin in my basement with flow... for a year and it was still full of worms and live asterina stars a year later with no feeding and no light. Must have been living off debris and bacteria. The rock was certainly still cycled.

I was thinking of ordering fish but with the shipping delays I'm worried the fish might not last 2-3 days in a bag. I know my local stores, saltwaterfish.com and some others stopped shipping due to the delays but maybe I'll contact the others and see if they will still honor their warranty.

[Tamberav]

5 hours ago, roblox84 said:

I was thinking of ordering fish but with the shipping delays I'm worried the fish might not last 2-3 days in a bag. I know my local stores, saltwaterfish.com and some others stopped shipping due to the delays but maybe I'll contact the others and see if they will still honor their warranty.

My LFS just got in fish yesterday (limited but common stuff is coming in still).

 

Saltwaterfish says on their webiste they are not shipping due to difficulty of getting live stock due to shelter in place orders and limited cargo space from places like australia or indo... etc.

 

As far as I can tell... the coral venders are still open and operating and they have to ship overnight too.

 

[SliceGolfer]

One of my LFSs is shipping from live sales on their website

[roblox84]

So I'm still in the cycling phase and I noticed my nitrites were off the charts and haven't budged for several days. Ammonia was falling to 0 so I kept adding more to bring the levels up to 2ppm each time.

 

Today I changed about 85 percent off the water in my tank and retested nitrites and they were still very high (dark purple) on API test kit. Does anyone know how long it usually takes for such high nitrites to become undetectable?

 

I used live sand and liferock which supposedly has bacteria painted on to speed up the cycle, sure enough none of those have helped at all.

[Clown79]

13 hours ago, roblox84 said:

So I'm still in the cycling phase and I noticed my nitrites were off the charts and haven't budged for several days. Ammonia was falling to 0 so I kept adding more to bring the levels up to 2ppm each time.

 

Today I changed about 85 percent off the water in my tank and retested nitrites and they were still very high (dark purple) on API test kit. Does anyone know how long it usually takes for such high nitrites to become undetectable?

 

I used live sand and liferock which supposedly has bacteria painted on to speed up the cycle, sure enough none of those have helped at all.

Anything over 5ppm slows down the process. It will process just takes longer.

 

Adding bacteria will help.

 

There isn't enough dormant bacteria in those rocks and not really a lot with livesand.

 

Most dry rock cycling is ammonia dosing and bacteria supplement like biospira

[Doc_]

The instructions to dose and continue to dose up to 2ppm assume you have added some form of bottled bacteria to the tank at the start of the process. The bacteria which process ammonia are different than those that process Nitrites and they will colonize at different rates.

 

IF you have done an 85% water change and are still seeing things as Dark Purple then your Nitrites were incredibly high to start with. 

 

I had an issue with my first salt water cycle where I dosed ammonia too much on my first dose and I ended up in the same boat because any ammonia added has to be converted to Nitrites  but a water change took me below 5ppm Nitrites. 

 

From there I just waited and did not dose ammonia again until I saw movement in my Nitrites. 

 

You could either do another 50% water change to bring down the Nitrites a little more as over 5ppm Nitrites will slow the process down or you can just sit it out and wait but without question you want to stop dosing any ammonia at this point.

 

Given the hobby is all about waiting and the fact you are in a position you can't do anything about fish at the moment anyway I'd give it a few days and see if the Nitrites budge themselves. 

 

Once the Nitrites start to make some significant movement you can start to add a little ammonia (and by a little I'd suggest 1/4 the recommend amount at MOST)  eventually you'll see the 24-36 hour conversion your looking for from Ammonia through to Nitrates and you can do a 90% + water change to reset things. 

 

It's also not too late to add something like BioSpira , Dr Tims One and Only etc so if you are the type of person who feels they need take some form of action I'd suggest adding some bottled bacteria otherwise take the do nothing approach and let it balance itself out which will happen if you give it enough time. 

 

As a matter of interest how long has the tank been wet ? 

[roblox84]

4 hours ago, Doc_ said:

The instructions to dose and continue to dose up to 2ppm assume you have added some form of bottled bacteria to the tank at the start of the process. The bacteria which process ammonia are different than those that process Nitrites and they will colonize at different rates.

 

IF you have done an 85% water change and are still seeing things as Dark Purple then your Nitrites were incredibly high to start with. 

 

I had an issue with my first salt water cycle where I dosed ammonia too much on my first dose and I ended up in the same boat because any ammonia added has to be converted to Nitrites  but a water change took me below 5ppm Nitrites. 

 

From there I just waited and did not dose ammonia again until I saw movement in my Nitrites. 

 

You could either do another 50% water change to bring down the Nitrites a little more as over 5ppm Nitrites will slow the process down or you can just sit it out and wait but without question you want to stop dosing any ammonia at this point.

 

Given the hobby is all about waiting and the fact you are in a position you can't do anything about fish at the moment anyway I'd give it a few days and see if the Nitrites budge themselves. 

 

Once the Nitrites start to make some significant movement you can start to add a little ammonia (and by a little I'd suggest 1/4 the recommend amount at MOST)  eventually you'll see the 24-36 hour conversion your looking for from Ammonia through to Nitrates and you can do a 90% + water change to reset things. 

 

It's also not too late to add something like BioSpira , Dr Tims One and Only etc so if you are the type of person who feels they need take some form of action I'd suggest adding some bottled bacteria otherwise take the do nothing approach and let it balance itself out which will happen if you give it enough time. 

 

As a matter of interest how long has the tank been wet ? 

It's hard to tell on the API kit but I think the nitrates might be 5 or under. It's actually purple now instead of a dark redish purple. I will test again tomorrow. I Ihink the tanks been up for about 3 weeks or so.

[Doc_]

If you are 5 or under honestly just leave it alone , if you want to do anything just add some Bottled Bacteria the most important action at this point is to stop any form of ammonia dosing until your Nitrites start to come down themselves. In my case that was about 5 days after I did my water change but I had dosed bacteria when I started. 

 

Given you have already said you can't really get anything from your LFS for now anyway I'd just let the process take the time it needs. Bacteria will speed it up a bit but if you just wait a little the high Nitrites will solve themselves

 

I would suggest though if you plan to keep dosing ammonia afterwards that you just do a fraction of what they recommend for people starting with bottled bacteria or skip ammonia dosing all together.

 

 

[Clown79]

You can simply add bacteria and allow the nitrites to process to 0. Cycling can take anywhere from 1 week even past 6 weeks.