There is a mist kind of thing in the water

[Charith1986]

Dr Tim`s products re not available in Sri Lanka. But my LFS suggest to add a starting bacteria like aqua forest Bio S or Seachem stability. he said it will cycle the tank again.

[Charith1986]

Cs he said in the bacteria bloom the bacteria may have died out if i have not oxygenate the tank properly.

[Tired]

If the tank wasn't oygenated at all, it could have harmed the cycle, but that would require you to turn off all the pumps. I'm assuming you didn't. 

 

Bottled bacteria is hit-or-miss. You should have bacteria in your tank now. You just need to keep adding an ammonia source (decaying food works OK if you can't get anything else) until the bacteria are fully established. 

[Charith1986]

No I didnt turned off the pumps, skimmer also working at that time and i oxygenate the tank in the middle of the bloom.

 

I have switched off the skimmer now. A shrimp or mysis would help to build up bacetria right ?

 

I have a question, now my tank is close to one month now, we don`t know whether it has been cycled or not, there is 0.15 ppm ammonia present, zero nitrite and some nitrate available ATM but nitrate source also we couldnt judge. So in such a situation can we start the cycling process again ? If guys can help me to figure it out I have a good idea about the situation.

 

As this kind of situation is difficult to search in google or you tube as well.

[Clown79]

23 minutes ago, Charith1986 said:

No I didnt turned off the pumps, skimmer also working at that time and i oxygenate the tank in the middle of the bloom.

 

I have switched off the skimmer now. A shrimp or mysis would help to build up bacetria right ?

 

I have a question, now my tank is close to one month now, we don`t know whether it has been cycled or not, there is 0.15 ppm ammonia present, zero nitrite and some nitrate available ATM but nitrate source also we couldnt judge. So in such a situation can we start the cycling process again ? If guys can help me to figure it out I have a good idea about the situation.

 

As this kind of situation is difficult to search in google or you tube as well.

There really isn't a starting over, you just want to ensure that the tank is cycled. 

It will still cycle without adding anymore ammonia, it just takes longer.

 

With 0.15 ammonia it could mean 

 

The tank never fully cycled over the month(ammonia levels could have been very high with multiple fish in an uncycled tank) and it's coming to the end of the cycle

 

Or you had a mini spike and that's why you are seeing ammonia still 

 

It's very hard to know unless you were testing ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate from the beginning and saw ammonia rise above 1ppm and drop to 0, then nitrite does the same.

 

Your water source itself could be adding ammonia to the tank and that's why you still have ammonia present.

 

Have you tested your water source for ammonia?

 

So at this point, it's best to add an ammonia source since the fish are not in there now and test ammonia every day to see how high it goes and what it drops to in 24hrs. 

 

So feed the tank and test in a few hrs. Then retest in 24hrs before adding more food.

 

 

 

Normally cycling without fish is done with either dry rock  or liverock.

 

With dry rock you need to add an ammonia source and bacteria additive. Testing every day to see the rise and fall of ammonia and nitrite. Once both have risen and fallen to 0 the tank is cycled.(dry rocks will still cycle even with no ammonia source it just will take a much longer time)

 

Then there is liverock cycling. With fully established liverock from a tank that's established there is no cycle.

 

Liverock that is dirty, kept in a tub, possibly decaying life on it will go through a cycle without needing an ammonia source but still needs daily testing.

 

Cycling with fish(not advised anymore) doesn't need an ammonia source added because the fish are the ammonia source. With this cycling, bacteria additive is added and daily waterchanges are done to reduce ammonia levels.

 

 

 

[Charith1986]

I have added a shrimp today. Will test the ammonia levels in the evening. And I start adding Seachem Stability starting from yesterday to populate bacteria in the tank.

And i have switched off the skimmer now, shall i keep it off till the tank is fully cycled ?

[Charith1986]

Just before adding Mysis (sorry for mentioning as shrimp) i checked ammonia and it read at 0.25ppm