Cycle Complete? Ready for fish? Microbacter XLM

[Innominandum]

I'm using Microbacter start XLM and Quikcycl(ammonia), following the cycling instructions provided by Brightwell.

Also using API test kit. 

 

 

 

 

Between days 6-8 it seemed like nitrite was being capped out on the tests, so I was looking for what might be the cause. After coming across this video by Dr.Tim, I decided to do a 50% water change as he mentions to keep ammonia and nitrite below 5.0 ppm.

 

After doing the water change things seemed to have begun to go down. Does this mean my tank is cycled? did the waterchange lead to anything bad?

 

Any help is appreciated.

 

Thanks

[Thrassian Atoll]

I am actually cycling a tank right now and might do a water change because I added too much ammonia in the beginning.  Like around 6-8 ppm.   Which I should of realized last time I used dr tims bottled ammonia that the directions are way too much. I wouldn’t have done a water change in your situation though. Your ammonia was almost gone as nitrite was going up.  That’s what a cycle does.  I have never heard of too much nitrite during a cycle.  
 

To truly know if the cycle is complete add 1ppm of ammonia and make sure the ammonia and nitrite are zero after 24 hours.

[Clown79]

5 hours ago, Thrassian Atoll said:

I am actually cycling a tank right now and might do a water change because I added too much ammonia in the beginning.  Like around 6-8 ppm.   Which I should of realized last time I used dr tims bottled ammonia that the directions are way too much. I wouldn’t have done a water change in your situation though. Your ammonia was almost gone as nitrite was going up.  That’s what a cycle does.  I have never heard of too much nitrite during a cycle.  
 

To truly know if the cycle is complete add 1ppm of ammonia and make sure the ammonia and nitrite are zero after 24 hours.

If nitrite gets to 5ppm or higher it can stall a cycle.

 

Its best to do a waterchange when ammonia or nitrite hits 5ppm or higher or you could be waiting a long time for it to process to 0

 

 

5 hours ago, Innominandum said:

I'm using Microbacter start XLM and Quikcycl(ammonia), following the cycling instructions provided by Brightwell.

Also using API test kit. 

 

 

 

 

Between days 6-8 it seemed like nitrite was being capped out on the tests, so I was looking for what might be the cause. After coming across this video by Dr.Tim, I decided to do a 50% water change as he mentions to keep ammonia and nitrite below 5.0 ppm.

 

After doing the water change things seemed to have begun to go down. Does this mean my tank is cycled? did the waterchange lead to anything bad?

 

Any help is appreciated.

 

Thanks

Can your tank process 1.5- 2ppm of ammomia in 24hrs?

[Hoov]

I'm a first-timer, about a week into my "fishless cycling" of my IM Fusion 40 tank with reef saver dry rock. I'm following Dr. Tim's recipe.  The recipe has you add 4 drops/gal of his Ammonia Chloride every couple of days (128 drops for 32 G of water), and as a result I have some pretty high NH numbers (2 then 8, then 8 then 6).  The Nitrites and Nitrates are continuing to increase and the NH3 is coming down, so I'm wondering if I should hold off on adding any more Ammonia and keep testing to make sure the values continue to change.   

[Tired]

You should probably ask in your own thread, since your circumstances are different from the OP.

 

IIRC, when cycling a tank with pure ammonia, you're supposed to do water changes when ammonia or nitrites get particularly high. You're also supposed to dose enough to bring the ammonia up to a certain level, however much ammonia that is, and not dose if the ammonia is already at that level. 

[Hoov]

>>You should probably ask in your own thread, since your circumstances are different from the OP.

 

Good point. Sorry to hijack the thread..