reef cycle

[mvh pets]

hi. my new 20 gallon tank currently has 0.25 ppm ammonia( based on the api test kit) 0 ppm nitrite (based on the api test kit) and 2-5 ppm nitrate based on the salifert test kit. any idea how much more time i have to wait until i add hardy fish like clowns.

 

thanks

[M. Tournesol]

Hi, ammonia should be 0ppm. What is the age of your tank? Did you add an ammonia source?

[Clown79]

Ammonia needs to get to 1.5 - 2ppm and process to 0. Nitrates will be a lot higher at the end of the cycle.

 

Looks like your cycle is just starting.

 

It can take 4 - 6 weeks with dry rock cycling.

[mvh pets]

8 hours ago, M. Tournesol said:

Hi, ammonia should be 0ppm. What is the age of your tank? Did you add an ammonia source?

i set it up 1 month ago  and used a piece of shrimp. i made sure the ammonia never went  above 1 ppm 

[rough eye]

1 hour ago, mvh pets said:

i set it up 1 month ago  and used a piece of shrimp. i made sure the ammonia never went  above 1 ppm 

made sure how? with water changes? you shouldn't change water until the cycle has established itself. was it wet rock or dry rock when you bought it?

[mvh pets]

4 minutes ago, rough eye said:

made sure how? with water changes? you shouldn't change water until the cycle has established itself. was it wet rock or dry rock when you bought it?

i did it with water changes.  bacteria exist on surfaces with less than 1% of them in the water.

[mvh pets]

by the way how much do you think this is

 

 

[rough eye]

1 minute ago, mvh pets said:

i did it with water changes.  bacteria exist on surfaces with less than 1% of them in the water.

the bacteria that use ammonia as food need that ammonia to reproduce and populate those surfaces. if the bacteria starve you won't have an established bio filter. that's why you don't do a water change until cycle is established.

[mvh pets]

5 minutes ago, rough eye said:

the bacteria that use ammonia as food need that ammonia to reproduce and populate those surfaces. if the bacteria starve you won't have an established bio filter. that's why you don't do a water change until cycle is established.

i know but too much ammonia is much worse than no ammonia. i did controlled amounts of water changes to keep the ammonia below 1 ppm but above 0. even with 0 ammonia bacteria can survive for upto 3 days. if the ammonia exceeds 1ppm, that stops the cycle as it creates a lot of nitrite.  the conversion from nitrite to nitrate takes away a lot of the nutrients which negatively impacts the ammonia to nitrite bacteria. which stalls the cycle.   

[M. Tournesol]

55 minutes ago, mvh pets said:

 0 ammonia bacteria can survive for upto 3 days

3 days? Where did you find such information? I am not a biologist, but I can tell you that bacterias are not that brittle. Nitrifying bacteria are present everywhere, even in the air, low ammonia will at worse decreases their population.

 

1 hour ago, mvh pets said:

if the ammonia exceeds 1ppm, that stops the cycle as it creates a lot of nitrite. 

There is entire post on forums saying that cycle cannot be stop 🤷‍♂️. What I did understand is that hight nitrate level could slow the growth of Denitrifying bacteria.

 

Did you remove your source of ammonia? If not, you should. Your cycle should be finished when you reach 0ppm ammonia and 0ppm nitride (PS: I am not an expert, the only cycle that I did was with live rock).