Cycling New Tank Guidance

[Dave21]

Hey,

 

I’ve been in the process of fishless cycling my 29 gallon tank for about 4 weeks now and was wondering if I should keep dosing ammonia.

 

The tank has around 35 lbs of CaribSea live sand and around 30-35 lbs of CaribSea Moani dry live rock. I have kept my temperature at 78-78.5 and salinity at 1.024. 

 

I initially used a frozen shrimp and dosed with Fluval biological enhancer, but after being advised the shrimp method might not be the best, picked up a bottle of FritzZyme ammonia about a week ago.

 

I’ve only been dosing to 1ppm because my Nitrites and Nitrates have remained high and I didn’t want to stall the cycle.

 

the nitrites have maintained fairly consistent at around 2-5ppm (it’s hard to tell with API kit, but is clearly a deep purple). Nitrates have been as high as 80 plus so I’ve done a couple water changes to lower both.

 

currently 1ppm of ammonia seems to process in about 48hrs, but nitrites do not change. 
 

So, is my cycle stalled due to high nitrites? Should I keep dosing ammonia even though this will keep increasing my nitrites? And should I continue to only dose 1ppm of ammonia when it gets to .25 or 0 or stop until the nitrites come down?

[DevilDuck]

Sounds like your good to go.

I do not worry about nitrites because it is not that toxic in saltwater.  

Since your using 1ppm of ammonia, you probably want to add stock slowly.

[Clown79]

You need 2 ppm of ammonia to process within 24hrs for the cycle to be complete.

 

If your nitrites are still between 2-5 ppm, you're not done yet.

[rough eye]

directions for Fluval biological enhancer say do not dose ammonia if using it. i'm not sure what's up with that. not sure if it's meant for a fishless cycle.

[Dave21]

So should I just keep dosing to 1ppm  and wait for the Nitrite to come down or should I up the dose to 2ppm.

 

Also since Nitrites are possibly around 5ppm should I do a couple water changes to reduce them or just let them go.

 

Here is a picture of the Nitrite test today.

 

[Clown79]

8 hours ago, Dave21 said:

So should I just keep dosing to 1ppm  and wait for the Nitrite to come down or should I up the dose to 2ppm.

 

Also since Nitrites are possibly around 5ppm should I do a couple water changes to reduce them or just let them go.

 

Here is a picture of the Nitrite test today.

 

If it goes higher than 5 ppm then i would do a waterchange, otherwise i would be patient and allow it to process

[banasophia]

I don’t think that nitrite is above 5 there so I would not do a water change. But don’t add any more ammonia until nitrite comes down because you don’t want nitrite to continue to build up and go above 5. 

 

The bacteria that process nitrite -> nitrate take longer to build up in a new tank than the ones that process ammonia -> nitrite, so at this point you just need to give it a little more time to finish cycling. Check out the info from Dr Tim, if you haven’t already:
 

https://www.drtimsaquatics.com/resources/library/quick-guide-to-fishless-cycling-with-one-and-only/

https://www.drtimsaquatics.com/resources/fishless-cycling/

[Dave21]

Sorry for not replying I’ve been busy, but thanks for all the advice! I actually went ahead and did a water change to lower the nitrites and the next day they were at zero. Since it was processes ammonia and seemed to process the 1ppm nitrite I reduced it to, I went ahead and added a pair of clownfish last weekend. I did pick up a bottle of BIO-Spira at the same time because I was still unsure about the cycle. 
 

The fish have been in for a week now and have been doing great and daily water checks since adding all show zero ammonia and nitrites so i think I’m good to go!

[Seadragon]

15 minutes ago, Dave21 said:

I did pick up a bottle of BIO-Spira at the same time because I was still unsure about the cycle.

I love BIO-Spira!  Instead of wasting money & time on that other stuff, I would’ve just started with that.  I use it every time I start a new tank and haven’t been disappointed yet.