Need help with stalled fishless cycle

[c333davis]

Woo hoo! What's my next step?

Tank contents at this point
- Ammon / trite / trate = 0 / 0 / 20
- pH ~8.0-8.2
- 8.5 lbs cured live rock (+ 1 bottle Biospira)
- Base rock = 15 lbs lace rock + 20 lbs bleached coral from LFS

[J-P]

congrats ... I'd personally feed that beast just a tad more and take readings every 12 hours and write them down.

after 24 hours if you still have a 0-0-xx reading do a water change and you're fish ready


but I have recently learned more about the nitrate cycle so once you add the fish keep us informed.

[c333davis]

Thanks, J-P!

How much ammonia do you think I should add? Up to 2ppm? 4ppm?

[J-P]

ohhhh 2ppm... 1/2 ~ 1/4 typical volume. just to see how the tank reacts.

Once you add fish that is a different story

[FADE2BLACK_1973]

Looks good but did you go full marine?

[c333davis]

Cool. I added 2cc ammonia... not quite sure what that translates to, ppm-wise. I'll test again in 12hrs and see where it's at.

[FADE2BLACK_1973]

If it's full marine, I would add some live rock and live sand and you will have it made. Oh and a protein skimmer would be a big plus, dont have to be a big expensive one.

[c333davis]

If it's full marine, I would add some live rock and live sand and you will have it made. Oh and a protein skimmer would be a big plus, dont have to be a big expensive one.

Hey, Chris! Yes, I've gone over to the Dark Side; I'm at 1.024sg.

The tank has 8.5 lbs LR and 30+ base rock (including some "dead" coral).

I'm going to try the tank bare-bottomed initially; I prefer it for ease of cleanup.

Protein skimmer is definitely in the plans... hoping the Bday Fairy brings me some dollahs in two weeks.

[Pufferpunk]

Somebody's gonna love living in there!

[FADE2BLACK_1973]

If it's full marine, I would add some live rock and live sand and you will have it made. Oh and a protein skimmer would be a big plus, dont have to be a big expensive one.

Hey, Chris! Yes, I've gone over to the Dark Side; I'm at 1.024sg.

The tank has 8.5 lbs LR and 30+ base rock (including some "dead" coral).

I'm going to try the tank bare-bottomed initially; I prefer it for ease of cleanup.

Protein skimmer is definitely in the plans... hoping the Bday Fairy brings me some dollahs in two weeks.

Congrats on converting to the dark side of the hobby..lol. My tanks did great with LR and LS in the past back when I was a saltwater tank junky. I never had problems cleaning the live sand but too many rock does make it alittle harder to reach those certain spots though. But LR is a great all natural biological filtation, imo.

Ebay has some good deals on protein skimmers every once in awhile.

[c333davis]

I think I'm overthinking this process, but I just want to be sure that I don't either overdose or starve my beneficial bacteria...

after 24 hours if you still have a 0-0-xx reading do a water change and you're fish ready

Does this mean that after the readings zero out, I don't add any more ammonia, but I do test the water every 12 hrs to see if the readings stay consistent?

Or is the goal to confirm that, when I add ammonia, the live rock can convert it all (as shown by 0/0/?) within 12 hrs?

[Pufferpunk]

The latter.

[c333davis]

Ok. It looks as though the ammonia is clearing within 12hrs, but the nitrite is taking longer than 12 hrs to clear.

1/6/2011 5pm........0 / 0 / 20... I dosed 2cc ammon to see how fast it clears
1/6/2011 8:30pm....0.5 / >.5 - <1 / 20
1/7/2011 10am......0 / 1 / 40

I can keep testing it every few hours to see when the nitrite has cleared.

After that, I can do an 80% WC. Do I then dose it again and retest?

I'm just concerned about introducing my puffer to the tank when the nitrite takes more than 12hrs to clear.

[geronimo69]

congrats ... I'd personally feed that beast just a tad more and take readings every 12 hours and write them down.

after 24 hours if you still have a 0-0-xx reading do a water change and you're fish ready


but I have recently learned more about the nitrate cycle so once you add the fish keep us informed.

JP, I had to ask... what's this "recently learned more about the nitrate cycle"?

I'm all ears. More is always better.

[RTR]

Nitrate is the end product of conventional bacterial "nitrification" (thus the name - the smallest nitrogen-containing organic waste product (ammonium ion, NH4+) is oxidized in two steps first to nitrite ion (NO2-) an then to the nitrate ion (NO3-). The first two forms are highly toxic to most vertebrates, the third and final step - nitrate ion - is still toxic, but far less so than the earlier ones. These two oxidation steps can provide energy for certain bacterial species. We cultivate certain strains of those bacterial to detoxify this waste in our tanks to the less toxic - nitrate - form.

The total nitrogen cycle is much broader than the tiny section that we use routinely. There are many pathways available for "removing" nitrate ion from our tanks, from simple removal (water partial changes) to utilization (veggie filters, algal beds, or the use of other photosynthetic life forms) or by bacterial reduction back to nitrogen gas (DSB, plenums, coil denitrators, microporous media, etc.).

How we handle nitrate varies widely from hobbyist to hobbyist, and is even more varied in nature.

HTH