Is my cycle close to over???

HoosierDaddy

HoosierDaddy

Sting ray
M.A.S.C Club Member
#1
#1
Well it seems like forever since the last time I did a full cycle on a tank and I don't remember it taking this long over... three weeks now. So I am not sure if I am getting close or what. I have a nitrite reading of 1.3 and my nitrates are at 100+. I did a 25 gallon water change last night which hopefully it helps a little. Since I am getting nitrate readings am I getting close or what is the deal here? Why is my nitrite levels still there. So slooooooooooooooooow. I have four fish in my QT tank right now thanks to Tyronius for the good deal on them (and they are all very healthy btw). I am not even sure I can put them all in at once when it does finish cycling.

medium Kole Tang
Firefish
Mandarin Goby
6 line wrasse
 
WrasseAttack

WrasseAttack

Anthias
#3
#3
I cycled my rock quickly with water from my old tank and Microbacter 7. People swear by Bio-Spira(never used it) and Microbe-lift Special Blend. You can get Special Blend at Petco.

There's also debate about doing water changes during cycling. Some swear by it and others say you delay the nitrifying process.
 
Mini T

Mini T

Sting ray
M.A.S.C Club Member
#6
#6
One guy advocated adding straight ammonia to the tank little by little and testing in between. Claimed to fully cycle his tank in 7 days that way.
 
HoosierDaddy

HoosierDaddy

Sting ray
M.A.S.C Club Member
#8
#8
brent ward;96346 said:
One guy advocated adding straight ammonia to the tank little by little and testing in between. Claimed to fully cycle his tank in 7 days that way.
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Hmmm not a bad idea but I have a few chromis' in there now so I wouldn't want to do that to them. I wish I would have known that sooner. This is like watching paint dry......I wonder if I add some bacteria if it would like you guys mentioned above.
 
prolawn_care

prolawn_care

Sting ray
M.A.S.C Club Member
#9
#9
I use a cup of live sand from another tank to seed the bacteria, then i use biozyme (something like that) It comes in a red little round container. A little bit goes a long ways. And it usally takes about 10 days for the brown algea to show up and a few days after that it dissapears. Then i usally throw the fish in shortly after that.
 
Cake_Boss

Cake_Boss

Blue Whale
M.A.S.C Club Member
#11
#11
WrasseAttack;96342 said:
There's also debate about doing water changes during cycling. Some swear by it and others say you delay the nitrifying process.
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It's in the coral prop book by a caflo. He swears by it. I just let my tank sit.

HD, now would be a great time to train the mandarin, if he's not already trained.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk
 
HoosierDaddy

HoosierDaddy

Sting ray
M.A.S.C Club Member
#12
#12
rockys_pride;96382 said:
It's in the coral prop book by a caflo. He swears by it. I just let my tank sit.

HD, now would be a great time to train the mandarin, if he's not already trained.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk
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See I read that changing the water is good for the cycle. The mandarin is somewhat trained on frozen. I threw a big ball of chaeto in there for him to eat pods. I have been feeding him brine and rotifers. What else should I try?
 
H

hurrafreak

Orca
M.A.S.C Club Member
#13
#13
I also just let my tank sit when it's cycling, no water changes. But like wrasse said there is a debate about that, like there is about everything else in this hobby lol.
 
jonthefb

jonthefb

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#14
#14
where did you read that its good to do a water change on your tank during a cycle? If it was on a forum, it was probably bad advice.

The complete nitrification cycle in a new aquarium takes from 4-6 weeks. Adding products like those stated above will not take the place of your cycle, they will merely shorten it. Keep your eye on the nitrite and when it hits zero, then you can perform a water change to reduce the nitrates.

Have patience, and go slow. Nothing good in this hobby happens fast.
 
WrasseAttack

WrasseAttack

Anthias
#15
#15
+1 @ what jonthefb said.

The people arguing for water changes during a cycle say that your nitrifying bacteria will be on the rocks and doing water changes lowers ammonia. Ammonia will kill off the the live stuff on your live rock which defeats the object of paying for premium live rock.

I'm a dead rock advocate and it's one of the reasons I like adding bacteria products to help seed the rock and shorten the cycle. I transfered my old livestock to my newly cycled tank all at once and had no problems but I also cycled my rock for quite a while. Just watch your parameters and be ready to do big water changes if your tank decided to do a mini cycle after you do it.
 
HoosierDaddy

HoosierDaddy

Sting ray
M.A.S.C Club Member
#16
#16
WrasseAttack;96424 said:
+1 @ what jonthefb said.

The people arguing for water changes during a cycle say that your nitrifying bacteria will be on the rocks and doing water changes lowers ammonia. Ammonia will kill off the the live stuff on your live rock which defeats the object of paying for premium live rock.

I'm a dead rock advocate and it's one of the reasons I like adding bacteria products to help seed the rock and shorten the cycle. I transfered my old livestock to my newly cycled tank all at once and had no problems but I also cycled my rock for quite a while. Just watch your parameters and be ready to do big water changes if your tank decided to do a mini cycle after you do it.
Click to expand...
That is exactly what I read about it. I am not used to cycling like this as I have always had live sand, LR and water out of my tanks to use so never really needed to do it this way. So are you saying once my tank is cycled I will be able to add the 4 fish I have in my QT? Also what bacteria product should I go get? I would need to get it somewhere convenient. I do not live by any LFS that close late. By the time I get off work in Aurora it is usually too late to get there other than a Petsmart or Petco.
 
WrasseAttack

WrasseAttack

Anthias
#17
#17
You can get Microbe Lift Special Blend at the Petco in Longmont. There's a huge thread about it on RC. I used it when I was having a nasty algae outbreak from the phosphates leaking out of my Marco rock. It did a great job for me. Then I started using bio pellets and like a lot of bio pellet users, I got nasty cyano. I bought another bottle and stopped using bio pellets. My cyano is gone and I have just a little bit of algae left. I bought mine from Amazon. They sell it for $12 and I get free 2 day shipping with Prime.

I'm not using anything on my tank now like GFO or bio pellets. I feed a lot so I might start dosing vinegar sometime to help my SPS color up more. Just so you know, Special Blend smells nasty but that's how it's supposed to smell. As for adding all your fish, I moved all mine over to my newly cycled tank but I also have a 210g tank and large skimmer with chaeto. I would add 2 fish wait a day and test your params, add 2 fish and test again. Better safe than sorry.
 
HoosierDaddy

HoosierDaddy

Sting ray
M.A.S.C Club Member
#19
#19
Ok I will go to Petco over here today on my lunch....So do I get the Boizyme or the Microbe or both? Wrasse any chance you are pruning back your Chaeto? The Chaeto I got from Tyronius has flatworms and I do not want to use that in my DT. I threw it into my QT so the Mandarin can eat the pods off of it :D. I have no intentions of adding any pests to this setup. Thanks for the help so far from everyone. I feel like a Noob all over again HAHAHA. But I love setting up new tanks.
 
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