need some assistance with cycling my tank

[psariandras]

I have been using ammonium chloride to cycle my tank, my tank has some LS in the sand bed and DIY rock.

It has been one month, the ammonia level is at ~2.5ppm(it started at ~4 ppm), nitrites are at ~1.5ppm and have come down from 2.5-3ppm in the last week, nitrates have come up but not by much based on the tests I have it looks like almost 1ppm.

I am concerned because the ammonia level has not come down very much - am I being impatient or should I do something (a water change?) Will the ammonia eventually be reduced to 0 by bacteria?

note that the first month I had no heater and the water was around 70 degrees. Now I have a heater, any advice on what to set the heater?

I read somewhere that 4-6 weeks is standard but I also read that at colder temps it may take longer.


The ph is and alk are low as well, and I don't know if I should address this now or wait. pH tests say 8.1 and my strip tests read slightly below 8.


thanks for any advice.

[Pufferpunk]

I assume this is a SW tank? All you need to cycle a SW tank is live rock. You might want to read the sticky above.

[Grins]

But she doesn't have live rock, and not uncured live rock at that. I agree with her method of using an ammonia source.

Psar, I'd not worry bout the pH and alk right now. The heater could very well be what is making it take longer. I'd not do a water change, give yourself a deep breath and see if the heat helps bring it up to speed.

[psariandras]

I have read the sticky. I don't have $ for live rock so I am using the rock that I made. Also I am paranoid that LR I might buy will bring atpasia or other problems.
I am using ammonium chloride to start the cycle so I do not have to buy any live rock.

I actually asked the question first in the cycling thread, but since there were no replies I thought I'd try the question out here. :) If you look back in that thread a bit, I was asking questions about cycling months ago before I decided to use ammonium chloride. :)
:)

[psariandras]

"But she doesn't have live rock, and not uncured live rock at that. I agree with her method of using an ammonia source. " -----are you refering to me? I am a male :)

btw I posted the last post before I read your post, Grins. :)


I guess I'm stressing a bit unnecessarily over this. I'll watch it over the next two or three weeks with heat and see what happens.

[Grins]

Whoops, apologies.

[Pufferpunk]

Sorry, I'm kinda new here & don't know everyone's stories yet.

[psariandras]

As of December 23, Ammonia has come down to less than 1ppm and nitrites are at 0. Nitrates are at 20ppm.

It seems that the heat has made a difference.

[Grins]

Thats great news.

[jagr200]

Ha now only if my ammonia levels will drop below 8 ppm! lol darn dieoff on LR.

[psariandras]

jagr, how are you going to stock your 10gallon?

I wonder what level nitrates will reach before they peak and start to decline.

I am not 100% sure if I should wait until this happens to add a clean up crew, or if I can add the crew once the ammonia is gone but nitrates are still present. Any advice?

oh, Grins, I wanted to ask you what temp. you keep your reef at. I know that the right temp depends of a few factors but I just wanted to know what you keep your temperature on your reef.
:)

[Pufferpunk]

I suggest being patient & waiting until your nitrates peak. Then do a WC & add your inverts. They are actually more sensitive than fish, to nitrates.

[psariandras]

Nitrates seemed to have peaked at 20 ppm. I am not sure what level they should be at, however, 20ppm has been steady for a while. Ammonia has been steady at slightly less than 1 ppm for a while.

One web site was instructing to continually add ammonia until ideal parameters are met but I have not done that, I just put an intial souce and waited. The site instructed that the way to confirm whether or not the tank was cycled was get ammonia to 5 ppm and when the tank can reduce it to 0 in 24 hours, it is ready. The site instructed to spike ammonia back up to 5ppm when it reaches 1ppm. I don't think I am going to do that though.

I'm going to just wait a while and see if ammonia comes down. Maybe after a few weeks if ammonia is still at the same level I will try something else.

It also suggested a temperature of 85 degrees for cycling.

I had read that inverts are more sensitive to nitrates than fish but I do not know what ppm threshold is for the typical invert, or if threshold varies depending on what species.

If I remember correctly, I read on the water test kit that less than 40 ppm is safe but I wanted to ask here before I consider it true.