fishless nitro cycle question(s)

Hi,
very new to the hobby and I won't bore anyone with a story so,
tank size: 80g
Water used: RODI
Salt mix: Instant Ocean
Sump flow: sock, bioballs, ceramic, cotton, bubble trap, skimmer, return

Cleaned tank, added sandbed, added premixed salt water, added 30lbs LR, added heater and switched on the wave maker and LED moonlights.
sump is functional but I haven't switched on the return pump so no overflow at this point(still working on some petty plumbing issues).

3 weeks in above state, no visible change, ammonia spiked after I added fishflakes 1st week.

Questions:
*Is all that good enough to start the cycle?

*I'm sure skimmer shouldn't be running - should I still keep the water flowing through the sump?

*I haven't added any more fishflakes, should I keep adding it?

*end of 3rd week, should I be testing for anything else already?

Thank you!!

 

It sounds like you are off to a good start, but I would recommend having all parts of the system running (except the skimmer) during the cycle, so the sooner you can get your return pump going, the better. Your cycle will start, but having water movement in all parts is more ideal.

As for fish food, how much did you put in to start?

I usually just drop a few table shrimp in and let them degrade. Works pretty well and you can tell when the bacteria starts to eat away at them, whereas fish food will just hide somewhere in the system.

 

Thank you Astrick117

I used just a little more than a pinch of fish flakes. They floated on the top for a bit, next day saw just a few spread across the sandbed.

Would you advise I keep adding more fish flakes? or maybe a frozen shrimp? will that rot and slow the cycle down due to excess ammonia produced from the decay?

 

That's definitely not enough for a 80. Add in a frozen shrimp and BioSpira or equivalent.

 

Thanks DevinH

Added a good load of flakes (I have a lot of them from my freshwater tank)
I'll add half a shrimp tomorrow and let that rot too

is it ever too much? i'm already getting ammonia and nitrite readings

 

I think you dont want ammonia over 5.0 ppm. That will stall the cycle. Dr Tim had a thread about it. Check in his forum.

 

If you're getting that then you should be okay.

 

I'll post some test results for ammonia and nitrites tomorrow before adding the half shrimp

I hear Sera isn't too accurate but as long as I can see some readings on it

 

about 2 weeks since my last post..
Ammonia is at 0
Nitrite at 0
Nitrate at 10ppm
Phosphate at 2.0

Nitrate won't seem to move at all, phosphate has left me clueless.

Question - is it time for a water change? will that help lower the Nitrate and Phosphate levels?

 

Yes you can go ahead with a water change. Nitrates are expected, but that phos level will be problematic. You need to figure out the source of the phosphates.

You can continue to ghost feed the tank, the next day testing for ammonia to make sure the biological filter is significant enough to handle new additions.