Question about salt water cycling

Hello All,

I apologize in advance if these questions have already been answered, but I have a few specific questions regarding the cycling process. I opted to go with the fishless cycling process by adding pure ammonia.

I initially dosed the tank with 2ppm ammonia. The tank has remained at that level up until today. The ammonia level started today at 1ppm and is now at a .5 ppm. The nitrite level is maxed out on my chart (5ppm) and my nitrate level is at 20ppm.

My two basic questions are:

1. Should I do a water change to lower the level of nitrate or wait until cycling is done?

2. If the ammonia level approaches zero and there is still nitrite present, should I dose the tank with more ammonia, and if so, at what level?

Here is some basic information about my tank:

Size: 10 gallon
Salinity: 1.025
Temp: 79.7
My tank contains about an inch of dead sand and about 10 pounds of dry rock and 2 pounds of live rock.

Thanks in advance for any answers that can be provided.

 

I have a 46gal bowfront with 40lbs dry rock, 1 lb liverock, and 40 lbs of sand. Never dosed ammonia but it went up to 1ppm on its own and has been at 0 for 2 days now. Nitrites are also maxed out and nitrtaes showing as really high as well and I have been debating on doign a WC so I will be watching this thread.

 

Yeah, my tank now has about .25 ammonia in it and dropping and I'm concerned that since the nitrite levels are maxed out on my API testing kit that I should probably seed it with more ammonia as I do not want the good bacteria that break down ammonia to start thinning out as they will no longer have any source of ammonia. Maybe this evening I will dose it back up to 2ppm ammonia unless anyone suggests otherwise.

 

How many days has it been set up and how many day's since you dosed it with ammonia?

 

It has been setup for 9 days and it has been 7 days since it has been dosed with ammonia (I dosed it with ammonia last Wednesday and have not added any since then). Last Friday I added a few pounds of cured live rock to the equation.

 

10 is sm for a salt water so your prameters will move up and down more quickly (ie, less stable, more monitoring and diligence).
Personally,
No on the water change. No on adding ammonia again.
You won't "thin out" the bacteria that break down ammonia.
Now that you're seeing the ammonia level fall, the next step is getting the nitrite to spike and then drop to very low. Then you'll see a smaller rise and fall of the nitrate.
You then should be stable and can add some feesh.

Just let it do it's thing and wait it out.
Also, if you keep the lights off, you can prob avoid (or lessen) and algae bloom in the near future.

 

Thank you for answering my questions! I will be sure to not any more ammonia. I have been leaving the protein skimmer and lights off during the cycling process. Would you recommend adding a fish or a CUC first? I know I have to add things to my tank very slowly and that I will potentially only be able to have 1 or 2 fish at max in this tank.

 

No prob.
There shouldn't be too much for the clean up crew to do yet on a fresh 10 gal with a protein skimmer yet. You could hold off on them for a bit until you've had a fish for a bit and some food waste has fallen.

Do what you want, long as they got food to eat!

 

http://www.3reef.com/forums/new-hobby/water-changes-during-cycle-130912-4.html
Nitrogen Cycle: The Cycle of Life

these might help.

 

I'd add some CUC stuff first, including some pods to seed the tank with. I always do this first to get the pod population cranking before the fish get added.

Check out Indo-Pacific Sea Farm to get some good biodiversity going before the fish go in.

If you wait until after, the fish may stop a new population of critters before it has a chance to get off the ground.