Who to believe? RedSea reading 3 Amm, 1 Ni, 5 Na. API reading 1 Amm, 0 Ni, 40 Na

[rdriggett]

I'm on day 3 of cycling with Fritz turbo start, CaribSea live sand and established tank media. I accidentally overdosed ammonia on day 2 due to it reading 0.25 on API. API is holding steady @ 1ppm for the last day. I borrowed a RedSea test kit and right now it's saying I'm at 3PPM ammonia, 1PPM nitrite, 5PPM nitrate.

Which test kit do I believe? 1PPM ammonia or 3PPM? 0PPM nitrite or 1PPM? 40PPM nitrate or 5PPM?

I have 10G of water on hand to change it if anyone thinks I slowed down my cycle with too much ammonia? Or should I buy another bottle of turbo start? Just wait it out?

 

[grizfyrfyter]

I would trust red sea over API.

API is basically only good for "yes, there is more than zero ppm". Good enough for monitoring a cycle but not much else.

3ppm is what I dosed to start my cycles with dry rock and sand, it won't hurt the bacteria but any livestock in the tank is suffering.

 

[rdriggett]

I would trust red sea over API.

API is basically only good for "yes, there is more than zero ppm". Good enough for monitoring a cycle but not much else.

3ppm is what I dosed to start my cycles with dry rock and sand, it won't hurt the bacteria but any livestock in the tank is suffering.

Luckily my livestock arrives in 1-3 weeks.

 

[sfsuphysics]

I would say don't worry about it, a tank will cycle when it cycles. But your livestock arrives in 1-3 weeks? Yikes. Hopefully it's nothing particularly sensitive.

 

[Turkeysammich]

Depending on what live stock. Might be early for that.
I usually don’t Start checking stuff for a month or two. Don’t rush.

 

[rdriggett]

Depending on what live stock. Might be early for that.
I usually don’t Start checking stuff for a month or two. Don’t rush.

Two months with bottled bacteria? Everything I've read on R2R says 1-3 weeks for fritz turbo start. Or do you traditional fishless cycle which takes longer?

I would say don't worry about it, a tank will cycle when it cycles. But your livestock arrives in 1-3 weeks? Yikes. Hopefully it's nothing particularly sensitive.

I can ask the LFS to hold mine for a little while if my tank truly takes beyond 2 weeks to cycle.

 

[Turkeysammich]

Think of it like this. When a cycle is done. Actually done. It’s like a baby being born. It can only handle so much. So slow is always better. Baby steps.

 

[grizfyrfyter]

If you're using established tank media and you have adequate surface area, it shouldn't take a month.

My 100g was at 4ppm ammonia last week and has already dropped to 2ppm, nitrites are still rising and nitrates are at 5ppm. Dry rock and no sand.

You should be OK.

 

[Hamada]

I'm on day 3 of cycling with Fritz turbo start, CaribSea live sand and established tank media. I accidentally overdosed ammonia on day 2 due to it reading 0.25 on API. API is holding steady @ 1ppm for the last day. I borrowed a RedSea test kit and right now it's saying I'm at 3PPM ammonia, 1PPM nitrite, 5PPM nitrate.

Which test kit do I believe? 1PPM ammonia or 3PPM? 0PPM nitrite or 1PPM? 40PPM nitrate or 5PPM?

I have 10G of water on hand to change it if anyone thinks I slowed down my cycle with too much ammonia? Or should I buy another bottle of turbo start? Just wait it out?

My personal opinion. For ammonia/nitrite doesn't matter what brand test kit you use, as long as either/both read 0ppm.

 

[richiev]

I'm on day 3 of cycling with Fritz turbo start, CaribSea live sand and established tank media. I accidentally overdosed ammonia on day 2 due to it reading 0.25 on API. API is holding steady @ 1ppm for the last day. I borrowed a RedSea test kit and right now it's saying I'm at 3PPM ammonia, 1PPM nitrite, 5PPM nitrate.

Which test kit do I believe? 1PPM ammonia or 3PPM? 0PPM nitrite or 1PPM? 40PPM nitrate or 5PPM?

I have 10G of water on hand to change it if anyone thinks I slowed down my cycle with too much ammonia? Or should I buy another bottle of turbo start? Just wait it out?

Dr Tim does an informative presentation on all this ai

I found it informative when doing my first fishless bottled bacteria cycle. My understanding is 2-4ppm is a good target when vetting your cycle is going.

This is probably going to rub some people wrong, but if you really had established rock AND you were using bottled AND beyond that you used live sand, you probably don't need to be dosing ammonia at all and could've gone straight to stocking the tank. There's certainly a bias, but the bottled bac people would say if you're using bottled bac alone you could be putting fish in immediately.

The rock and sand are what carry bacteria, not the water and other stuff. Imagine you pulled some rock out of an established tank, and did a 100% water change. Would that tank be expected to need to get ammonia dosed and stay empty for 3 months? I think that's the core of the argument.

I'd leave your tank as is, wait to see the ammonia drop down, and not dose again personally. I believe in the video Tim would advise not to bother testing nitrite, but I can't recall.

TL;DR: I'd watch the video, and then stop dosing ammonia, add your fish when they arrive, and in the meantime play with some GSP or other $9 frags for fun.

 

[rdriggett]

Dr Tim does an informative presentation on all this ai

I found it informative when doing my first fishless bottled bacteria cycle. My understanding is 2-4ppm is a good target when vetting your cycle is going.

This is probably going to rub some people wrong, but if you really had established rock AND you were using bottled AND beyond that you used live sand, you probably don't need to be dosing at all and could've gone straight to stocking the tank. There's certainly a bias, but the bottled bac people would say if you're using bottled bac alone you could be putting fish in immediately.

The rock and sand are what carry bacteria, not the water and other stuff. Imagine you pulled some rock out of an established tank, and did a 100% water change. Would that tank be expected to need to get ammonia dosed and stay empty for 3 months? I think that's the core of the argument.

I'd leave your tank as is, wait to see the ammonia drop down, and not dose again personally. I believe in the video Tim would advise not to bother testing nitrite, but I can't recall.

TL;DR: I'd watch the video, and then stop dosing ammonia, add your fish when they arrive, and in the meantime play with some GSP or other $9 frags for fun.

I haven't dosed any ammonia since the day 2 overdose. I plan to do a 50%+ WC to bring it down to 1ppm and see if it processes that in 24h or less. If it zeros out then I'll add my fish.
I'n the mean time, is 1ppm ammonia and 1ppm nitrite harmful to acros?

 

[rdriggett]

Update: I'll ignore API and barely trust redsea after further research. It's still showing 3ppm ammonia but now shows 1ppm nitrite and both show 20-40ppm nitrate. Now that I have 20+ nitrates I'm going to assume I'm basically cycled after I should be able to confirm that on Thursday.

For yucks im going to re dose a 2x dose of turbo start tomorrow.

 

[JVU]

Any detectable ammonia or nitrite (on hobby test kits) are bad and potentially unhealthy for livestock. This approach of dosing large amounts of ammonia in 1 or a couple boluses with a fishless cycle that is fashionable is more difficult, takes longer, and is less effective than bacteria in a bottle and adding a very low bioload of fish on day 1. But since you are doing it that way, you just need to ride it out until the toxins you added are metabolized.

Also I think you’ll want to do massive water changes to get that nitrate down before turning on the lights. You could do them now, the “good” bacteria are on surfaces not in the water column.

 

[fishy408]

Tank Cycle when I used Dr. Tim's. Hope this helps with general readings. Forgot to mention - tested with API.

 

[rdriggett]

Update: Did a 50% WC and readings are down to 2ppm ammonia, 1ppm nitrite (probably still off the chart) and 20ppm nitrate.
Picked up a second 4oz bottle of turbo start and dosed it.
Id love for this tank to zero out ammonia within 48h.

 

[richiev]

Update: I'll ignore API and barely trust redsea after further research. It's still showing 3ppm ammonia but now shows 1ppm nitrite and both show 20-40ppm nitrate. Now that I have 20+ nitrates I'm going to assume I'm basically cycled after I should be able to confirm that on Thursday.

For yucks im going to re dose a 2x dose of turbo start tomorrow.

Totally anecdotal, but I'd suggest not just constantly dosing bacteria. I was leery of if I was progressing, so I kept dosing. Eventually my cycle stalled in that I was seeing Ammonia jump straight to nitrate, but nitrite getting converted to nitrate extremely slowly. I didn't have a concrete reason for that, but I think that's covered in that video as well. I think the fact that I had so many bacterial doses from redosing bottled + LifeRock + bacteria in some other stuff I dosed (Purple Helix algae) was preventing the nitrate->nitrate bacteria from getting a hold.

But I might be completely wrong. Main point being if it's working already, I wouldn't just keep adding more bacteria. More isn't necessarily better.

 

[rdriggett]

Totally anecdotal, but I'd suggest not just constantly dosing bacteria. I was leery of if I was progressing, so I kept dosing. Eventually my cycle stalled in that I was seeing Ammonia jump straight to nitrate, but nitrite getting converted to nitrate extremely slowly. I didn't have a concrete reason for that, but I think that's covered in that video as well. I think the fact that I had so many bacterial doses from redosing bottled + LifeRock + bacteria in some other stuff I dosed (Purple Helix algae) was preventing the nitrate->nitrate bacteria from getting a hold.

But I might be completely wrong. Main point being if it's working already, I wouldn't just keep adding more bacteria. More isn't necessarily better.

I’m calling it after this second dose bacteria wise.