Nitrogen Cycle

[scotty37]

Hello everyone! This is my first marine tank and I started the nitrogen cycle Monday with a good shot of straight ammonia. I have live rock on base rock and all live sand. I dont have an ammonia test but I checked my nitrites today and they are right at .5... is this too high or is this normal? Even though my rock has not seeded completely yet, I am doing a fish only tank, will I be able to drop some blueleg hermits in at the end of the cycle?
Thanks!

 

[fishieness]

that is normal. itll take a while before everything spikes up.
when you say you put in a shot of amonia, do you mean like.... cleaning agent amonia?! unless you used a tiny tiny amount, that is probably way too much seeing how a cycle of 5 parts per MILLION will kill most creatures on your live rock.

 

[scotty37]

No cleaning agent! Believe me I know better than that lol. Actually, I didnt really want to say what the shot of ammonia was because it is so weird, but I found it on so many sites and many books, so I tried to do it. They recommended it because it didnt require anything dead or alive, and required just some strong ammonia, PEE. Every LFS store I have been too across a 100 mile radius has recommended peeing in the tank to get the cycle started, so hopefully someone has heard of it.

 

[fishieness]

i have. but i must say, have never actualy talked to someone that actualy DID it.lol
i would definatly get an amonia test kit, as well as all others you will need that you may not have:
amonai
nitrate
nitrite
phosphate
calcium
alkalinity
pH
and im assuming you have something to measure salinity

 

[scotty37]

I have all of those except the ammonia test, which I have been to 3 places now that dont sell it for some reason!!?!?!? Of course I have the salinity. IT was very weird peeing in my tank which I have put so much work into, hard a hard time even telling the wife that I did it. Do you know how long it will be until I can put some hermits in there?

 

[fishieness]

im not sure how long it will be. moniter your tank and find an amonia test. even somewhere online. when that, as well as your nitrates-trites, ect are all at 0, then add some hermits.
you may want to make sure you are running extra carbon too. i dont think i would ever use that method to cycle not only because it is a little odd to do, but you dont know what types of impurities may be in your pee.

 

[scotty37]

I always wondered about what else could be in there, but how bad could it be compared to fish pee? I am going to give it some extra time to get out of there, but hopefully by the 2 week mark I can add the hermits. Then I am going to give it a few more weeks and add some snails, with a cleaner shrimp in there when it is about fish time. I have a mix of live rock and base rock, but its full of all live sand so hopefully that will help the process. Had this thing running for 2 months and I cant handle too much more patience lol. The tank is at its most beautiful point now. Looks spectacular! Water is so clear you cant tell there is any. Since the pee incident, I have gotten the skimmer adjusted and the bad stuff has been collecting in there nicely.

 

[tomato clown]

I've heard of using cat urine because of the massive ammonia concentrated in it. I've never heard if it worked or not though.

 

[mikeyjer]

I think I'll stick to dead shrimp.......using urine is not something I would do.. :scared:
Let us know the outcome!!! :happyfish

 

[scotty37]

It has seemed to work great. All my levels have been moving through the cycle nicely, and all the problems I had in the tank with the skimmer quickly cleared up. So far I can say I recommend it.

 

[mikeyjer]

Originally Posted by scotty37
It has seemed to work great. All my levels have been moving through the cycle nicely, and all the problems I had in the tank with the skimmer quickly cleared up. So far I can say I recommend it.
I'm gonna see how mine does. I added in raw shrimp friday night. I took'em out tonight and added in 100 lbs of cured live rock. There's a bunch of pods in my tank before I added in LR. I cleaned out my canister from my reef when I first got this tank setup and dump all the water I washed it with into this tank. Somehow the pods that went in there had babies. So I guess that's a good sign. We'll see how fast this cycle goes. When I tested Ammonia before adding LR, it was at .25 We'll see what happens later on this week. :happyfish

 

[buzzininnv]

Quick question:
During the cycle, does everyone recommend changing water? I've seen postings saying to change the water during the cycle and threads that say wait until afterwards. Any thoughts?? What about the percentage of change? I've heard people say 40% and 10% twice? 10-15 % every other day? I have a 46g with LS and LR.
Thanks!!

 

[fishieness]

change it only if your amonia levels get very high. IMO, it is good to keep them as low as possible to not kill all inverts and other wanted hitchickers on LR.

 

[scotty37]

Would someone mind explaining what pods are? I have heard plenty of talk about them but I am still unfamiliar. I guess since I havent seen anything on my rock I dont have any.

 

[fishieness]

pods are types of zoo plankton. some examples are different types of isopods, amphiopods, and copepods. They are an overall good thing for your tank. They eat algae and detritus, and also provide a very healthy food for a lot of your fish. Copeods are the size of a pinhead. And amphiopods and isopods (at least the ones most common in the aquarium trade) range from 1/8th and inch to as much as half an inch.
search them online and you will find some pics
to see if you have them, wait until after dark and look on the side of the glass with a flashlight.

 

[scotty37]

Well I just tested my nitrites and nitrates again and both levels are through the roof, highest readings on the chart. I still havent been able to find an ammonia test but I can assume that my ammonia was high and is probably stabilized now. What should I do?

 

[fishieness]

wait for everythign to go down. a water change to prevent pods and such from dieing would be good too.

 

[scotty37]

I realize these levels are from the removed ammonia, which is good. Is there another way to lower these levels? I am guessing algae will form from it to naturally lower them?

 

[fishieness]

as nitrifying bacteria establishes, it will be removed and turned into oxygen and nitrogen gas, which will diffuse out of the aquarium