Am i cycling wrong?

[zacheyp]

assuming paramaters are ok, tuesday or wendsday i will by a clown and a few hermits, i will get a black and white clown and a normal clown, however can i just get the orange one this week and wait til next week to get the black and white, ps the black and white will be bigger

[kurtyboh]

how much of the rock was cured? and youre bacteria could have used up the ammonia and is dying off if they dont have a food source. they are very efficient at what they do, and as such decline rapidly without nutrients. if you can get your hands on some pure ammonia, i would dose up to 5ppm wait 24hrs and see where its at. or you can drop a shrimp in and in a few days test again, but it wont be breaking down enough to create ammonia even in the first day, so the fastest is dosing.
this stuff is pretty cheap and you just dose 2 drops/gal to get 4 ppm I believe? it has instructions anyhow
Ammonium Chloride Solution

[zacheyp]

all 30 pounds were cured, im not allowed to have the shrimp(smell) why would i need amonia, i cycled right?

[zacheyp]

i also have diatoms and alage

[zacheyp]

if i were to dose with ammonia, how long would it be until i could add fish?

[SwimsWithFish]

Originally Posted by zacheyp

assuming paramaters are ok, tuesday or wendsday i will by a clown and a few hermits, i will get a black and white clown and a normal clown, however can i just get the orange one this week and wait til next week to get the black and white, ps the black and white will be bigger

You'll need to add them at the same time and make sure one is bigger or it won't work.

[kurtyboh]

Youre adding an ammonia source because you think you are cycled, but you said your shrimp was only in for four days, which makes me think that you might have starved your bb. 2 weeks certainly isnt unheard of esp if you used cured lr. You just want to be sure .

This stuff from tims doesnt smell as bad as indistrial ammonia, many aay there is no smell.

[carey]

has it really been two weeks already? I would be sure you are cycled before adding any fish or you risk losing the fish and clean up crew.

Nothing is fast in saltwater, just always remember that.

If this were my tank I would dose pure ammonia for a few days to make sure your ammonia will drop to 0 within 24 hours. Just my opinion and what I would do. Putting another shrimp in the tank will just take longer for it to decompose while the pure ammonia will be immediate.

[zacheyp]

just ordered pure ammonia, how long should it take for my tank to be ready for fish?

[kurtyboh]

it really depends, each tank is different. most take around 4 weeks, sometimes things get stalled and it takes quite a bit longer. Using cured lr can certainly speed the process, but even in the 1/2 hr it takes to get home there is considerable die off. The bacteria we are looking for duplicate themselves, under perfect conditions it takes like 12 hrs, most of the time we are not giving them perfect conditions and are likely looking at doubling every 20-30hrs. Because each tank is different its impossible to say itll take this many hrs from this pt. we dont know how many you started with, how fast they are reproducing, or how many you need for your bioload...

thats the long answer here's the short it is possible that you are cycled, but instead of rushing, you want to make sure you're giving your fish the best possible home, which involves adding ammonia, and making sure your bacterial colony can turn it to nitrates in 24hrs.

[zacheyp]

Shouldn't it become trites not trates

[zacheyp]

if my tank is already cycled, will it still take weeks?

[zacheyp]

is there anyway to find out if i am cycled without dosing with ammonia and delaying the process up to two weeks?

[zacheyp]

say the tank IS cycled and i had ammonia, how long til i can add fish?

[kurtyboh]

When youre sure its cycled, you can ad fish whenever you want.

[zacheyp]

if my tank is cycled and i put in mmonia will it still take weeks?

[rdnelson99]

No, the ammonia will tell you IF it is cycled. If it is cycled, the ammonia will turn into Nitrite and then the Nitrite will turn into Nitrate all within 24 hours. If that doesn't happen, then the tank HAS NOT cycled and you may have a ways to go. The key is, can the bacteria convert the ammonia (4 ppm) all the way to nitrate in 24 hours.

[zacheyp]

oh ok, if my tank is cycled it will only take a day and if not good thing we tested

[kurtyboh]

Exactly, so hopefuly itll only put the addition back a day, but if ammo shows up those clowns should still be on the waiting list

[rdnelson99]

Exactly. Now you got it. We all want you tank to be cycled so you can add the fish you so desperately want. We just don't want you to lose those fish. Run the test, if it ends up like I described you are good to go. JUST GO SLOW. Start with the two clowns and a few snails and hermit crab. Then give it at least a week maybe two and another fish. Doing this helps the bacteria grow so it catches up to the bioload (the ammonia from fish waste) that is produced by more fish.