Cycling My first tank

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MG72

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Jun 2, 2020
Messages
1
Hello,

I have been cycling my 37 gallon tank for about a month now. I am running a fishless cycle and I have been using nitrifying bacteria and ammonia.

My question is: how much ammonia should my tank be able to process within a day? Some sources say to add 4ppm each time I dose the tank while others say 2ppm. I'm new to the hobby and I want to make sure I cycle it correctly.

Right now my tank can remove about 3ppm in one day, but there is usually 1ppm of ammonia and either 0.5 or 0 nitrite left still. I do not add any ammonia when this occurs and I wait another day. When I test the water on the 2nd day the ammonia and nitrite always drop to 0. I am just a little confused and unsure if my cycle is close to being complete or not quite there yet.

Should I try adding less ammonia or continue to dose to 4ppm?

I appreciate any tips/advice thank you!
 
The thing with the aquatics hobby is that there is more than one way to skin a cat. Everyone will have their own way, and opinions will differ on the proper way of doing things.

With regards to how much ammonia to be dosing, a moderately stocked tank will be producing 1ppm ammonia over a 24 hour period. Dosing to 2ppm and having it cycle out within 24 hours will mean your system should be able to deal with any short term ammonia spikes if you moderately stock. Dosing to 4ppm will mean you can safely more heavily stock. Me personally, I'm happy to dose to 1ppm and then lightly stock when it is cycling out within 24 hours, then build up stocking slowly over a few months. Never had a problem with this.

It all depends on how cautious you are and how heavily you plan to stock. I would say, unless you plan on stocking really heavily right from the start, 4ppm dosing is overly cautious.
 
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