Highest ammonia you ever had?

[midiman]

Mine's past 8 on the color card for the second day in a row. pH 8.1, KH 2.5, salinity 1.024. Nitrites between .25 - .50. Nitrates 0, temp 80 degrees.

Today is one week to the day I started with 2 dead shrimp and a splash of clear ammonia.

Is this high level of ammonia impeding the cycle?

In the meantime, I've been using the tank water to clean my windows. It leaves a strange white film on the glass when it dries, though.

 

[youronlysin]

In the meantime, I've been using the tank water to clean my windows. It leaves a strange white film on the glass when it dries, though.

Lol. Your ammonia is high, but not that high!

Try a water change to bring it down a bit. Im not an expert in the saltwater arena, but the cycle process is the same. It seems to me that if you add too much ammonia to start the cycle that it would impede the process; meaning the process will be slowed down a bit because of the need to grow a larger nitrifying bacteria platform to compensate. In my opinion, it might not hurt to do a water change and not add any more ammonia...maybe this would dillute things enough that it can get on with the process. Of course, it might not hurt things to just wait it out, either.

 

[midiman]

I stopped adding ammonia on the third day. I just wanted to jump start the cycle without waiting for the shrimp to start stinking. My concern is that the high ammonia could actually be a growth inhibitor on the Nitrosomas bacteria. I do have nitrites, though, so I guess all is going ok.

The only reason I'm hesitant to change my water is because I don't want to upset the developing growth of bacteria in the sand - which is the only thing I have in the tank right now (also a bag of bio rock chips and more sand in the sump).

I appreciate your input. I'm hoping to get a bunch of responses so I can understand the process better.

Thanks!

 

[electrikat]

My ammonia got up past 8 during my cycle and you really shouldn't do a water change until the amm and nitrites reach zero. Then you do a large water change(up to 50%). Changing your water during the cycle will slow it down and hinder the amount of bacteria you produce. The higher the amm during cycle the more bacteria will grow.

 

[midiman]

By the way, in the article on this board entitled "Nitrogen Cycle "
Written by: Tonya Beckerdite (linkbelow)

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/showquestion.php?faq=2&fldAuto=21

the following question is posed:


"They [Nitrosomas] break the ammonia down into nitrite, which is not quite so toxic as ammonia. Nitrosomas reproduce by splitting in half about every 7-8 hours. Imagine how long it would take to reach a number of a few thousand bacteria if you only start with one."

Here's the answer:

Starting with a single bacterium, it would take 12 cycles of 7.5 hours to reach 4096 bacteria ("a few thousand"). This is 3.75 days.

After one month, you'd have 1,048,576. Give or take.

 

[midiman]

Oops!!! That 1 million plus figure was for less than a week, not a month!!

In a month, as is said here in NY, "fugGET-a-bowt-it".

 

[midiman]

OK: 79,228,162,510,000,000,000,000,000,000 in a month.

That's it, I'm done.

 

[indy]

Don't do a water change until the cycle is done, that will slow down the cycle. The level you have is fine. It is going to take some time for the cycle to complete and you shouldn't expect to see any big changes in a week or two.

 

[youronlysin]

So there ya go! Water change out, patience in... Good luck!