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Bulldog39 11/08/2017 03:39 PM

What is up with my levels?
 
I used Dr. Tim's one and only bacteria to try and cycle my tank quick. Put it in 3 days ago along with 40 drops of ammonia because instructions said one drop per gallon and I have a 40 breeder. Look at my test.
Ammonia 2ppm
Nitrite 1ppm
Nitrate 40ppmhttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...f4c91791e6.jpg

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mcgyvr 11/08/2017 04:27 PM

You likely have less than 40 gallons of water due to rock/sand,etc....
As such your initial ammonia results were likely higher than 2ppm.. not to mention that the bottle of bacteria may contain some ammonia,etc...
Its also only been 3 days and that kind of bottled bacteria rarely works as advertised..

Just relax/wait..
Don't add any more ammonia..
Your tank is cycling.. Now you just wait..

Bulldog39 11/08/2017 04:42 PM

Used with sump and all 55 gallons of water and when I added it initially i had 4ppm ammonia.

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mcgyvr 11/08/2017 04:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bulldog39 (Post 25267658)
Used with sump and all 55 gallons of water and when I added it initially i had 4ppm ammonia.

ok well.. good... then your tank is progressing properly..
Your levels are to be 100% expected IMO..
again.. do not add more ammonium chloride.

Bulldog39 11/08/2017 04:48 PM

Awsome thanks so now just wait for diatoms and levels to drop I guess.

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mcgyvr 11/08/2017 04:53 PM

And a FYI for others.. see their high nitrate readings (and they will likely get worse)
That is exactly why dosing past 2ppm (heck even dosing past .5ppm) is not a smart move..4ppm is way too much and close to the point where you are actually killing bacteria not feeding it...
Now they are going to have to do a bunch of large water changes to rid the tank of all that excessive nitrate and get it down to acceptable levels post cycle..
I'd start making water now.. Expect to need to change maybe 50-100 gallons of water because of that.. and the larger the change the less water you will actually need.. (aka a big water change is better than multiple smaller ones)

looking at it again your nitrate isn't that bad..20ppm maybe. but it will get worse I'd bet..It could be 40 though.. hard to tell from here..

How many pounds of rock do you have BTW?

Bulldog39 11/08/2017 05:16 PM

45 lbs of rock and 40lbs of libe sand. Looks like 40ppm nitrate to me. Btw this is only week and a half total time and day 3 after the bacteria in a bottle

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Bulldog39 11/08/2017 05:17 PM

Also not using my filter sock for another 12 hours per the instructions. And no protien skimmer bought yet

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JUNBUG361 11/08/2017 11:31 PM

Should of just cycled naturally. Be patient

nereefpat 11/09/2017 08:31 AM

As stated, everything is fine. Just give it more time...like weeks.

FYI, if nitrItes are present, nitrAte will read way higher than it actually is. If you dosed to 4ppm ammonia, your final nitrate reading should be <20ppm, as long as you didn't add any more sources of N.

mcgyvr 11/09/2017 11:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nereefpat (Post 25268187)
FYI, if nitrItes are present, nitrAte will read way higher than it actually is.

Thank you..good point.. Yes the presence of sufficient Nitrite has been stated to cause errors in nitrate readings

jlmawp 11/09/2017 01:27 PM

I saw your other post about the Dr. Tims product, where you posted this as well.

You have only been going for 3 days. I wouldn't worry too much. You need to give things time to do what they do. Take a breath and let nature take its course. It will be cycled when it's cycled. Wait another week and then test again. Don't bother wasting your test kits this early in the game.

Lsufan 11/09/2017 07:04 PM

Don’t rush the process just because u used dr. Tims & are expecting a quick cycle. I have used it a few times & I don’t think it really sped up the cycle. It processes ammonia to nitrite quickly but in my case nitrite would stay around for weeks. So I anticipate that your ammonia will zero out in the first week, but it will still take 2 to 4 weeks after that for the cycle to complete. This was always my experience anyways.

I came to the conclusion that the reason these bacteria products say u can add fish is because it processes the ammonia quickly & nitrite usually is not toxic in saltwater at the levels we see.


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