I'm so confused ......weirdest cycle ever

[erika crawford]

Hey all so this is going to be a long one, so I apologize in advance.
Ok so I've been out of the hobbie for 3 years ....but I never thought I could be so confused by a cycle. I set up a 5 gallon nano tank about 2.5 weeks ago ...we went with dry rock for a scape and seeded the tank with live (wet) sand ( the one with the packet of live bacteria) I knew I shouldnt have trusted this crap...threw in a raw shrimp and everything was gonna be peachy !

Wrong!!!

So ammonia climbed steadily for the first few days and so did nitrites and nitrates ...good sign!!

After about 5 days the ammonia was still spiking of the charts but the nitrites and nitrates were falling ....well that didn't make much sense. So I turned to the forum to search for an answer. And found a thread on ammonia spiking so high and turning to ammonium that it could potentially sterilize the tank and stop the cycle. Well crap...is that what I did?

So I removed the shrimp did a few water changes to bring the ammonia down and headed off to order mb7 online . When it came I dosed it accordingly. Checked levels next morning, nothing. Ammonia remained no nitrites or nitrates ...well ok maybe it needs a few days ...maybe it's not the miracle everyone has discribes ...waited a few Days and dosed again with mb7...still nothing in the tank budged ...looked like I had some kind of slimy bacteria bloom ...but levels remained the same ...zero nitrites ..zero nitrates ..high ammonia.

Now I'm ****ed ...*** is happening? Waited a few more days...and became enraged. 2 days ago I dumped the whole bottle of MB7 into the tank all 500ml of it .....basically an Assinine move ...but I had given up ...and was enraged.

So as a last resort last night I seeded the tank with live sand from an very established tank we have at work. Immediately the nitrite and nitrate began to rise . Yay I was getting somewhere. Woke up this am and ammonia is down to .25 ppm from 5 ppm yesterday , zero nitrites and zero nitrates. Well what the hell is this?

How is ammonia being converted slower than nitrites and nitrates ...that seems impossible to me. Was the mb7 actually alive ? Because I had assumed it was dead or a bad batch because nothing happened for a while.

Has anyone had this happen? Where they overdosed their tank ? I have no idea what's going on? Could anaerobic bacteria establish faster then aerobic ? Is that possible?

Any help would be greatly appreciated !!! TIA

[JohnnyHildo]

to make a long story short...
add your rock, sand and water then leave the thing along for 6 weeks. quit messing around with big water changes and adding junk to your tank. a little patience will go a long way in this game.

[pyithar]

maybe the test kits are off? i'd take the water sample to the lfs or fellow reefer and test using their test kits.

[homer1475]

Originally Posted by pyithar

maybe the test kits are off? i'd take the water sample to the lfs or fellow reefer and test using their test kits.

THIS!!!

Also if your using an API kit to measure ammonia, they always seem to show a small amount of ammonia even with 0 present.

[erika crawford]

Originally Posted by JohnnyHildo

to make a long story short...
add your rock, sand and water then leave the thing along for 6 weeks. quit messing around with big water changes and adding junk to your tank. a little patience will go a long way in this game.

Haha it should seem that simple ....but my rock is dead ..lifeless ....how does one start a culture in a lifeless tank?.....also more specifically how could ammonia be dropping with zero nitrites and nitrates....what am I missing?

[erika crawford]

I'm going to get a new test kit and see what happens also ...thanks for the replies guys

[bat21]

Originally Posted by JohnnyHildo

to make a long story short...
add your rock, sand and water then leave the thing along for 6 weeks. quit messing around with big water changes and adding junk to your tank. a little patience will go a long way in this game.

This. 100% This. Get your hands off the tank. Bacteria are everywhere. All around you. Floating in the air. You can cycle with dry rock and no added bacteria. Nature is a magical place. The bacteria will propagate. But only if you give them time to do so. 5 days and you started making changes? You really need A LOT more patience. I am certain this is all going haywire because you are messing with it so much.

[thegrun]

I agree, stop adding anything, you are only slowing things down. The one exception would be if the ammonia gets above 8ppm, I would make a big enough water change to bring it down between 2 and 4ppm. Ammonia at or above 8ppm does lengthen the cycle. Once you have an ammonia spike do not add any additional ammonia or anything that will break down into ammonia.

[erika crawford]

Ok guys ....can anyone actually explain where my ammonia is going? And why my nitrite and nitrate won't rise? I get that I need patience ..( I'm an Aries, patience dosnt come naturally to me ) ...something has been up since day 5 ...I only did water changes at that point to bring the ammonia down....because it was way too high.( turns black within seconds of mixing test).......to me when nitrite and nitrate start dropping while ammonia is still rising is not typical of any cycle I have ever had...and to me not typical = something is going wrong.......I should have just went with live rock ..the way I have always set up tanks before.....I will never go about setting up a tank in such an unfamiliar way again...but I'm looking for a actual answer besides just leave it alone....in my mind I can't wrap my head around what is happening. My plan is to leave it alone now that the ammonia is dropping. because in my mind that is typical of a cycle. But what I really want to understand is if my ammonia is seemingly not being converted into nitrite or nitrate, then where is it going? Am I missing the conversion because it's happening so fast? the nitrogen cycle is supposed to end in nitrate ....but I don't have any......this is mind blowing to me ......

[erika crawford]

I truly appreciate everyone's input

[CStrickland]

I think you're confused because you are thinking of the cycle as a straight line, but it's really more of a squiggle. The bacteria that process ammonia and nitrites and nitrates are different and overlapping populations. With the ammonia spikes and diff culture you've added from bottles and sand, you're populations have been expanding and waning and cannibalizing each other. So your readings are all over the place while they try to stabilize.

Add to the mix that even our best tests aren't that accurate, the nitrate tests will read a little nitrite as a lot of nitrate, and user error (API nitrate is super easy to mess up). It's kind of a crazy thing to try to track. Welcome back!

[erika crawford]

Originally Posted by CStrickland

I think you're confused because you are thinking of the cycle as a straight line, but it's really more of a squiggle. The bacteria that process ammonia and nitrites and nitrates are different and overlapping populations. With the ammonia spikes and diff culture you've added from bottles and sand, you're populations have been expanding and waning and cannibalizing each other. So your readings are all over the place while they try to stabilize.

Add to the mix that even our best tests aren't that accurate, the nitrate tests will read a little nitrite as a lot of nitrate, and user error (API nitrate is super easy to mess up). It's kind of a crazy thing to try to track. Welcome back!

This is the best and most understandable answer yet....thank you for that!!
I am absolutely going to leave it alone and let it do its thing. love your banner btw "noob for life"

[CStrickland]

Youre welcome