Speeding up a cycle

[Absinthe]

2 weeks ago I placed 60lbs of LR and 60lbs of sand in my tank. Since then I have been scrubbing the rock every few days, running a skimmer and today I did a 20g water change.

Prior to that my nitrites and nitrates were incredibly high.

After the water change my nitrates were lower but my nitrites were still very high.

I am thinking that the bacterial load in my tank is still too low. The rock was uncured from the vendor and it doesnt have much life on it besides some dead macroalgae.

Of the 60lbs of sand, 20lbs of it was Aragamax live sand.

Should I just continue to be patient? Should I add more rock or sand from an established tank, or is it not necessary

 

[Treadingwater]

My suggestion would be to remain patient and let the cycle run it's corse unless you plan on adding more rock anyway. In that case I would add the rock as soon as possible because it's likely to cause another partial cycle from any die-off.

It takes time, but it's not something you want to rush or you'll end up with bigger problems down the road.

 

[Phyl]

Patience should solve all of the problems. Is there still ammo in the tank? That would lead to a continuing spike in trites. After the trites start to decline the trates will kick it in high gear. Then a good water change will have you ready for fish. Adding cured live rock will likely speed the cycle, but it isn't necessary to the goal of the quest if you weren't planning on adding more rock anyway.

Hang in there!

 

[panmanmatt]

The bacteria that convert nitrites are the slowest ones to grow. The ammonia reducing bacteria populate quicker than rabbits, that is why you have a high nitrite level and low ammonia. Let it run it course. You can try bumping the temp up to about 82-84 degrees as that will help the bacteria grow faster, just remember to lower it again before you add livestock to the ank.

 

[Absinthe]

Thanks for the replies.

I guess Im just being impatient. I am going on vacation the first week of June anyway...so I wouldnt be adding fish until after that.

But I was hoping to get my params in acceptable range so that I can add a clean up crew. I would like the clean up crew to be well established before any fish go in the tank.

Hopefully by this time next week my numbers will be down and safe for inverts.

 

[mantis32]

From all that I've read, I surely agree on the waiting it out and not trying to speed up anything.

It's a month later for me and I'm now putting water in my tank. I think it'll be a long while out before my tank sees it's first fish.

 

[Carlo]

Absinthe, you could add a bottle of Fritz-Zyme Turbo Start 900 or BIO Spira Marine to get a good collection of bacteria in the tank which would help speed things up as fast as possible.

As long as there is die-off on the rock there will be ammonia produced which will convert to nitrites and then to nitrates. The bacteria that perform each of these functions doesn't really take very long to establish but the bacteria that de-nitrify your tank do take a long time to establish. It's only this latter process that I'd suggest the possible addition of either of these two products.

With the addition of either of these two products you would notice your ammonia and nitrites drop off real quick since you would have a good supply of bacteria in the tank and could add either the cleanup crew or fish quickly. You will of course still see the nitrates build up which will require water changes to "fix" until the latter mentioned bacteria kick in. If you do use either of these products you will need to turn off UV, Ozone & protein skimmer for a few days to make sure you don't kill or stripout the bacteria from the water column until it has a chance to do it's magic in the rock.

Carlo