Hello! I was hoping to get this group's thoughts or suggestions on a cycle that isn't "stuck", per se, but also isn't "complete"—by definition (nitrites not 0). There's just a bit of conflicting information in every other thread I read, so I'm trying to dig myself out of a bit of self-confusion. Haha.
Background:
From there, I've continued to test daily, with roughly the same results. On two or three different occasions, I've added enough ammonium chloride to be noticeably above 0.25, even as high as ~ 1.5; each time, the following test done 24 hours later resulted in ~ 0.25 for ammonia and ~ 2.0 for nitrites on the API colors. So, ammonia seems to be processing consistently, but there's no noticeable movement, up or down, in nitrites. I started testing nitrates after day 9, and they've been somewhere between 10-20 ppm consistently.
Based on this thread on reef2reef, my cycle is complete, and "The presence of nitrite cannot harm your inverts, your early corals or your fish or your cycle...", so I did a 50% water change last night. Tested again this morning, which came to 0-0.25 ammonia, and closer to 1.0 nitrites, ~ 10 nitrates.
So my questions are
Background:
Following Dr. Tim's Presscription:
09/19: Started fishless cycle with 10 lbs CaribSea live sand, 10 lbs CaribSea "LiFerock", and Dr. Tim's One & Only + Ammonium Chloride
09/19 - 09/27: Followed the prescription exactly, adding ammonium chloride and testing on the days instructed; ammonia and nitrites peaked at about 2.0 each on day 4
09/27 (day 9): Ammonia test ~ 0.25, but Nitrates were still > 1.0, so I didn't add fish as Dr. Tim's chart "suggests"
* all tests done using API Saltwater Master
From there, I've continued to test daily, with roughly the same results. On two or three different occasions, I've added enough ammonium chloride to be noticeably above 0.25, even as high as ~ 1.5; each time, the following test done 24 hours later resulted in ~ 0.25 for ammonia and ~ 2.0 for nitrites on the API colors. So, ammonia seems to be processing consistently, but there's no noticeable movement, up or down, in nitrites. I started testing nitrates after day 9, and they've been somewhere between 10-20 ppm consistently.
Based on this thread on reef2reef, my cycle is complete, and "The presence of nitrite cannot harm your inverts, your early corals or your fish or your cycle...", so I did a 50% water change last night. Tested again this morning, which came to 0-0.25 ammonia, and closer to 1.0 nitrites, ~ 10 nitrates.
So my questions are
- What are this group's thoughts on the r2r thread and my results above?
- Am I ok to add initial livestock (thinking of an O. Clownfish and a shrimp to start the cuc and help as I settle into a feeding routine)?
- Or, should I just continue to wait it out for the nitrites to come down?
