cycle question

[gmann]

I started end of Dec. using dry rock, i ghost fed fish food for a couple days until i got ammonia, and dumped a bunch of zeo start and zeo bak on day one.

On day 5 i started dosing every day based on tank size.

ammonia came n left
nitrite - came and left without me even knowing
nitrate was at 25ppm and is recently shot up to at least 100ppm.

at this point is my cycle over? do nitrates go down on their own, or will i need to do a series of water changes?

thanks

[DorySaid]

That is likely due to food nutrient buildup.
It likely hasn't fully cycled. But even if it went through the nitrogen cycle, you probably need another week or so to allow the nitrate and phosphate reducing bacteria to populate. I dont think they kicked in just yet, especially since you've recently seen a rise in nitrates not a reduction. Give it some more time maybe a week, then test again I would say. Probably not much point adding anymore food.
If after a week or week and a half, if the nitrates haven't gone done considerably, then consider some water changes over time.

[Myka]

Your tank is technically "done cycling" since ammonia and nitrite are zero.

Nitrate reducing bacteria won't populate dry rock for months - usually 8 to 12 months is when you start to see a decent population of denitrifying bacteria. This is one of the biggest differences between live rock and dry rock.

It sounds like you ghost fed the tank a fair bit too much. You should have ended up with about 5 to 10 ppm nitrate. The only thing you can do to reduce nitrate right now is to do a very large water change. I would do as close to 100% as you can. You may need to do a couple large water changes to get the nitrate around 5 to 10 ppm before you should start stocking the tank.

I hope you had the lights off in your tank during the cycle.

Sent from my SM-G950W using Tapatalk

[gmann]

I hope you had the lights off in your tank during the cycle.

Sent from my SM-G950W using Tapatalk

yeah lights have been off this whole time.


Thanks Dorysaid and Myka

[Myka]

You're welcome. Let us know how it goes.