First time keeping saltwater fish. Started on the 11/22 using the recommended amount of Dr. Tim's and bio starter. Test kit was still in the mail, so didn't notice the ammonia was only at 0.5ppm until 12/1. Added more to get it up to 2ppm. Nitrate and nitrite were still at 0ppm.
I've added a small amount of bio maintain since then, but otherwise let it work its magic.
So a week and a half later, and I took the test in the pic above. There's definitely some change to nitrate/nitrite, but I could convince myself that ammonia is anywhere from 0.5ppm to 2ppm depending on lighting. Maybe I'm colorblind. It's especially hard to decipher through photos (which I just started taking today).
I'm hoping to get the fish by the 18th so I can have them ready for a Christmas surprise. I know patience is a virtue when it comes to fishless cycling, but am I screwed? I have another option to get pre-cycled filter material, but I was hoping to grow this on my own.
If it matters, I'm using the 10L kreisel from jellyfishart.com. Hoping to order the jellies on the 16th so they arrive by the 18th. They ship with a pre-cycled filter, but something about introducing all of that at the same time makes me nervous.
Nh is 2ppm IMO based on the pic. Or whatever green that is it's kinda high.
So you gotta keep cycling.
Surprised your bio starter didn't work faster. How are your temps? I believe you can speed things up by increasing the temp.
If you have a fish store you trust you can get water from their tanks to get you going.
It’s hard to say. NH3 really does look lighter in person. It was a bluer green a few days ago.
I’ve got it at 80F which is as high as I can get it in my secret garage setup (it’s small enough to hand carry to its spot under the tree when it’s ready). I only cranked it up a few days ago.
I was going to say I lost a week due to the accidentally low ammonia for the first week, but the vendor reminded me that the bacteria in the bio starter is dormant and takes a while to wake up regardless.
My understanding is that the bacteria predominantly live in the filter media. Will water from another tank help that much? If I wanted water without nitrites or ammonia, I could mix it up from scratch.
Would bubbling O2 into the water help the bacteria? I know bubbles can be lethal to jellies, so if remove it before I introduce them. I happen to have a medical oxygen concentrator…