90 Restart question

My ammonia is at about 1.5-2.0 thats its highest so far. Does it really need to spike up higher or if its at that level and I pull the shrimp out and add more live bacteria, and ghost feed will it still remain on track?

 

Yikes. How do I have .25 for nitrite and maybe .1 - .2 nitrate? Its only been a little over a week

 

Yikes. How do I have .25 for nitrite and maybe .1 - .2 nitrate? Its only been a little over a week. I'll test again tomorrow afternoon and see if its going up or not. Its the first time I tested for either. Could that bacteria in a bottle I added early afternoon dropped everything?

 

If you have been adding bottled bacteria or have LR then the ammonia has been changed to Nitrite and some of that Nitrite into Nitrate. It doesn't all happen at once. The cycle is over when all the ammonia and nitrate have zeroed out which the ammonia will 0 first.

If you ghost feed as well it will continue to grow the bio filter to keep up with that amount of food, any less will restrict its development to only the amount of nutrients added, and more will build it up to the level of the nutrients being added and will then not stay at that level when you start only feeding the fish you have, kinda like overkill.

So it is best to ghost feed the amount you would feed your first inhabitants so the bacteria will grow to handle that load, then it 0s out and then you are ready to add inhabitants.

 

should I let the ammonia get eaten up a bit first and convert all the way to nitrates before I ghost feed more? I pulled the shrimp out tonight. I think I follow what your saying, so you can potentially have different size "colony" cycles?

 

You should ghost feed now because your goal is to have the bacteria change the food from ammonia to nitrite to nitrate efficiently enough that there is never a trace of ammonia or nitrite.

 

So even though I have 2.0 ammonia I should still keep ghost feeded? I don't want to get that ammonia get lower before I keep putting food in?

 

Seems like if I keep ghost feeding the cycle will never end? Am I missing something?

 

If you keep ghost feeding, you will grow more bacteria that converts ammonia into nitrite and nitrite into nitrate. You want to grow enough so that it converts all the ammonia as fast as it can and then nitrites after that. When it is fully cycled is when it can convert everything to Nitrates while showing 0 of the others, and you would still have a source of ammonia, fish, CUC, leftover food.

The ammonia and nitrite are always gonna be there but they should be undetectable due to how efficiently it is being converted. Therefore, with ghost feeding you are simulating the constant introduction of nutrients and keeping the cycle always going.

 

I skimmed this and my thoughts are...don't do anything. Wait at least 3-4 weeks then begin testing. When test are good, at that time only add your first fish.