cycling with one and only, dr. tim, help?

hi dr. tim,

i am using the API test kits for nitrite and ammonia and the red sea test kit for nitrate.

two weeks ago when i started on my 40g frag tank with 20g sump i dosed your ammonia from the bottle sold per instructions.

ammonia got to 1ppm and nitrite was at 0ppm.

then within a couple days ammonia never got above 1ppm.

after the first week ammonia was at 0ppm.

nitrite kept increasing over the first week from .25ppm to 1ppm.

in the second week, nitrite has been steady at 4-5ppm for about five days.

the cycle so far has been 16 days, today.

i have 10lbs of dry live rock that was added when everything was first setup.

i had the skimmer off for the first 60 hours after adding "one and only".

the skimmer is on since then and pulling very dark skimmate/organics.

i have a chromis that i added two days after i added "one and only" that has been swimming and eating and doing well. doesn't seem stressed.

i had/have a diatom outbreak that has covered the glass and the live rock which i thought was good and showing progress.

what i'm worried about is that despite ammonia being at 0ppm for the last five-seven days, my nitrite has not lessened in over five days from 4-5ppm.

should i add more "one and only", should i do a water change, or should i just keeping waiting.

i imagine having the dry live rock in the tank has increased the typical shorter cycle because it is effectively curing while my cycle is happening, as well, and the dead sponges and critters etc are extra die off?

thank you in advance for your input, dr tim. i look forward to your reply!

 

I would suggest you do a water change and wait a little longer. There does not seem to be a need to add more One and Only, as you surmised, the added dry live rock probably contributed a significant amount of organics that degraded into ammonia and into nitrite.

The system will catch-up in a few days.

 

ok, great. thank you dr. tim. i will do a water change tomorrow and hopefully things will wrap up for me soon.

i'll post up accordingly.

 

ok. cheers

 

cycle and curing is done!

cycle and curing is DONE!

ammonia: 0ppm
nitrite: 0ppm
nitrate: .75ppm

 

Way to go - congrats. Now add some animals and enjoy.