One and Only Bacteria

Hi Dr.Tim,

I had been doing the fishless cycle for the past three weeks (adding 2ppm of your Ammonium Chloride Solution). For the past 2 days, I noticed that the bacteria in my tank is able to convert 2ppm of ammonia to 0 within 24 hours. My Nitrite has been hovering around at 1ppm. Is it safe to add two clownfish? I have a 20 gallon

 

No way! Get 0 ammonia and 0 nitrate stable first. You can add your clownfish with nitrates but it will be a battle to get them down. IMO I would wait till its 0,0,0

 

pretty sure this question was directed at dr tims. but maybe this will help.

Fishless Cycling | DrTim's Aquatics

about 2/3 of the way down click the photo. you will see the graph/chart. right around day15-25 there is a "typical lingering nitrite" period. should be passing any day now.

 

Hello

In general you want to get the nitrite down to zero or as close as you can to be absolutely safe.

That said, however, there are few questions to ask yourself and the answers will tell you if it is safe to start adding some fish.

1) you've been doing a fishless cycle - this will lower the pH which slows the bacterial conversion of ammonia and nitrite. So what is your pH? Have you been measuring it since the beginning so you know how much it has dropped? Always a good idea to do a partial water change to get the pH back up before adding fish.

2) you say the nitrite is "1ppm" but what are the units? I know I harp on this but 1 ppm nitrite-nitrogen is much different than 1 ppm nitrite ion. So which is it or what test kit are you using and I can tell you the units.

3) what is the nitrite trend these past 3 weeks? Meaning at first it took a few days to get nitrite down, now after 24 hours you're at 1 ppm nitrite (units?) so the conversion is much faster now and that means the bacteria are there. Adding 2 ppm ammonia-nitrogen is a lot of ammonia - that's equivalent to a lot of clown fish (unless you're adding a really big species).

In reality I think you tank is there - stop adding the ammonia, do a partial water change, wait 24 hours and add some fish.

Best

DrTim

 

Hi Drtim,

I had been using API Saltwater Master Test Kit. I woke up today and did another water test. My Nitrite is finally at 0! I did the water change and I just bought a pair of clownfish. Thank you so much for your advice!

 

Hi Dr.Tim,

Just to follow up, I added two clownfish since last week after. They seem to be healthy (eating, actively swimming, etc...). I'm currently noticing some brown algae on my dry rocks (cycle along with my tank). My light fixture is set to 8 hrs of daylight and 1 hrs of dusk/dawn. Ammonia and Nitrite still at 0 (API master kit). My water comes from my RODI unit (0ppm). Is this a diatom outbreak? For some reason, I assumed that using One and Only Bacteria, I can eliminate the diatom stage?

 

Hello

One & Only does not eliminate the diatom stage which it looks like you are in now. You can wait it out and/or get a clean up crew to handle it.