When the ammonia and nitrite levels are normal, you can safely add a few more fish. There are a number of other sources for the ammonia required to feed the bacteria, other than just fish.
Invertebrates such as hermit crabs, snails, and shrimp that you are planning to add to the aquarium will consume food and produce ammonia. If you don't want to use media from another tank or don't have access to a natural seeding source, you can also start the cycling process by adding drops of pure ammonia to your tank.
To make sure there are no detergents in your ammonia, shake the bottle before using. If bubbles start to foam after shaking, it means detergents are present and you'll want to find an alternative ammonia source that's pure.
Once you have secured an unadulterated bottle, add five drops a day for every 10 gallons of water to your empty tank to start the cycling process.
When your test kit starts to detect nitrite, cut back to only three drops a day. Do NOT add any fish or invertebrates to the aquarium if you are using ammonia to start your bacteria cycling. After you stop adding ammonia, wait a day and retest your water before you add your fish. Both ammonia and nitrite can kill fish, so you want to be sure they are completely removed from the water before you add the first few fish to that tank.
Testing the aquarium water for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate on an almost daily basis will help you to determine how well the bacteria population is increasing in a new aquarium. If the ammonia level is rising and approaching the danger zone, you can quickly reduce the level with a dose of an ammonia neutralizing product such as Amquel to keep the level in the safe zone.
The goal is for the bacteria to quickly break down all of the ammonia to nitrite and then to nitrate, so that the water tests are nearly zero for ammonia and nitrite. The nitrate will gradually accumulate in the aquarium water, so water changes need to be made to remove the nitrate.
Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile.
Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Rotting fish food will also cause ammonia, along with a couple of other natural sources within your tank.
Ammonia is very toxic to your fish. Ammonia gets eaten up by bacteria which produces Nitrite. This bacteria will populate your tank naturally. Nitrite is also toxic to your livestock, but it is not quite as bad as ammonia. Along comes another form of bacteria which eats up the Nitrite, this then produces Nitrate.
Nitrate is far less toxic to your livestock. Nitrate can be exported via water changes, carbon dosing and via a refugium with something like Chaeto growing in it. These bacteria will live on hard surfaces, so things like your glass, filter media and more importantly your rock.
You can use dry live rock or ceramic media and then seed your tank with the required bacteria via live sand, a handful of sand from an established tank, bottled bacteria or a smaller piece of live rock from an established system.
Once you have seeded your tank, as long as you have an ammonia source you just have to wait for your bacteria to multiply and complete your cycle. I personally chose to cycle my tank with the prawn method. It is generally regarded within the hobby that the API test kit is not accurate enough. When doing your test your are looking for a spike in ammonia, which will be followed by a spike in Nitrite. Both of these levels will drop to 0 and you will be left with just Nitrates.
Once you have observed this change in water chemistry your Nitrogen cycle is complete. The cycle starts with ammonia, but the goal is to establish a colony of nitrobacter bacteria which process nitrite into less harmful nitrate. How it works is nitrosoma bacteria start converting ammonia, to nitrite.
Then nitrobacter bacteria being consuming the harmful nitrite into less harmful nitrate. Nitrate levels should be in trace amounts in the aquarium, and a safe range for a reef tank is below 5ppm.
If you have a fish only reef tank you can have your levels higher up to 40ppm, however, it is always recommended to have level lower than 5ppm. That being said, certain soft corals and especially giant clams appreciate a little extra nitrate in the water, and there are plenty of successful reef tanks, even SPS dominated, which succeed in water with nitrate concentrations upwards of 50ppm.
The nitrobacter will start growing on all the surfaces of your tank including the walls and rocks. When you are testing your water and start to see nitrate level creeping up you know nitrobacter is getting things done. During the cycling process, you need to go through all three steps, ammonia spike, nitrite spike, and nitrate accumulation. To monitor your ammonia level, you can purchase ammonia alert tags by Seachem which stick to the inside of your aquarium glass.
This will give you a quick and easy way to monitor ammonia levels. The older your tank gets the more nitrobracter bacteria are maturing, reproducing and colonizing your aquarium, esentially speeding up the cycling process. Every time you add a new fish, or have food left over to rot in the tank ammonia levels start to rise. Once your cycle in complete, and you see nitrate levels rise, and ammonia and nitrate level fall, you are safe to add your first fishy friend.
But, remember what I said in the beginning about patience… You always want to take things slow, adding fish one at a time and letting your tank adjust. The nitrogen cycle is a necessary step for starting all saltwater aquariums, and aquarium manufacturers want to make this process as quick and painless as possible.
There are a few products on the market which help kick-start your biological cycle with a dose of nitrifying bacteria. One of our favorites is BioDigest by Prodibio , which are vials of lab-grown bacteria to start of your biological cycle. BioDigest is a concentrated bacteria for all steps of the process.
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