New tank cycle

[Asher E.]

I set up a new tank using RO water and apt feast aquasoil. The ph is below 6 and ammonia is above 8ppm. I just set it up yesterday and I didn’t dose any ammonia.

Should I do a water change to get ammonia under 4ppm?

I’m doing a dark start.

 

[Sb1415]

This might be helpful for you

3 Hacks when starting a new tank

Hack #1 Babysitter plants are hardy plants, such as Hemianthus glomeratus (Pearlweed), which are not intended for the final aquascape, but are introduced temporarily at the start for the first 1 to 3 weeks to help stabilise the new tank. They will be discarded when the tank is ready for the real...

www.2hraquarist.com

If you are doing a dark start, you should leave things alone for 2 weeks. The video on the link walks you through the process.

 

[Asher E.]

This might be helpful for you

3 Hacks when starting a new tank

Hack #1 Babysitter plants are hardy plants, such as Hemianthus glomeratus (Pearlweed), which are not intended for the final aquascape, but are introduced temporarily at the start for the first 1 to 3 weeks to help stabilise the new tank. They will be discarded when the tank is ready for the real...

www.2hraquarist.com

If you are doing a dark start, you should leave things alone for 2 weeks. The video on the link walks you through the process.

I’ve heard that ammonia above 4 ppm can harm the bacteria, but I don’t know how true that is. I guess I’ll just leave it and see what happens. If it doesn’t start to cycle by about a month I’ll just do a water change.

 

[Pepere]

I usually do numerous water changes with new aquasoil as the cycle starts up. The stuff is pretty hot.

 

[Kwyet]

I’ve also read that ammonia above 4 will stall the cycle.

 

[techman81]

On my first dark start, I didn't do any water changes but I did add Fritz Turbo Start 700 to help try and kick start things. Can't say for sure that it made things faster because it still took 3 to 4 weeks for Nitrites to go down, but ammonia dropped off fairly quickly. It's rather hard to get in the midwest though and I've since found Dr. Tim's One And Only. Now that I have several tanks though, I'll be sharing some cycled filter media for faster starts.