Cycle Help! (1 Viewer)

I am restarting my 72 gallon bow-front. My tank has been cycling for 8 weeks. I bought new black and white Caribbean reef sand and used my dried live rock. I used turbo enzyme 900 to kick start the cycling twice - once a week after starting the cycle and then again at the 4 week cycling mark because my ammonia, nitrates and nitrites had not dropped.

At the 5.5 week mark, I used SEED for 7 days. I have done 10 gallon weekly water changes since the 4 week mark. Since 6.5 weeks, my ammonia has been at .5 ppm, Nitrites 1.0 ppm and Nitrates 10 ppm. My PH is hovering between 8.0 and 8.2...mostly 8.0. I have been dosing with Eight.Four.

I am buying saltwater from my LFS - I know several people who buy water from the same store and don’t have any problems so I don’t think that is the problem. I am topping off with RODI water from by BRS 6 canister system with new cartridges.

I also have a Fuge/sump with skinner and sock in one chamber and live rock, mud, Chaeto and mangrove in another chamber. I have added copepods and small doses of live phypoplankton to begin that process...

Any suggestions as to what could be going on with the tank?

Option 1. Leave it alone and allow your bacteria population to catch up. NO WATER CHANGES...

Option 2. Add a carbon source/live bacteria to speed up process.

Anything else will just prolong the process

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Thanks

I'm no expert but I see that your missing the initial step to introduce ammonia. It looks like your adding products to process ammonia/nitrite and promote the bacterial growth, but your not adding any NH3 to 2-3 ppm level, unless you missed describing that.

I used Dr Tims ammonia, followed the instruction by dosing over three times, and let it cycle from there and added Biospira from the start.