Stormy · the simulator
Nitrogen cycle timeline
Drop an ammonia source into a virtual tank and watch NH₄ → NO₂ → NO₃ play out over the weeks of cycling. The chart you wish your first tank came with.
Numbers like this become a trend once they live in a logbook. Track it in reefnotes →
How the simulation works
Two bacteria populations, two-stage Monod kinetics. Stage one converts NH₄ to NO₂ on a growth rate set by ammonia availability; stage two converts NO₂ to NO₃, lagging stage one by about a week as its substrate (NO₂) builds up.
Defaults match the literature for warm-water freshwater cycling at typical bioloads. Real tanks deviate based on temperature, pH, surface area for bacterial colonisation, and starting bacterial inoculum (a piece of mature filter media compresses the timeline by half).
In the app, Manfred logs your real NH₄, NO₂ and NO₃ tests, so you can see where in the cycle your tank actually is.