Am I cycled (or my aquarium) :)

[KasperS1979]

Dear All
To begin with, I am brand new to this hobby
I am 21 days into Red Seas Mature kit, and I should be able to put fish in my tank according to the guide, but I am not there yet completely (at least where the guide tells me to be)

Its a Red Sea Reefer 300
As mentioned 21 days in
Never had any algee grow at all (No ugle stage)
I already have snails, cleaner shrimps, sea stars which seems to work well
I just took all measurements and they are:

Temperature 24,5
Salinity 1.024
PH 8,2
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0,05
Nitrate 20

Maybe I should also mention.
RODI Water
Caribsea LIfe Rock
Aragalive special grade sand

Question is. Am I over the startup, is it cycled and ready for a few fish ?
I am wondering why Nitrate is so high, Red Sea Guide is saying 5 at this point

I really hope some of you are able to help, I am of course afraid of putting fish in the tank, if its not cycled yet
Thank you
Greetings from Denmark
Kasper

 

[KasperS1979]

But, isn't Nitrite poison to fish ?
All I ever hear is that Ammonia and Nitrite should be 0 while Nitrate should be there, but preferably under 10.

 

[KasperS1979]

I think you have been feeding some de-nitrifiers with your dosing of " NO3: PO4-X " from what I've read about the Red Sea Mature Kit that would lower Nitrates !

Normal cycling with just a little fish food is just as fast ! I am interested and following the Red Sea Mature Kit as it is supposed to lower Nitrates with the feeding of de-nitrifiers ?

I think you should be good to go.

Probably happens !

Yes I have been adding nopox. "Alot" actually over the last month.

 

[brandon429]

no that's only freshwater where it matters, it's literally neutral in reefing. you are done cycling and into reefing, fish disease prevention and design choices, the rocks have enough bacteria. no more testing for nitrite or ammonia is needed on this setup, permanently. the cycle is locked and good, any animals you add will live

reefing is opposite cycling chemistry to freshwater: in reefing, ammonia burns and nitrite is neutral, in freshwater tanks nitrite burns and ammonia is neutral due to differences in chloride ratios and pH

mis-testing is a real issue, non digtal test kits largely cant be trusted in cycling. if this was a report from a calibrated hanna nitrite meter it'd be interesting to see as compared to the cheap non digital test kit, but in the end the actual reading still just doesn't matter in reefing. you can't make the tank safer for fish by waiting longer or adding anything else, the cycle is done. it was done by day ten in fact/any cycling chart has a ten day ammonia line for a reason

 

[BigMonkeyBrain]

Red Sea Mature KitYes I have been adding nopox. "Alot" actually over the last month.

You have Nitrate so the cycle is complete. The amount of Nitrifiers may be in question, however, I doubt it. When you added Bacteria to your tank everything is in question. We can hope it is as stated on the directions for the Red Sea Mature Kit.

I would not worry about Nitrites or Nitrates at this point

Some claim a cycle is complete in few days when ammonia is low or zero. I do not follow this approach and think the full cycle needs to complete with low Nitrites and climbing Nitrates. IMO you are there.

If you are still worried, feed the tank some food for a few days. The low Nitrite is nothing to worry about.

Please keep us informed if the Red Sea Mature Kit keeps Nitrates low.

Probably happens !

 

[KasperS1979]

Honestly, I think I must be looking like a rather big question mark right now. I really thought I had understood it all, but I guess I somehow must have combined freshwater and reefing in all my studies during the last months.

So, I guess the only thing now is to keep testing the nitrates and just keeping it low.
I will update on the nitrate will stay low with the mature kit. No matter what, nopox is bringing it down, as I went from around 30 to 5 in about 6 days where I added a bit more than the guide told me.
Actually I was afraid that was the reason for my higher nitrite level.

Ones again, thank you to all, for all your help
If you someday are in Denmark, beer is on me.

Thanks again.

(Keep the advises coming for a Rookie)

 

[brandon429]

that, and all current cycling info you get outside this board is designed to sell you stuff and have you totally ignore fish disease preps as part of the cycle. what you're aiming to do is create a tank that will keep corals and fish ethically, effectively, and per cycling science you're past that stage.

testing for nitrite and responding to it, a parameter we shouldn't even be measuring, is a massive cause of people buying extra bottles of bac they dont need

here is the actual choice stage you are at read this thread about correct stocking order of ops:

Has anyone done coral/inverts only and no fish at first?

Fish seem to be the main cause of disruption in a display tank, given the current circumstances in the hobby with pests (ich, velvet, parasites, etc.). I have been in this hobby for 18 years, and the amount of pests that are showing up lately is much more (could also be the fact that we have...

www.reef2reef.com

I bet you wanted to stock fish first

if you do, then what you see being posted daily in the fish disease forum will become your fish population by December if % likelihood from the disease forum holds.

the cycle doesn't require much thought or planning or testing at all: there are no cycling charts that have variable ammonia lines, they all drop and stay dropped by day ~10

where the real choice, risk, study and implementation must lie is in fish disease preps. getting the tank ready to handle the bioload was the easy part, the done part.

making sure your stocked entrants don't vector in ten unplanned fish maladies: that's the very very hard part. all new tank owners feel disease preps won't impact them/hence the reason the disease forum is the busiest forum on the entire site.

Fish Disease Treatment and Diagnosis

A forum for discussing treatment and diagnosing saltwater reef fish.

www.reef2reef.com