Cycle problems

[Deanster12]

Hi I am new to the marine set up, my tank is 100 litres with one clownfish
My ammonia is 0.2 ppm
Nitrite is 6 ppm
Nitrate is 60 ppm
I have been adding seachem stability everyday for the full seven days and prime every other , is my cycle on its way or is there something bad happening

 

[PeterC99]

Welcome to R2R!

You are on your way. Keep monitoring levels and when ammonia & nitrites hit zero, you have cycled.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Also assure that you are not getting false readings,. If youre using API test kits, theres a good chance you may be.
If this would be the case, take a good water sample to a trusted LFS that does NOT use API test kits and see what readingsa they come up with and to compare with yours.

 

[Deanster12]

I was worried with having high nitrites and nitrates I might have stalled my cycle. I forgot to add that my salinity is 1.026 and my ph is 8.0

 

[Azedenkae]

Hi I am new to the marine set up, my tank is 100 litres with one clownfish
My ammonia is 0.2 ppm
Nitrite is 6 ppm
Nitrate is 60 ppm
I have been adding seachem stability everyday for the full seven days and prime every other , is my cycle on its way or is there something bad happening

It depends on which directions the parameters are going, but yeah at least it seems there is nitrification going on, so that's good. You don't really need to continue dosing Seachem Stability, though it does help.

At this point you don't actually even need to dose Prime, as both your ammonia and nitrite are within safe parameters. Nitrite is non-lethal to marine fish unless it reaches really high concentrations: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-06/rhf/index.php, and needs to reach pretty high levels to cause disease in ocellaris clownfish: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10499-015-9965-9. Ammonia also needs to reach 0.57ppm to cause issues for ocellaris clownfish as well.

So back to the direction of change, if ammonia remains stable at 0.2ppm or decreases, that's good and basically you're safe with the one clownfish. Nitrite should start decreasing soon too, if not already. But if not, just make sure it does not go over 25ppm and you're sweet.

 

[Deanster12]

So 6 ppm of nitrites is fine, when should this clear and I’m under the impression not to do any water changes until ammonia and nitrites reach 0

 

[Uncle99]

No 6ppm nitrite would be bad.
Let it brew a bit more.
You need zero, excess nitrites can suffocate fish.
Ammonia, zero as well.
Problem being some test kits have a hard time reading below 0.05ppm.
When we go zero, we do a 50% water change and lower nitrates, by half.
Cycled.

 

[Deanster12]

What do you mean 6 ppm of nitrites is bad I thought this is part of the nitrogen cycle, the previous post said if it gets to 25 ppm then I have problem

 

[Uncle99]

I was thinking more along the lines of impact on fish.
The 6ppm will come down and nitrates go up.
Normal

 

[Deanster12]

My nitrites and nitrates are sky high but the clownfish is fine at the moment so I was just a bit worried .I know you shouldn’t do a fish in cycle but since my ammonia level is fairly low I’m guessing my cycle as someone mentioned is going in the right direction providing the ammonia and nitrite reach zero and do a 50% water change to bring nitrates down to achieve a cycled tank

 

[Uncle99]

Nitrite is still toxic to fish, at “sky high levels” should kill.
If not, then you are in fact, cycled.

 

[mdb_talon]

My nitrites and nitrates are sky high but the clownfish is fine at the moment so I was just a bit worried .I know you shouldn’t do a fish in cycle but since my ammonia level is fairly low I’m guessing my cycle as someone mentioned is going in the right direction providing the ammonia and nitrite reach zero and do a 50% water change to bring nitrates down to achieve a cycled tank

Dont frustrate yourself by trying to get nitrites to zero. They are irrelevant. Can frequently see levels above 0 at times in tanks established for years. Whether they are there or it is testing error i dont know, but chasing it to zero is just asking for frustration. Even the ammonia you will see small blips at times, but after the cycle i consider it irrelevant also unless you have some major death that causes a real spike.

 

[mdb_talon]

Nitrite is still toxic to fish, at “sky high levels” should kill.
If not, then you are in fact, cycled.

I think that is one of those "in theory" things....and not something you will see in reality. From a practical perspective if your nitrites get high enough to hurt your saltwater fish then you probably saw an ammonia spike that was far more concerning and deadly.

 

[Deanster12]

My fish and fish food would be the source of ammonia, is this why I have high nitrites as it’s eating the ammonia

 

[mdb_talon]

My fish and fish food would be the source of ammonia, is this why I have high nitrites as it’s eating the ammonia

Yes in a stocked tank you are always going to have ammonia being created. All the cycle does is build up enough bacteria to quickly convert it to less dangerous nitrite/nitrate

 

[Deanster12]

Cool thanks the replies I honestly thought I had stalled my cycle with nitrites being so high

 

[Azedenkae]

No 6ppm nitrite would be bad.
Let it brew a bit more.
You need zero, excess nitrites can suffocate fish.
Ammonia, zero as well.
Problem being some test kits have a hard time reading below 0.05ppm.
When we go zero, we do a 50% water change and lower nitrates, by half.
Cycled.

You are incorrect, 6ppm is not bad. You need nitrite to be far, far, far higher to kill marine fish: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-06/rhf/index.php

This is a very big difference between marine and freshwater systems.

 

[elorablue]

When did you add the clown? Day 1?

 

[Deanster12]

Yes day one with sand and dry rock , I’m just glad my tanks cycling okay

 

[Uncle99]

You are incorrect, 6ppm is not bad. You need nitrite to be far, far, far higher to kill marine fish: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-06/rhf/index.php

This is a very big difference between marine and freshwater systems.

You quote a 16 year old document.
The document talks about deaths only.
Higher nitrites indicates to ME, the cycle is NOT complete and while it may not kill, it’s certainly not going to be comfortable and that will increase stress.
Our advice remains, zero out ammonia, zero out nitrite, do a 50% water change, manage nitrates going forward.