Cycling and am I missing something?

Travis91

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Apr 3, 2017
Messages
52
Reaction score
11
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Ok I've been cycling for 27 days now and for whatever reason I have used seachem stability as well as seeding with live rock from an established tank. My ammonia drops to pretty fast. Overnight fast also I have coralline algae growth and have had some diatoms. I figured nitrite would have gone away by now but is still strong. And nitrates are bottomed out? Please any advice is greatly appreciated.
5ce9dada8419666887dc89dc1a3f011f.jpg
 
Different bacteria process different parts of the nitrogen cycle. It looks like you have enough of those that are processing the ammonia. You probably don't have enough of the type that process nitrites yet. These need time to process the nitrites into nitrates. This is why you can show nitrite without showing any ammonia or nitrates. Your full cycle is not yet complete but it's on its way.
 
It looks if you are using the API tests. Your ammonia levels are low but according to the chat, you still have some. But API ammonia is reputed to read .25 ppm ammonia even when ammonia is zero. Now ammonia is pretty toxic. I would not want to put fish into water unless I knew the ammonia levels were safe. I would spring for the Red Sea or Salifert ammonia test.

Your nitrite levels are still pretty high. Seems a fair bit for after nearly a month. Of course, eventually they will go down. You could add some bacteria additive for speeding up the cycle. Most of the LFS carry it. Or you can just wait.

Wow. Your nitrate levels are off scale. I would wait until you get the nitrites to zero. But you really should get the nitrates way down. If you want fish only, I would think you need to be below 50 ppm. If you are doing soft corals and forgiving hard corals, you want to be below 15 ppm and SPS corals probably around 2 ppm. You have big water changes in your future.
 
My API ammonia test kit still reads 0.25 and my tank is a year old, so I'd say you ammonia levels are ok. Agree the Salifert is better.

Cycling can take 4-8 weeks depending on your setup so I wouldn't be concerned though the patience is like a slow torture! Your nitrite should drop soon enough.

How bigs ur tank and how much live rock you got?
 
My Nitrites were stalled at 5ppm + for over a month when cycling. I did a 30% water change and within 3 days all my levels were good. Then water changes and Nopox to bring Nitrates down to acceptable levels.
 
Tank is a 90 gallon with 80lbs of rock and 50 pounds of sand if not more. 4 inch sand bed.
 
It's probably die off from your live rocks you will always get some , patience is the key , and time is needed , you could help it along by adding dr tims or something similar
 

IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%
  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%
  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%
  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%
Back
Top