First tank cycle water test help

[bradyrollie4]

I went and bought a more in depth master test kit.
All are ppm
Ph- 8.8
Ammonia- 0
Nitrite- 2.0
Nitrate- 160
Calcium- 280

First tank cycle. Should I let it go or do a water change? Any advice?

 

[keatonmjenkins]

Let it go until nitrite is at 0. Then water change.

 

[bradyrollie4]

Let it go until nitrite is at 0. Then water change.

Thank you!

 

[bradyrollie4]

Let it go until nitrite is at 0. Then water change.

How often should I change my aquarium media in my sump?

 

[Naekuh]

How often should I change my aquarium media in my sump?

you should not be running any media other then bioblocks / live rock.
Carbon should be off, skimmer off.

You want your water to get as dirty as possible in a controled way though cycle.


But what media are you exactly talking about?
Carbon? GFO? Rox Carbon? Purigen?

And are they just in a baggie dropped inside the sump or you using some form of reactor for each of them?


Also how i ended my cycle was i waited for Ammonia to drop to 0... then nitrite to 0.
Then i dosed the tank once more with 2ppm Ammonia, and recorded how long it took for nitrite and ammonia to go back to almost 0.

Then i did a 40% water change.
Turned on skimmer, turned on my reactors, put in my filter socks and polyfilters, fired up the Chaeto reactor, and did a seed on copepods.

 

[bradyrollie4]

I got ceramic and carbon. Doing water change before my nitrate hits 0 could mess up my cycle correct?

 

[keatonmjenkins]

I got ceramic and carbon. Doing water change before my nitrate hits 0 could mess up my cycle correct?

Yeah just let it run until 0 then water change and you can add fish slowly after that. It’s better to take longer in this stage than it is to rush it.

 

[Naekuh]

Doing water change before my nitrate hits 0 could mess up my cycle correct?

you will not get 0 nitrates without using a form of algae scrubber / chaeto reactor, or your refigium is somehow on gear 5, over drive and has taken off.

Its Nitrite.... and not Nitrate.
You will stock pile nitrate, and the you want to dump it out in a massive waterchange at the end to reduce that value in half when you start adding fish.

This is probably the last time you will also worry about Nitrite, as after this, it will be more Ammonia Nitrate and Phosphate that will take over from here.

Leave the Ceramic.. you never want to touch that, unless its developed a excess coat of biofilm.
Swap out carbon every 6-8weeks, or when you notice a smell in your tank.

I usually use my nose and when i start smelling something fishy or i swap it out when i swap out the ALK reagent on my Tident, as i run my carbon in my overflow box in a bag.