High Ammonia and Nitrate

[chickadee13]

I started my Aquatop 24 gallon cube tank with some starter corals 2 weeks ago. I did some measurements today and found high levels of ammonia and nitrate (i also do not know what the recommended levels for NO2 and NO3 are). How do I lower these measurements and what are the recommended levels for NO2 and NO3? The temperature in my tank is 78 degrees fahrenheit. I have a Eyphyllia torch coral, Candy cane coral, Pinapple brain coral (war coral), Mushroom coral, Pulsing xenia coral, Montipora coral, Duncan coral, and an unknown LPS coral (I think it's a flowerpot coral).

20 watts LED light
12,000K White temp
465nm Blue wavelength
4 hours for white
4 hours for blue

Calcium: 475 ppm
Magnesium: 1500 ppm
Alkalinity: 12 dKH
PH: 8.2
Ammonia: 0.25 ppm
Nitrate NO2: 1.0 ppm
Nitrate NO3: 5.0 ppm

 

[ndrwater]

Your tank is still cycling. High Ammonia is how the whole thing starts. Unnaturally lowering Ammonia at this point will only prolong the cycle.
https://www.theaquariumwiki.com/images/thumb/1/1f/Cycling_graph.png/350px-Cycling_graph.png
That is a basic but comprehensive table showing the basics of how things work.

 

[sbash]

^^^ +1

Ammonia and (controversially) nitrites are toxic to marine life. I would hate to see all those corals die off; can you take them back or put them in a QT with an ammonia binder (such as prime)?

 

[brandon429]

We also don't know if your tests are correct. The .25 is universally associated with false positives per google

Nitrite doesn't matter at all. Post pics of your setup. Corals will not open or behave/feed normally whatsoever in the presence of true sustained ammonia.

your nitrate if correct indicates functional bacteria either from bottled additions or from live rock and sand, how did you cycle the tank?

Of all the params posted only the ammonia matters and .25 is suspect in 95% of postings we can see on google searches where years-old tanks show the false reading too.

If this was dry rock only and all that added with no ramp time, we'd expect a full crash not hovering .25

If your Xenia pulses and the flowerpot coral opens then you have no free ammonia and the test is wrong, again, and this thread becomes part of the ongoing search results.

The kind of systems that simply move purple coralline live rock from the pet store to home we opt out of the cycle altogether, so two weeks is too long there. When people set up coral tanks at marine conventions they take two hours not two weeks.

For the kind of cycle where you use all dry materials and bring up the bacteria, it takes double that time to produce nitrates so something is off here. It's true people speed cycle dry substrates in two weeks routinely, but they're using fishless cycling and it involves detailed testing and dosing of extra bacteria. Need to know how you cycled.