High nitrite high nitrate no ammonia

[fozzer]

Hi all, am new to the salt water tank game and basically have been fishless cycling my tank for 2 weeks with dr Tim’s one and only, did it step by step but hit a wall when my ammonia dropped which was good but my nitrites and nitrates are high and my nitrites don’t seem to be dropping over the last 6 days it’s been the same , as per dr Tim’s guide it says to do a water change which I did but levels where still the same , am I best just waiting it out, let the cycle do it’s thing or is there anything else I can be doing, be great for some advice of some OG’s from across the pond

 

[ReefRusty]

What is high? Hard to say anything when there is no numbers.. Nitrites dont matter in saltwater. You ammonia dropped and your nitrates went up. 2 weeks... your tank is cycled. Large waterchange what size tank? How large of a water change.. dry rock and sand or live??

 

[brandon429]

Agreed it is

 

[fozzer]

What is high? Hard to say anything when there is no numbers.. Nitrites dont matter in saltwater. You ammonia dropped and your nitrates went up. 2 weeks... your tank is cycled. Large waterchange what size tank? How large of a water change.. dry rock and sand or live??

So am on 0ppm ammonia , 5ppm+ nitrites , 50ppm nitrates , it’s a nano tank 65L and I did a 30% water change and I have some live rock from friends tank and dry rock and the sand wasn’t live , used the dr Tim’s one and only , so would you say an cycled ? Just do another water change get the nitrates down? , thanks for this also

 

[ReefRusty]

Yes cycled number of days completed 14 days plus your good! 50 Nitrates isnt bad mine were almost 100 when I completed cycle on day 15. Took a couple of water changes to get it down to under 10ppm. But my first WC was 70% then next was 50% then 25% now only need to do 25% fortnightly. And tank is good as gold. Take a sample to your Lfs and confirm all is good you can start with fish or coral what ever you desire.

 

[dvgyfresh]

High nitrite readings can skew nitrate readings, you may just be almost finished cycling , then nitrifying bacteria -> nitrate haven’t fully populated , but yes water change and ye good to go

 

[Azedenkae]

So am on 0ppm ammonia , 5ppm+ nitrites , 50ppm nitrates , it’s a nano tank 65L and I did a 30% water change and I have some live rock from friends tank and dry rock and the sand wasn’t live , used the dr Tim’s one and only , so would you say an cycled ? Just do another water change get the nitrates down? , thanks for this also

It is not surprising if you have 5+ ppm nitrites and still read that after doing a water change, it just means you have a lot of nitrites and even after doing a water change, the level is still high enough that it looks the same with the test. Probably at least 7 ppm or so initially.

Nitrites is not toxic to marine fish until it reach pretty high concentrations: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-06/rhf/index.php

However, personally I'd still prefer to get the tank to a point where the nitrifiers can handle all the ammonia and nitrite produced daily, just to err on the side of caution. Personally I would do a serial dilution to see exactly how much nitrite is likely present in the water, and then do a large enough water change to get nitrite to below 5 ppm, and then wait it out until nitrite reaches 0. Then dose 2ppm ammonia and again, and let ammonia and nitrite reach 0. Rinse and repeat until ammonia and nitrite measures 0 within 24 hours from dosing. That's a personal preference based on my view of what cycling entails though, others will have other methods.