How Long????? :) Cycling 40 Gallon - Day 10

[Faccia di Pesce]

How long does this take. It's been 10 days and my numbers look like this.

Ammonia - Seems to be at either .25 or 0 PPM (It's so hard to tell if it's yellow or yellowish green)
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 40 PPM
Temperature 79.5
Salinity - 1.025

Do I need to do anything to get the Nitrates down?

Thanks!

Steve

 

[JGT]

How long does this take. It's been 10 days and my numbers look like this.

Ammonia - Seems to be at either .25 or 0 PPM (It's so hard to tell if it's yellow or yellowish green)
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 40 PPM
Temperature 79.5
Salinity - 1.025

Do I need to do anything to get the Nitrates down?

Thanks!

Steve

You’ve still got time. Your ammonia looks like .50 and nitrates between 80 and 160. Ammonia needs to be 0 and nitrates around 10 or less. Don’t rush it, you’ll have less frustration and things dying if you have patience. Know it’s tough.

 

[jeffrey750750]

Go super slow as jgt stated, hard to do but you'll love your tank as it flourishes

 

[supernanoguy]

Water change it 40% after 0 nitrites then add livestock. Maybe get a refugium. Looks nice.

 

[Faccia di Pesce]

Water change it 40% after 0 nitrites then add livestock. Maybe get a refugium. Looks nice.

The Nitrites are at Zero. I heard that a water change is not necessary until after I get fish?

 

[brandon429]

you have met the # of days wait on each brand's bottle bac label, so you arent rushing for sure. ten days is the longest they take, most are ready in 3-5 Dr Reef's bottle bac thread shows.

we pay $ to not have to wait a full month

if your ammonia was once higher, and went to this, you are now cycled. we learned not to ask api for zero readings in the hobby, merely to see ammonia go down from once being higher up, and I bet yours has done that.

You have lots of attachment points in the tank, rocks and sand.

Im assuming ammonia was much higher at one point, you have lots of converted nitrate.

 

[Faccia di Pesce]

you have met the # of days wait on each brand's bottle bac label, so you arent rushing for sure. ten days is the longest they take, most are ready in 3-5 Dr Reef's bottle bac thread shows.

we pay $ to not have to wait a full month

if your ammonia was once higher, and went to this, you are now cycled. we learned not to ask api for zero readings in the hobby, merely to see ammonia go down from once being higher up, and I bet yours has done that.

You have lots of attachment points in the tank, rocks and sand.

Im assuming ammonia was much higher at one point, you have lots of converted nitrate.

Yes the ammonia was much higher. 4.0

I also used StartSmart Complete which is supposed to work fast. BUT!!! I just found out that my 4 year old poured "a little" according to her, water last week into my tank from the sink. so that might be the issue.

I test again today and this is what I have

Is there something I can do, or just keep waiting?

 

[Cell]

Just do a big water change to cut the nitrates and good to go.

 

[piranhaman00]

What are you waiting for? The tank is cycled. Nitrates will not go away quickly until your tank matures more and even then its a slower process.

Do a water change and you are ready for fish.

 

[vetteguy53081]

At week 3 and week 4, see how your tests are looking. No offense, but those API TEST KITS ARE LESS THAN RELIABLE

 

[dbowman5]

inside your rock there are anaerobic bacteria that convert nitrates to nitrogen gas. there are not a lot of them in the beginning so the standard procedure is to do a water change to lower the nitrates. the bacteria that is in the water is lost but it is minimal compared to the bacteria clinging to the surfaces in there. look up what the nitrates should be and that will tell you what size WC to do.
tap water contains chlorine compounds. those kill bacteria but usually the startup chemicals are consuming chlorine. a teachable moment for your girl but probably not too harmful for the tank.
what i found out is that the bacteria need to be fed to keep them growing. your animals will do that once they are in there but in the meantime small amounts of ammonia.

 

[Devaji]

yup as said by other you will not get a O reading from API.
what I do is after the ammonia goes down to .25 on API test is add more ammonia to get it back up to 2ppm if the tank and drop it back down to the .25 in 24 hrs your good to go.

that said as you will hear time and time again in this hobby nothing good happens fast.
learn to relax in to the process of reefing.
good luck & happy reefing!

 

[Faccia di Pesce]

thanks guys. Very helpful. Going to take my water to the lfs and let the guy who has been doing this for 30 years test my water. See if it is any different from what I am getting. Then I will relax LOL. thanks.

 

[brandon429]

if he gets .25 or .5, you are still cycled lol. change water and begin

 

[Faccia di Pesce]

So I went to my LFS to see the guy who has been doing this for 30 years and has over 20 saltwater reef tanks that he maintains. He tested my water and my Ammonia was 0. He told me to add CUC and that would help. So I did. He told me in a week or so I can probably add a pair of small clown fish.

 

[brandon429]

we usually pick on lfs folks, from the anonymity of the web as posting nerds. but in this case he nailed it.

nice setup looks clean and nice open scape will be easy to keep clean, looking sharp.

 

[Faccia di Pesce]

we usually pick on lfs folks, from the anonymity of the web as posting nerds. but in this case he nailed it.

nice setup looks clean and nice open scape will be easy to keep clean, looking sharp.

lol. I am sure many who work at lfs are nerds. Lol. But this guy is good.
Thanks.

 

[brandon429]

Kudos for Dr Tims and the ten day start time, its nearly universal.

he's got a really consistent mix of bacteria there for sure.

 

[supernanoguy]

Hopefully you acclimated those inverts because they can die easy from shock. Happy reefing!

 

[brandon429]

Agreed

even though it can carry a few clownfish, the very first fish added brings in disease, we r past cycling and now into choosing or not a fish disease prevention protocol