New Tank, Diatoms, Nitrate 20ppm

baseballfanatic2 · Jul 4, 2016

Hey guys,

Tank is setup with dry rock and live sand.

Tank was setup for 4 weeks and I never saw anything go past 0.

Added clowns, everything was 0 for 1 week. Now this week, everything is 0, nitrates are 20ppm, and I have diatoms.

Nitrates have been 20ppm for past 3 days now.

Should I just let it ride out, do a water change, or what?

I do not have a cleanup creward except for one snail and a pistold shrimp.

jsker · Jul 4, 2016

This is natural, your system is cycling, and will continue cycling. You will hit other plateau over the next year. You are doing the normal water changes? and to bring down the nitrates start running some type of carbon dosing. Do you have a sump? If so run some carbon in the flow in the sump in a nylon stocking section.

twilliard · Jul 4, 2016

Watch your amonia levels also as this is newly setup and added inhabitants produce amonia. If the bacterial population is not built up enough amonia will creep up and that is not good for the tank life.

baseballfanatic2 · Jul 4, 2016

jsker said:
This is natural, your system is cycling, and will continue cycling. You will hit other plateau over the next year. You are doing the normal water changes? and to bring down the nitrates start running some type of carbon dosing. Do you have a sump? If so run some carbon in the flow in the sump in a nylon stocking section.

I have not done any water changes. I was told to let the nitrates go back to 0 on there own to finish the cycle. Is this bad information?

baseballfanatic2 · Jul 4, 2016

twilliard said:
Watch your amonia levels also as this is newly setup and added inhabitants produce amonia. If the bacterial population is not built up enough amonia will creep up and that is not good for the tank life.

Everything is 0 except for nitrates. Should I do water change or let it run its course

twilliard · Jul 4, 2016

baseballfanatic2 said:
Everything is 0 except for nitrates. Should I do water change or let it run its course

Water changes will be needed to keep your no3 in check.

twilliard · Jul 4, 2016

baseballfanatic2 said:
I have not done any water changes. I was told to let the nitrates go back to 0 on there own to finish the cycle. Is this bad information?

Yes that is bad information.
Nitrates are reduced by export methods or increased bacterial load

jsker · Jul 4, 2016

baseballfanatic2 said:
I have not done any water changes. I was told to let the nitrates go back to 0 on there own to finish the cycle. Is this bad information?

There are all different schools of thought in reefing. you have fish in the tank, that is part is your nitrate source (fish poop) corals love it so does the algae. There are two ways to lower nitrates, carbon is stated above, and water changes. again in reefing it is all about small changes. you have two choices
1. Start dosing carbon and wait and see how much the nitrates goes down, test in once week. If you had corals I would start with this.
2 Start dosing carbon and do 10% water change and test a day after since you have fish only right now.

jsker · Jul 4, 2016

twilliard said:
Yes that is bad information.
Nitrates are reduced by export methods or increased bacterial load

I am calling tag team

baseballfanatic2 · Jul 4, 2016

jsker said:
There are all different schools of thought in reefing. you have fish in the tank, that is part is your nitrate source (fish poop) corals love it so does the algae. There are two ways to lower nitrates, carbon is stated above, and water changes. again in reefing it is all about small changes. you have two choices
1. Start dosing carbon and wait and see how much the nitrates goes down, test in once week. If you had corals I would start with this.
2 Start dosing carbon and do 10% water change and test a day after since you have fish only right now.

Should I buy Dr tims or mb7 to help my bacteria population to help with nitrates? I assume since I didn't use liverock, this might be the cause. Only dry rock and live sand

baseballfanatic2 · Jul 4, 2016

I have 4 gallons, going to do water change now

jsker · Jul 4, 2016

baseballfanatic2 said:
Should I buy Dr tims or mb7 to help my bacteria population to help with nitrates? I assume since I didn't use liverock, this might be the cause. Only dry rock and live sand

Do the water change, drop a cleaning crew in there and give it 3 week. Add a couple of chromis and if they make it add a simple coral. After that if everything is still doing well you should be good to play reef. Remember slow and steady

Start testing your
Mag
Cal
Alk
get those element steady.
Ca 400-450
Mg 1300-1380
Alk 8.5 to 9
Do not chase these number for the reason it will only drive you crazy with a new tank. If you do have to dose, do it with water changes

baseballfanatic2 · Jul 7, 2016

twilliard said:
Water changes will be needed to keep your no3 in check.

jsker said:
Do the water change, drop a cleaning crew in there and give it 3 week. Add a couple of chromis and if they make it add a simple coral. After that if everything is still doing well you should be good to play reef. Remember slow and steady
Start testing your
Mag
Cal
Alk
get those element steady.
Ca 400-450
Mg 1300-1380
Alk 8.5 to 9
Do not chase these number for the reason it will only drive you crazy with a new tank. If you do have to dose, do it with water changes

Okay guys. Did 4 gallon water change and nitrates have not gone down. Still the same.

twilliard · Jul 7, 2016

baseballfanatic2 said:
Okay guys. Did 4 gallon water change and nitrates have not gone down. Still the same.

What is your total volume?

baseballfanatic2 · Jul 7, 2016

twilliard said:
What is your total volume?

30 Gallons

twilliard · Jul 7, 2016

50% change and you will see a small drop in no3

baseballfanatic2 · Jul 8, 2016

twilliard said:
50% change and you will see a small drop in no3

Going to store today to do another heavy water change.

MsAmethyst · Jul 10, 2016

Trochus snails and nassarious snails are a good clean up crew. I pick up and put my Trochus snails on the areas to work on. Nassarious help with the sand bed.

1-2 blue leg hermits. My red was a butt and ate things. I've read that blue are less inclined to consume tank mates.

Also I was told to quit running lights for diatom algae to lower.

Keep up with RO water changes. Also just making sure you are using RO water for your water changes?