New tank nitrate disappearing question

[Jeradb]

Hey, I'm a saltwater beginner I have a 40 gallon breeder with 20 gallon long sump, please don't judge but I am finishing my cycle with fish in (2 clowns) per my LFS recommendation after having crazy high nitrites and nitrates (like 200ppm). After doing a 90% water change and then probably 98% water change to get my parameters down I got them down to 1ppm nitrites per api test kit and 4.8ppm nitrates per Hanna checker, then did a 10 gallon water change and checked my nitrites before I went and got fish, but didn't check nitrates, that was on the 8/25, checked my parameters daily yesterday (8/28) my nitrites were .25ppm nitrites and my nitrares were 3.6ppm per Hanna checker, now today (8/29) my nitrites were still .25ppm but now my nitrates... 0ppm per Hanna checker and red sea, how could that be? I do have a small little bit of algae on my rock but don't think it's enough to suck up all the nitrates...

 

[jda]

Having nitrite in the water interferes with most nitrate test kits. Don't worry about nitrate until nitrite is down to undetectable, or barely detectable. Come back to nitrate in a month, or so.

 

[Pickle_soup]

I don't believe that you had nitrates of 200 ppm. That is insanely high. Are you sure everything is calibrated ok? Two clowns will not generate that much waste in a 60-gal system. I strongly advise against massive water changes during a cycle, well, in general really, unless there is an emergency with ammonia, but even then I would use some detoxifying agent with a smaller water change. When did you start the cycle?

 

[Jeradb]

I don't believe that you had nitrates of 200 ppm. That is insanely high. Are you sure everything is calibrated ok? Two clowns will not generate that much waste in a 60-gal system. I strongly advise against massive water changes during a cycle, well, in general really, unless there is an emergency with ammonia, but even then I would use some detoxifying agent with a smaller water change. When did you start the cycle?

I had over 200ppm when I was doing fishless cycle and dosing ammonia, ended up adding to much ammonia to quickly and ended up with super high nitrites and nitrates, took a water sample into my LFS and they checked it and said it was insanely high and to do those water changes to get my numbers down and come back and get 2 clowns to finish the cycle

 

[Pickle_soup]

I had over 200ppm when I was doing fishless cycle and dosing ammonia, ended up adding to much ammonia to quickly and ended up with super high nitrites and nitrates, took a water sample into my LFS and they checked it and said it was insanely high and to do those water changes to get my numbers down and come back and get 2 clowns to finish the cycle

Wow! That must have been fun.

 

[Jeradb]

Wow! That must have been fun.

Let's just say it was a learning experience

 

[Pickle_soup]

To be honest, I think your nitrites are not there anymore. It's one of the reasons I don't like API, I don't think it's very reliable. After your ammonia incident, you had high nitrates, so you definitely have nitrifying bacteria in your tank. Can you have your LFS test both of them for you?

 

[Jeradb]

To be honest, I think your nitrites are not there anymore. It's one of the reasons I don't like API, I don't think it's very reliable. After your ammonia incident, you had high nitrates, so you definitely have nitrifying bacteria in your tank. Can you have your LFS test both of them for you?

When I took a water sample to the before I purchased fish from them I wanted to make sure that everything was safe enough for the fish they said I had "cautious" amount of nitrite and a trace of nitrates so they advised me to get some turbo start and 2 clowns, and dose prime until my nitrites go to 0, if I have time tomorrow I'll try taking a sample in by them and have them test it. I kept reading negative things about api so that's what prompted me to take my first sample to my LFS

 

[Pickle_soup]

How are your fish doing? Everything looking good? From experience, nitrites go away pretty quickly. How long have your clowns been in the tank?

 

[Jeradb]

How are your fish doing? Everything looking good? From experience, nitrites go away pretty quickly. How long have your clowns been in the tank?

The fish look great and are acting normal as far as I can tell, it's only been a couple of days with them, had them since last Friday the 25th, just thought it was weird I had nitrates yesterday then today had 0 and both test were done with a Hanna checker.

 

[jda]

You had nitrite when your no3 tested at 200. I could do the math, but there is not any chance that the no3 was actually that high from the nitrogen input from the ammonia - that was no2 interference.

With the no3 down to a reasonable number, you should never have to test no2 again or they would still be interfering.

 

[Pickle_soup]

3.6 is minimal. I am not sure what the margin of error is on them, but that's really marginal for nitrates. I think they are there at this point, just really low levels. Personally, I keep running ammonia tests during a cycle, even if I am using my old LR. I am more worried about that.

 

[Jeradb]

3.6 is minimal. I am not sure what the margin of error is on them, but that's really marginal for nitrates. I think they are there at this point, just really low levels. Personally, I keep running ammonia tests during a cycle, even if I am using my old LR. I am more worried about that.

I am testing ammonia and nitrites everyday and have a seachem ammonia alert in the sump all of which shows 0 ammonia in the system. I test my alkalinity and nitrates every other day and have a pinpoint pH probe in the sump, the only thing that really changes is the alkalinity, I started dosing seachem marine buffer when alkalinity gets below 8 my pH is 7.8 until after the marine buffer goes in bumps it up to 8.0-8.1 for a day then back down

 

[Swbvegas]

Stop over dosing and extreme water changes.

 

[Pickle_soup]

I had some conversations about that buffer last two days. It seems it's not very popular. It will give you that small bump, but then your alk goes up too. I keep my pH at 8 using Seachem, cause it pushes alk to 10.5. I will switch to something else when I am done with the bottle.

 

[jda]

That seachem buffer will raise carbonate hardness and you might not be too happy with the levels once you stop the cycle. This is a HORRIBLE product to use to raise pH, IMO. Don't even worry about pH right now.

Edit: pH will get a bump once you start to grow some photosynthetic stuff like even film algae. After this, the co2 in the room in your home has more to do with pH than nearly anything else, so opening windows regularly will do more for your pH than almost anything aside from adding a strong base like Kalkwasser, but Kalk adds calcium and carbonate and does not just move pH.

 

[Pickle_soup]

Stop over dosing and extreme water changes.

Yeah, just let your tank be. It will be awhile until it settles in.

 

[Jeradb]

I had some conversations about that buffer last two days. It seems it's not very popular. It will give you that small bump, but then your alk goes up too. I keep my pH at 8 using Seachem, cause it pushes alk to 10.5. I will switch to something else when I am done with the bottle.

I plan on trying a c02 scrubber on my skimmer to see if that will help as well as switching buffers

 

[jda]

The co2 scrubber won't help much and you don't need it right now.

The more that you do to interfere with this will need to be repaid like 10x later on. Just let it be and let nature work. Nature is better at this than you are. Just feed those clowns smartly for a bit longer, get another fish or two, if you want, in a few weeks and wait for some algae to form. Once the algae forms, then test some more stuff. Until then, have a loved one hide all of the supplements and test kits from you.

 

[jda]

Read through this before you add any more buffer:

What is Alkalinity?

Most reefkeepers know they need to measure alkalinity, and most know it has something to do with carbonate. But what is alkalinity exactly? Why is it important? How is it measured? This article will answer those questions and give you all of the...

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