Nitrates + Nitrite out of nowhere?!

[Jonathan99]

Hey guys! So this morning I routinely checked my tanks parameters and I found that my nitrates are at 20 ppm and my nitrite is at 5.0 ppm. I have a 29 gallon tank with 0 fish 0 inverts and 3 Ricordea shrooms. My tank had been cycling for about 4 weeks and my nitrite was at 0 so I’d figured it was done cycling so I did a 80 percent water change to bring my nitrates to 5 ppm. I added some ricordea mushrooms about a week later because my parameters were stable, however now at week 7 I’m totally confused where my nitrite and nitrate are coming from because I’m not feeding my tank or anything. I have about 20 pounds of LR in the display with a 1.5” sand bed as well as a sump. I was running two skimmers until yesterday when I moved one into another tank. I tested the RODI water for a control and the nitrate and ammonia are both 0 out of that. I don’t trust my ammonia kit because it is testing 1.0 ppm out of both my tank and the RO water. These are API test kits btw, any help to figure out where the nitrates are coming from would be super helpful!

 

[IKD]

Did you add live rock or dry rock? Could be decaying matter on live rock?

 

[Jonathan99]

I added live rock, I was thinking that could be it but I don’t know how I should go about cleaning it haha

 

[brandon429]

Excellent, this tank is misreading.

you have literally nothing wrong, post a tank pic. Your suspicions are correct. Nitrite kits are known to cross read from other parameters or from additives like Prime.

 

[brandon429]

a thread of equal concern about nitrites in a new reef

PLEASE HELP! Ammonia, nitrites and clownfish

Hey everyone, new to all of this, has my tank going for a bit now and when my ammonia spiked (1.0) the LFS tested it numerous times and when everything settled back down to zero they said it would be okay to add 2 clowns and 2 hermit crabs, however now the ammonia spiked again up to 2.0, it's...

www.reef2reef.com

same general age, same test issue vs whole-tank issue. Can you post pics of your ricordea setup


its time we start feeding your corals, those are active feeders.


live rock doesn’t need recycling, its live when you come home.


even if it wasn’t live when you started, it is now

 

[Jonathan99]

Thanks! I’ll check it out! My mushrooms haven’t shown any signs that they are doing bad yet, that’s why I’m not too concerned but I’ll definitely be keeping a super close eye on them

 

[brandon429]

That’s a fully cycled reef tank. Nitrate is for algae tuning, and results from the actions of truly skip cycled live rock with clear signs of living benthic attachments and pigments associated with time underwater

in updated cycling science, nitrite isn’t even measured at all, ever.

only ammonia control matters and per nitrates, and that pic with many post-cycle clues, u got this


you don’t have to ever test for nitrite again, it’s best not to own the kit. (Anything that causes doubt where certainty is warranted = best not to own)

 

[Jonathan99]

Thanks! I need a new ammonia kit then haha. Do you have any recommendations for a good kit?

 

[brandon429]

I would never own one. ammonia can never ever undo, or drift out of bounds, or be slightly above .00x ppm which is safe in reefing if you can simply see your fish and snails / animals. Only a dead carcass can affect your ammonia, or messing with filthy sandbeds. Don’t own a filthy sandbed



these proofing threads take two seconds when the poster is willing due to the sheer predictability of what ammonia and nitrite does in reefing. Nitrate is so variable what it does, doesn’t matter in a cycle. When it can be detected in a cycle, it’s a bacteria confirming measure.

if you can prove no animals are dead by view, thats a safe ammonia system. If you want to still use ammonia testing that api will work: don’t use it for zero level just watch for it to increase markedly. That will coincide with a dead fish etc

 

[Jonathan99]

Ok, thanks for the help! I really appreciate it!

 

[brandon429]

U know why this is important? it’s not for the raw joy of breaking reef rules which is admittedly fun. It’s because we aren’t basing your reefing/what bacteria do on cheap testers that have to be used in special ways to be accurate.

soon the challenges of running a reef will unfold and you will be at algae crossroads invasion crossroads etc

when they say: ‘I can’t clean my reef it will destabilize it’

that isn’t true, that’s api .25 making someone think a quarter of their bac have been lost.


the truth is, since what bacteria do is reliable, you can clean your reef deeply to keep it free of impacted waste and invader. You don’t have to allow a reef like that to devolve into the uglies.


we do updated cycling because how we cycle affects how we reef and handle invasions. when invasions happens right when you have $ in corals and time, you want to be certain of options.


this is the only reef thread title that could have me doubt a tanks ability to permanently control free ammonia barring death and a cruddy sandbed: “I’ve been dosing antibiotics for eight days and“

 

[brandon429]

Can we get an update on this tank, + pics