Nitrite Issue

[Betex]

Hey all,

Here is the issue I am encountering - I have a 65g tank and has been up now for about 2 months. I let it cycle for the first full month using microbacter and dr. Tim's ammonia, after cycle was complete I kept adding ammonia and made sure everything was 0 within 24hrs did this for about 1 more week. My levels were 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 20-50 Nitrate.

After the cycle I added 3 clownfish, testing params daily and everything has been exactly right at 0/0/20-50 they were in there for 1.5 weeks, added 3 corals checked params daily still 0/0/20-50. At this point I wanted to start bringing my nitrate down a bit to 5-10 so used RedSea NoPox water became cloudy as heck and that went away and param were 0/0/10 during this time I figured this was a bacteria bloom and added an air pump to make sure fish got enough O2. I than got a Kole Tang and a wrasse added them in and now all of the sudden Nitrite has gone up to .05-.2 using red sea test kit. I have been doing weekly water changes since the cycle but dont understand why all of the sudden nitrite would be an issue and for the last week I have been having to do water changes every 2-3 days to keep nitrite down.

So where did I go wrong here? And should I leave nitrite alone and just add some microbacter again and have it go down on its own or continue with water changes? The corals are all open and looking good, fish are eating and doing their thing.

Any help is much appreciated as I really dont want to loose my fish

Also my bad I didnt mean to select Tank Emergency and no clue how to change it

 

[brandon429]

Hey read this whole thread it won’t take but about 5 mins, you have no issue at all. For sure do not buy anything to remedy it

 

[brandon429]

We should use the collective power of the chem forum to prove or deny the possibility of sustained .25 ammonia in reefing

Why does it matter if reef tanks can have stuck cycles? Because when you move homes you don't want to lose animals, cycling science needs precision and predictability in order to protect our tanks. perhaps an emergency setup is needed, no wait time permitted or If you are invited to show...

www.reef2reef.com

nitrite literally has no bearing in reefing. The concern over nitrite is a ploy, to get more bottle bac sales. It’s not possible to see that much work and still concern over nitrites in my opinion, we have work threads showing how it does not factor whatsoever. Chemists will slay people who post dumb things in their forum. I made a mistake with how phosphate gets unbound from white base rock in there recently, and was publicly slain lol which is why using the chem forum as a referee brings great risk and fear.

i love their no bull methodology heh

your fish living past 48 hours means your entire cycle is done, and complete. *things that make our nitrite tests misread:

-use of Prime
-presence of nitrate.
-simple kit error or reagent issues


the thread begins with ammonia proofing, cycles cannot stall or be stalled. the other half is nitrite proofing


and then there are the private message tanks we cycle without factoring nitrate or nitrite, hundreds. I just finished another last nite

 

[Betex]

Hey read this whole thread it won’t take but about 5 mins, you have no issue at all. For sure do not buy anything to remedy it

So just leave it alone? I have also stopped dosing RedSea NoPox and still feel water is a bit cloudy so have kept air pumps on until I see it perfecly clear

 

[redfishbluefish]

Yes, leave alone. Although nitrite is an issue with freshwater, saltwater is just the opposite. Won't hurt fish.

 

[brandon429]

When bioload is present we dont allow cloudiness. The water should be changed to begin restoring clarity by tomorrow. By export work, water, not by letting it run its course. Begin hands-on reefing and change water up to all of it, to restore clarity. Make the first decisive move for your tank based on cloud. It should be the first of hundreds of decisive, done deal moves.

Cease all forms of nitrate and phosphate management in the new reef, strongest recommend. Save that for month 8 and reef without them

no no pox don’t use it

Though your tank is larger you’ll want to track Daniels performance here it is 100% like your reef

Cycling a new Biocube 32

Hello all! My name is Daniel from Florida and I’m starting to get into the reef hobby. I have been cycling my tank for two weeks now and logging it into an app. I have recently been gifted a live rock with some good amount of coralline on it. I also got some water from and established tank. My...

www.reef2reef.com

there is a full roadmap to a dry start reef, no measure for nitrate or po4, and fast coral growth.

 

[homer1475]

Your adding a carbon source(nopox) to feed bacteria. Are you running a skimmer to skim out the extra bacteria? If the increased bacteria are not skimmed out, they cause your water to be cloudy(bacterial bloom).

And nitrite is not of a concern in a reef tank, quit testing it. I literally have not tested ammonia/nitrite in about 20 years, with the exception of the initial cycle on a new tank.

 

[Betex]

When bioload is present we dont allow cloudiness. The water should be changed to begin restoring clarity by tomorrow. By export work, water, not by letting it run its course. Begin hands-on reefing and change water up to all of it, to restore clarity. Make the first decisive move for your tank based on cloud. It should be the first of hundreds of decisive, done deal moves.

Cease all forms of nitrate and phosphate management in the new reef, strongest recommend. Save that for month 8 and reef without them

no no pox don’t use it

Though your tank is larger you’ll want to track Daniels performance here it is 100% like your reef

Cycling a new Biocube 32

Hello all! My name is Daniel from Florida and I’m starting to get into the reef hobby. I have been cycling my tank for two weeks now and logging it into an app. I have recently been gifted a live rock with some good amount of coralline on it. I also got some water from and established tank. My...

www.reef2reef.com

there is a full roadmap to a dry start reef, no measure for nitrate or po4, and fast coral growth.

From everything I have read the cloudy issue is normal when using nopox. I have now realized I am just going to leave the nitrate alone even though most things I read want it low.

 

[Betex]

Your adding a carbon source(nopox) to feed bacteria. Are you running a skimmer to skim out the extra bacteria? If the increased bacteria are not skimmed out, they cause your water to be cloudy(bacterial bloom).

And nitrite is not of a concern in a reef tank, quit testing it. I literally have not tested ammonia/nitrite in about 20 years, with the exception of the initial cycle on a new tank.

I have stopped using NoPox and yeah I do have a skimmer running as I saw it was a requirement for using NoPox. That is good to hear as I hear such mixed opinions on it and glad I finally asked opposed to just browsing around.

 

[brandon429]

Can we get an update here, looking to track nitrite-positive starts for health vs crash outcomes

 

[Betex]

Can we get an update here, looking to track nitrite-positive starts for health vs crash outcomes

Hey there wow this fee like forever ago. So after learning more and more about reefing I removed my GFO, stopped dosing nopox/vodka and just let the tank be. Currently @12 no3 and po4. .05-.1. Tank has been doing great and main 2 things I try and do is test and keep my hands out of tank

 

[brandon429]

Well done, it was important for reefing to know nitrite does not factor in cycles or in any degree in marine setups, well done follow through