Nitrites new aquarium...

[Steve S]

Tanks been running for 30 days, Dr Tim’s with ammonium chloride.
Ammonia levels finally came down to zero almost two weeks ago, nitrites though are still off scale high...using Red Sea test kit, have done 3 5 gal water changes (40gal cube tank), pH 8.2. Does it seem a bit long for the nitrites to be so high??
Thx

 

[Coral4coral]

You can run gfo and carbon but in my opinion they arent great on fish long term and I would go with a more natural route growing some chaeto will strip your tank of nitrates

 

[Bryson.bobby]

Sounds like your cycle is almost done. The nitrites should go away on its own with time

 

[PatW]

It can take awhile for the bacteria to build up a large enough population to process nitrite. It will happen. You can speed it up by adding a bacteria culture for cycling.

 

[Auquanut]

I agree about your cycle being nearly complete. Unless your nitrate is completely off the charts, I personally would wait to do any more water changes until the cycle is complete. Then do a massive water change to decrease your nitrates.

 

[beaslbob]

before I started using macro algaes during cycle, I would get nitrItes off the chart and one time for 4-6 weeks. What I did was stop feeding and nitrItes dropped down in a couple of days.

 

[Dom]

You can run gfo and carbon but in my opinion they arent great on fish long term and I would go with a more natural route growing some chaeto will strip your tank of nitrates

The OP says NITRITES.

Some people are referencing NITRATES.

@Steve S Just to clarify; are you speaking of NITRITES?

 

[beaslbob]

The OP says NITRITES.

Some people are referencing NITRATES.

@Steve S Just to clarify; are you speaking of NITRITES?

I presume it's nitrItes. Very common to peg the test kit (5ppm) for a while during cycle.

But I could be wrong also.

 

[Auquanut]

I agree about your cycle being nearly complete. Unless your nitrate is completely off the charts, I personally would wait to do any more water changes until the cycle is complete. Then do a massive water change to decrease your nitrates.

Sorry. Didn't mean to seem misleading. What I meant was that I would wait until the cycle completed and nitrites have been at zero for a while before doing any more water changes unless nitrates were just sky high.

 

[Katrina71]

I'd let things ride naturally.

 

[Steve S]

I'd let things ride naturally.

Thanks everyone, my original plan (still the plan) was to wait 2 months before I add anything, just seemed longer than other tanks I’ve done. Must be me wanting to dive into my first reef tank.
Thanks

 

[beaslbob]

Thanks everyone, my original plan (still the plan) was to wait 2 months before I add anything, just seemed longer than other tanks I’ve done. Must be me wanting to dive into my first reef tank.
Thanks

Is this the first time you used ammonium chloride?

 

[brandon429]

Nitrites don’t factor in reefing or in cycling. Can toss the kit

 

[Steve S]

Is this the first time you used ammonium chloride?

Yes

 

[Steve S]

Nitrites don’t factor in reefing or in cycling. Can toss the kit

??

 

[brandon429]

If you search out threads in the chem forum, nitrite is not harmful when it is present, and our testers hardly ever measure it accurately as well. It’s not needed to know, if you want to see this being applied it comes in big work threads, this one below has links to the chem forum with Randy talking about how it’s not critical to measure

The microbiology of reef tank cycling.

You can skip your cycle. Ive been reefing online for twenty years and have never waited one second for a tank to cycle, because I buy rocks that are already cycled and move them home. Here's two: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/octo-high-end-sps-skip-cycle-build.713256/...

www.reef2reef.com

Only what ammonia does is important. Nitrate is for algae tuning, we don’t have to know it to cycle a tank either.

 

[Steve S]

If you search out threads in the chem forum, nitrite is not harmful when it is present, and our testers hardly ever measure it accurately as well. It’s not needed to know, if you want to see this being applied it comes in big work threads, this one below has links to the chem forum with Randy talking about how it’s not critical to measure

The microbiology of reef tank cycling.

You can skip your cycle. Ive been reefing online for twenty years and have never waited one second for a tank to cycle, because I buy rocks that are already cycled and move them home. Here's two: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/octo-high-end-sps-skip-cycle-build.713256/...

www.reef2reef.com

Only what ammonia does is important. Nitrate is for algae tuning, we don’t have to know it to cycle a tank either.

Thanks, I’ll look that up.

 

[vetteguy53081]

NO GFO for a new tank yet.
Start with a 2nd opinion/reading. Take a water sample to a trusted LFS and have them test to see what reading they get and for comparison with yours.
If a match, add ChemiPure blue to sump and also see what Nitrate/Phos content is on your packaging for salt mix

 

[SeeFu]

I'm about 2 months into my cycle now and my nitrites still wontt come down. They're off the charts on the red sea test kit. my nitratets have come down a Little bit.

 

[Mykawl]

I'm about 2 months into my cycle now and my nitrites still wontt come down. They're off the charts on the red sea test kit. my nitratets have come down a Little bit.

If your nitrites are above 5ppm it can stall/slow the cycle in which case a water change would work, nitrates are pointless to test until nitrites 0 out. As your test kits convert nitrate to nitrite and then measures the total.

So there is no telling how much is actually nitrate...

I went through this same thing I’d suggest like I said a water change or buy more bacteria (best option) I used bio Spira & dr Tim’s. There is also Seachem stability micro bacter 7 turbo start 9000 etc.

OP you said nitrites were through the roof but didn’t mention a number, if over 5ppm you probably adsed Too much ammonium chloride but we don’t need to go deeper than this. : P