No nitrites

[woodsy]

Hi everybody
I am 3 days into cycling our reef tank dry rock method.
Added dead prawn on the second day tested beforehand. 0 ammonia
0 nitrates
0 nitrites
Ph 8.0
Sal 1.0264 35ppt
Test again about 3hrs later and had an ammonia spike 0.2 every thing else at 0
Day three test
0.8 ammonia
2 nitrates
0 nitrites
Ph 8.0
Sal 1.0264 35ppt
I thought nitrites were need to produce nitrates. I am new to saltwater aquariums.
Using Red sea test kit
Tank is 400 liters

 

[ndrwater]

Things are going to bounce around quite a bit unless you are using a bacterial culture to speed things up.
I would worry more about where your Ammonia levels are to start.. once Ammonia peaks, and then declines to zero, start worrying about Nitrite. Once Ammonia is down to zero, Nitrite will follow very shortly thereafter

 

[DesertReefT4r]

Worry more about ammonia right now. It will increase, peak and decline over several weeks. You are on day 3 and using dry rock. Just let run. I like to ghost feed the tank when I cycle personally. I would remove the shrimp after a week and replace with a fresh one. At 2 weeks start to test ammonia and nitrate, I dont even bother with nitrite anymore. Once ammonia hits 0 and no3 is stable for 2 weeks I consider the tank cycled. If you go slow and give the tank time you will have less issues. I suggest 1 month to cycle and build up bacteria, no lighting at all during this time. After a month add 1-2 smaller fish and let it run, still no lighting. At 3 months start lighting the tank but only a few hours to start and if LED low intensity. Slowly over the next month increase lighting, add more fish and corals. All this is to let the tank and dry rock seed, mature and become bacterial driven, not algae driven. If you stock the tank and turn on the lights too soon the tank will experience bad albae blooms and become an algae driven nutrient system. That makes it very hard to combat the aglae. You want your tank to be bacterial driven.

 

[woodsy]

Worry more about ammonia right now. It will increase, peak and decline over several weeks. You are on day 3 and using dry rock. Just let run. I like to ghost feed the tank when I cycle personally. I would remove the shrimp after a week and replace with a fresh one. At 2 weeks start to test ammonia and nitrate, I dont even bother with nitrite anymore. Once ammonia hits 0 and no3 is stable for 2 weeks I consider the tank cycled. If you go slow and give the tank time you will have less issues. I suggest 1 month to cycle and build up bacteria, no lighting at all during this time. After a month add 1-2 smaller fish and let it run, still no lighting. At 3 months start lighting the tank but only a few hours to start and if LED low intensity. Slowly over the next month increase lighting, add more fish and corals. All this is to let the tank and dry rock seed, mature and become bacterial driven, not algae driven. If you stock the tank and turn on the lights too soon the tank will experience bad albae blooms and become an algae driven nutrient system. That makes it very hard to combat the aglae. You want your tank to be bacterial driven.

Thanks for your help