Ok finally going to ask newbie question

[Jeff_Toronto]

My first tank finished the initial cycle. Over 4+ weeks. Watched ammonia spike then come down. Nitrites spiked then came down and both settled at 0. Nitrates were off the charts and did a ~50% water change and let settle for couple hours. Here is my question....

Nitrates still reading high (color blind) bit enough to know between 50 and 100 ppm. How long after a water change would you notice a change in nitrate? Do I wait 2-3 days then another partial water change and continue that until nitrates down?

I dint care how long, not rushing, just trying to get a handle on what to expect to make sure I'm not messing up and restarting a cycle.

Did a bunch of research but couldn't find or make sense of posts on topic

Thoughts?

 

[Jason mack]

Hi Jeff , well if you did a 50% WC then it should have reduced your nitrates by 50% ,and if you wait 30 mins before testing you should see a reduction then , you could just wait it out and let your nitrates get taken out your system with your skimmer or you could also do another WC in a couple of days .. 50% if your system isn’t too big too do this ..

 

[Jeff_Toronto]

Hi Jeff , well if you did a 50% WC then it should have reduced your nitrates by 50% ,and if you wait 30 mins before testing you should see a reduction then , you could just wait it out and let your nitrates get taken out your system with your skimmer or you could also do another WC in a couple of days .. 50% if your system isn’t too big too do this ..

Cool. Thanks jason. Will give a couple days then do another 50%. Fish are in qt tank now after 12 day ttm so another 4 weeks or so to get it manageable

 

[Big G]

Your results are perfectly normal. Do another 50% or a couple of 25% changes. It's amazing how much water you have to change to reduce nitrates down to a "manageable" level of say 20ish. From there it's all good. Adding a Marinepure block and or some chaeto or sea lettuce will further reduce your nitrates into your sump. Hope this helps. Been there; done that. Cheers!

 

[Jeff_Toronto]

Thanks. Now know what to expect and still on track.

 

[Jeff_Toronto]

Hi Jeff , well if you did a 50% WC then it should have reduced your nitrates by 50% ,and if you wait 30 mins before testing you should see a reduction then , you could just wait it out and let your nitrates get taken out your system with your skimmer or you could also do another WC in a couple of days .. 50% if your system isn’t too big too do this ..

Yeah I'm proficient at making up my water now. Once I got an rodi feels like that's all I've been doing. 5 tanks on the go at the moment. Bc32 dt, a 10g qt for fish, 10g qt for invertabrates and 2 10g for Ttm

 

[redfishbluefish]

To me, it sounds like you're also curing the rock while also preforming a cycle. High nitrates are typical to rock curing and are best handled by frequent water changes....until they start to decline to where you'd like your nitrate level to be.

 

[Jeff_Toronto]

To me, it sounds like you're also curing the rock while also preforming a cycle. High nitrates are typical to rock curing and are best handled by frequent water changes....until they start to decline to where you'd like your nitrate level to be.

Hmm maybe. Went with liferock vs live rock and read somewhere that because it's man made doesn't go through same cure process. Live sand and cycled with ammonia. A daily dose of ammonia over 3 day period returned both ammonia and nitrite to 0.

Will keep an eye on after water changes until it comes down. Not in any rush

 

[redfishbluefish]

Need to know where that nitrate came from. (I still say it came from the Liferock, which is made from real rock). Anyway, another source could be from your water. Did you use tap water or RO/DI?

 

[madweazl]

It came from the nitrogen cycle.

 

[Jeff_Toronto]

Need to know where that nitrate came from. (I still say it came from the Liferock, which is made from real rock). Anyway, another source could be from your water. Did you use tap water or RO/DI?

Nitrate came from the cycle itself. It's just at the tail end of the cycle where ammonia and nitrates finally dropped and remained at zero so nitrate expected to be high. Just did first water change to bring down from initial cycle so don't think anything causing it to spike. Was just curious on how long after water change would it take to see level drop. More our of curiosity.

Running rodi water with 0 tds and water tested clear across the board before added to. Tank.

Thanks

 

[Big G]

I usually wait at least an hour or two to get enough mixing in the water column after a water change before I test again.

 

[redfishbluefish]

It came from the nitrogen cycle.....

Well at 50 - 100 ppm Nitrate, that's way overdosing ammonia to start the cycle.

 

[Jeff_Toronto]

Well at 50 - 100 ppm Nitrate, that's way overdosing ammonia to start the cycle.

For sure. First tank and add to list of lessons learned for next one.

 

[Jeff_Toronto]

Well at 50 - 100 ppm Nitrate, that's way overdosing ammonia to start the cycle.

Was more first Time impatience. Started off with 7 day stability dose then added fish food and didn't see anything happening so started adding ammonia. Lol. Doesn't matter that I knew patience key.

For sure. First tank and add to list of lessons learned for next one.