Water Chemistry

NanoMan16 · May 3, 2021

Ok I had 125gallon about 5 years ago. Had to move and sold the break down to my LFS. I bought a BioCube 16 about 2 months ago. Just something to keep in the night stand. Everything went great cycled it in about 3 weeks. Now my ammonia is sitting at .5ppm and nitrites are at 1ppm with zero nitrates. Currently have some zoas, green star polyps, a mushroom and 1 black ice clown. Been that way for 2 weeks and levels are still holding the same. Need to get things down a bit. Done 4 50% water changes, cleaned sand bed and changed filter material. New to the nano world any suggestions?

vetteguy53081 · May 3, 2021

NanoMan16 said:
Ok I had 125gallon about 5 years ago. Had to move and sold the break down to my LFS. I bought a BioCube 16 about 2 months ago. Just something to keep in the night stand. Everything went great cycled it in about 3 weeks. Now my ammonia is sitting at .5ppm and nitrites are at 1ppm with zero nitrates. Currently have some zoas, green star polyps, a mushroom and 1 black ice clown. Been that way for 2 weeks and levels are still holding the same. Need to get things down a bit. Done 4 50% water changes, cleaned sand bed and changed filter material. New to the nano world any suggestions?

If you’re using api test kits, you may getting false readings and actually be cycled. I would take a water sample to a trusted LFS and have them test the water for you and see what results they come up with

PatW · May 3, 2021

API tends to give a low reading for 0 ammonia. I have trouble with the nitrate interpretation. API tests are cheap and a crude. But they can work. Salifert is relatively inexpensive and has a much higher quality test set.

NanoMan16 · May 3, 2021

vetteguy53081 said:
If you’re using api test kits, you may getting false readings and actually be cycled. I would take a water sample to a trusted LFS and have them test the water for you and see what results they come up with

I had my water tested at my LFS they show the same. I was going to try a nitrite filter pad to see if I see a drop. Didn’t have this problem in my old tank just wasn’t sure if it was a nano problem since water volume is so low.