Water Parameters In Cycling Tank

[biocubeboy]

I’m almost 2 weeks into the cycle of my biocube 16. I used Caribsea life rock and sand, along with Tim’s one and only with ammonia. My ammonia levels were steady at 2ppm and went to .025 ppm yesterday, my nitrite went from 5ppm to 2ppm, and my nitrate is off the charts around 150 ppm. Is this normal? Should I just wait longer? Not even 2 weeks seems early to have nitrate levels that high. Any help is appreciated.

 

[Idoc]

Yes, that can be normal when you start your cycle with live rock and an added bacteria in a bottle product. If you are using an API ammonia test kit, even if zero ammonia they will register around 0.25ppm. Those do seem to be a little high nitrate levels if you only started with 2ppm ammonia and haven't dosed any additional ammonia. But, you could have had some die-off from the live rock and sand that could have given you more ammonia; therefore, more nitrate after processing.

You are basically cycled at this point. A large water change is in order to get those nitrates down.

 

[biocubeboy]

Yes, that can be normal when you start your cycle with live rock and an added bacteria in a bottle product. If you are using an API ammonia test kit, even if zero ammonia they will register around 0.25ppm. Those do seem to be a little high nitrate levels if you only started with 2ppm ammonia and haven't dosed any additional ammonia. But, you could have had some die-off from the live rock and sand that could have given you more ammonia; therefore, more nitrate after processing.

You are basically cycled at this point. A large water change is in order to get those nitrates down.

Great! Thanks for your help