nitrite and nitrate level i need help?
- Thread starter rbike1331
- Start date
T
tone2607
Guest
to early to tell i think still cycling
T
tone2607
Guest
he has a pretty good in sump skimmer couple damsels refug/sump..macro algae etc.
chew*
Murphy's Law
The first problem is not enough liverock. You should be running 1 1/2 to 2 LBS per gallon. Secondly depending on where, how, who, you required the rock from and how much your water chemistry differed from there's would determine how much die off you have. I cycled my tank with 200Lbs LR and 40Lbs store bought livesand and 40LBs of a established tanks live sand. It cycled in record time (3days) after the last addition of 100LBS of rock however I had already run it for over a month with 100LBS LR and 80LBS sand. Even after it had completed its last cycle I still added nothing for 2 weeks.
Firefish
~Sara~
you probably are still cycling...
Mark and I say do the water change.. even with the change you will still have levels enough to stimulate the growth of the good bacteria
something that I learned in school (a medical thing, but still applies)
"The solution to polution is Dilution"... you have to dilute out the bad stuff..
good luck to you
while you are waiting for the cycling, there is a ton to learn on this site... and there are a ton of people that will help you out in guiding you onto your next steps... when I was starting out, I loved to go to other people's houses and see their established tanks and see how they got their's to work and more importantly, what did not work.... there are lots of places that you can waist money... and you need to save what you have for what you actually do need
It is really cool to see first hand what a mature tank looks like lots of us in this club go around and see each other's tanks all the time
Good Luck!
Mark and I say do the water change.. even with the change you will still have levels enough to stimulate the growth of the good bacteria
something that I learned in school (a medical thing, but still applies)
"The solution to polution is Dilution"... you have to dilute out the bad stuff..
good luck to you
while you are waiting for the cycling, there is a ton to learn on this site... and there are a ton of people that will help you out in guiding you onto your next steps... when I was starting out, I loved to go to other people's houses and see their established tanks and see how they got their's to work and more importantly, what did not work.... there are lots of places that you can waist money... and you need to save what you have for what you actually do needIt is really cool to see first hand what a mature tank looks like
lots of us in this club go around and see each other's tanks all the time Good Luck!
Moe_K
Stabbed by Foulke
I don't agree with that figure. I think 1 lb of LR per gallon is okay.
How about a sand bed? De-nitrifying bacteria will take up residence in your sand bed.
Moe_K
Stabbed by Foulke
As others have said 5 weeks is a brand new tank.
Ride it out, do regular monthly water changes using great source water.
Most of us use Reverse Osmosis (RO) or Reverse Osmosis / De-Ionized (RODI) water. You can purchase your own RODI unit, or you can buy RODI water from good fish stores. That way we know we're not adding nutrients when we do water changes.
smcnally
Tankless
I don't agree with it either. It is kind of an outdated way of thinking since there are so many types of rock available now. Try putting 2lbs/gal of marco rock in your tank...it would be a giant block of rock and no room for anything else.
I agree that water changes should be very limited during the cycle. I usually only would change during the ammonia spike and only enough to bring the ammonia down a tiny bit. If you change too much water, you will only prolong the cycle.
smcnally
Tankless
Dense rock really doesn't serve much of a purpose though. The whole poind is for there to be as much surface area as possible. Everyone has their own opinions on rock and I'm not about to argue which is better. That is exactly why I was saying it was an outdated way to measure how much rock you should have it a tank. The same amount of effective rock will weigh much differently depending on it being Fiji, Marshal Island, Tonga, or Marco. It is kind of like the whole "Watts per Gallon" theory...that concept doesn't hold anymore.
marco67
Smart is.. a box of rocks
You'll find arguments on both sides of the "water change" debate.
To me it makes no sense waiting while nitrifying bacteria builds to a level of the super high ammonia and nitrite, only to once again fall when those levels naturally come down.
IMO by not doing changes you are hindering the progress of other beneficial and desirable things like coraline algae and any cool hitch hiker corals or other organisms.
Also in the FWIW department I always try to use water from an established system for changes.
To quickly push past the nitrite/trate stage I use Fritz Turbo start 900 on all my set ups now.
Of course I know you don't need it but needing it and getting good results from it are two very different things. Over the years I've seen countless success stories with it, from saving early stocking, to over stocking, to rapid stocking. Most recently since working with a few pounds of dry rock, I've been able to greatly reduce cycle time and I've had a number of customers that have told me it got them over that "stuck Nitrate hump" while cycling.
To me it makes no sense waiting while nitrifying bacteria builds to a level of the super high ammonia and nitrite, only to once again fall when those levels naturally come down.
IMO by not doing changes you are hindering the progress of other beneficial and desirable things like coraline algae and any cool hitch hiker corals or other organisms.
Also in the FWIW department I always try to use water from an established system for changes.
To quickly push past the nitrite/trate stage I use Fritz Turbo start 900 on all my set ups now.
Of course I know you don't need it but needing it and getting good results from it are two very different things. Over the years I've seen countless success stories with it, from saving early stocking, to over stocking, to rapid stocking. Most recently since working with a few pounds of dry rock, I've been able to greatly reduce cycle time and I've had a number of customers that have told me it got them over that "stuck Nitrate hump" while cycling.
Last edited:
pillowfish
#2
Hi and Welcome to BRS! Good Luck!
Gina McReeferson
My sweet Baby David
Welcome! There are some great people on this forum and everyone is always willing to help with questions...
-Gina and Dave
There are some great people on this forum and everyone is always willing to help with questions...-Gina and Dave
