Hi I’m looking for some help I recently got into reef keeping just over Christmas I started out with a reefer 170 and very quickly got bored of this and realised I should have gone for a reefer 250 so within a month I upgraded I set my reefer 250 up on the 04/02/2022 so it has been running almost 7 weeks I’ve water changed 25L every week since having it apart from 2-3 weeks where the sump cracked so I was using a water drum with a window cut out of it as my sump, I transferred everything from my reefer 170, all my live rock, Bio media, pump, heaters, all my water and I then topped up the rest with new salt water but new sand I was told by my LFS this would be okay as it would be like doing a big water change I asked if I would need a new bottle of beneficial bacteria but I was told I will be okay as there will be plenty on my bio media and plenty on my rocks so I transferred everything over and there has not been a problem with my fish, corals, or invertebrates it’s just my water parameters that I can’t work out and I’m hoping someone much more experianced can help me out, so the issue I’m having is my cycle it’s either not complete or not working as it should I’ve been testing weekly since having the tank and I can’t get my ammonia to drop completely to 0 so here is my question is it possible for the cycle to be working but still have the smallest amount of ammonia? Or is it still not cycled? Something has to be converting as I have high Nitrates which I have been trying to get down, I have 0.2 Ammonia which is the smallest amount this is present every single time I test it is always 0.2 sometimes Inbetween 0.2 and 0 so it will have a yellow tinge but never completely 0 I’ve tested RODI Water and it shows 0 I’ve also tested my friends which shows 0 so the kit is some what accurate
I use the Red Sea Multi Test Kit
here are the results I’ve got today
0.2 Ammonia
0.1-0.2 Nitrite
35-40 Nitrate
Pics are below to make your own judgements
I do 25L a week which is 10% and change my cotton filter once a week and give my filter sock a clean
its like my beneficial bacteria can’t convert the ammonia fast enough or something it’s puzzling my brain only other thing I’ve thought may be causing a problem is my new sump one of the walls is not high enough allowing the water to pass straight over and then into my return pump section is it possible this could be causing a problem? I’m thinking of cutting some acrylic peices and raising the walls a little so the water has no choice but the pass through all the media before hitting the rerun pump section
oh and lastly my stock list
Pyjama Wrasse
Clown Fish 2
Midas Blenny
Jade Wrasse
Regal Tang
Cleaner shrimp
2 snails
2 Hermit crab
Coral
Hairy green mushroom
Red mushroom
mushrooms were added 3-4 days ago
Regal tang 12/03/2022
Midas blenny 15/02/2022 but as the fish was added a fire fish that didn’t eat and a blue damsel was removed and traded in at my LFS fire fish didn’t eat damsel was a bully
any help would be appreciated I’m new to this probably done something stupid
Edit Ive been trying to calculate headless for a while I have a Jebao DCS7000 and it is taking 7 Seconds to fill a 1L Jug so one gallon is taking 31.5 seconds call it 30 to make the math easy meaning 2 Gallons Per Minute if my math is correct meaning only 120GPH could this be the reason my levels are bad due to headloss here and some pics of my pipe work lots of slack
I use the Red Sea Multi Test Kit
here are the results I’ve got today
0.2 Ammonia
0.1-0.2 Nitrite
35-40 Nitrate
Pics are below to make your own judgements
I do 25L a week which is 10% and change my cotton filter once a week and give my filter sock a clean
its like my beneficial bacteria can’t convert the ammonia fast enough or something it’s puzzling my brain only other thing I’ve thought may be causing a problem is my new sump one of the walls is not high enough allowing the water to pass straight over and then into my return pump section is it possible this could be causing a problem? I’m thinking of cutting some acrylic peices and raising the walls a little so the water has no choice but the pass through all the media before hitting the rerun pump section
oh and lastly my stock list
Pyjama Wrasse
Clown Fish 2
Midas Blenny
Jade Wrasse
Regal Tang
Cleaner shrimp
2 snails
2 Hermit crab
Coral
Hairy green mushroom
Red mushroom
mushrooms were added 3-4 days ago
Regal tang 12/03/2022
Midas blenny 15/02/2022 but as the fish was added a fire fish that didn’t eat and a blue damsel was removed and traded in at my LFS fire fish didn’t eat damsel was a bully
any help would be appreciated I’m new to this probably done something stupid
Edit Ive been trying to calculate headless for a while I have a Jebao DCS7000 and it is taking 7 Seconds to fill a 1L Jug so one gallon is taking 31.5 seconds call it 30 to make the math easy meaning 2 Gallons Per Minute if my math is correct meaning only 120GPH could this be the reason my levels are bad due to headloss here and some pics of my pipe work lots of slack
Last edited: