Cycle issues

[ClownFish664]

Hi,

Im about 3 months into my nano reef, I managed to get amonia nitrite down to 0 and nitrate down to 0.3. However, I added a hammer coral and 3 blue leg hermit crabs after this and now im seeing small signes of ammonia (total ammonia). Nitrite is above 1 as per the tropic marin test kit and nitrate is 20+, Tropic marin advised that nitrite effects thier nitrate test kit, so using RedSea nitrate shows at 10.

Algae is growing quite a bit and theres no sign of decline in nitrite or nitrtate, I have been dosing Seachem stability for about a week now and still not shift in the test results. I am currently trying out the evolution Aqua Pure reef balance to see if this can resolve my issue.

Could anyone reccomend a fix? I tried ATM coloney at the start of this tank and it did not work with the cycle reduction which is why I opted to use stability.

 

[brandon429]

this cycle is done, buy nothing. link coming

How to unstick any seemingly stuck cycle

Team how many times did we need to know your alkalinity to turn out cycles ready here with fish or your ph or any other param if you have water, and time depending on the boosters used, you get a full complete cycle and not a partial one. Someone update the cycling rules for the hobby with...

www.reef2reef.com

you are using dated, no longer usable old cycling science that is specifically trained at causing us to buy, by telling us false information about what water bacteria do.


That link above, opposite, and your tank is so fitting of an example I'd like to move it to top example for readers if that doesnt freak you out lol, if so Ill leave as is.


We specifically want you to not buy ATM or any more bacteria, 100% of tanks beyond one month submersion are cycled, you're at three

The number one false claim of old cycling science is that a cycle stalls, or fails to complete. None do, not any, not ever, its a dang lie we disproved above for fifteen pages soon

 

[ClownFish664]

this cycle is done, buy nothing. link coming

I see, So how does one reduce thier nitrites and nitrates in that case? I have been using tropic marin elimi-NP but the nitrates are still at 10 however my phospahtes decline fine.

My full tank parmeters right now are below

temp 25 C
pH 8.2
Amonia 0.02
Nitrite 1+
Nitrate 10
Phosphate 0.03
salinity 1.025 or 35ppt
Alk 8.3
calcium 450
magnesium 1200

 

[brandon429]

here from your descriptions is how updated cycling science knows youre done:

1. all tanks older than a cycling chart shows are cycled. You're 3x the duration.

2. nitrite does not factor in any cycle, throw out the test and never run nitrite again in reefing.

3. rule of benthic establishment: any system that has grown algae, diatoms, or cyano is cycled. those are secondary organisms and primary ones/first in the game are the filtration species (many different ones)

to be wet is to cycle, on a time scale we already know, that convention managers use to make 400 reefs all be ready by a start date. only the buyers are given the false information...that's what happened to your cycle.

you would cease testing for nitrite

and nitrate, for sixty days. you dont need to know nitrate for a while, quit testing for it and begin reefing. dont react to nitrate for two months, begin water changing and feeding, enjoy the ready cycle.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Your nitrate is not 10 ppm, since there's so much nitrite.

Just watch and observe.

Neither is toxic at those levels.

 

[Jekyl]

I see, So how does one reduce thier nitrites and nitrates in that case? I have been using tropic marin elimi-NP but the nitrates are still at 10 however my phospahtes decline fine.

My full tank parmeters right now are below

temp 25 C
pH 8.2
Amonia 0.02
Nitrite 1+
Nitrate 10
Phosphate 0.03
salinity 1.025 or 35ppt
Alk 8.3
calcium 450
magnesium 1200

The nitrite test can be thrown away. Ways of reducing nitrates are: water changes, skimmers, refugium, nopox

 

[ClownFish664]

That link above, opposite, and your tank is so fitting of an example I'd like to move it to top example for readers if that doesnt freak you out lol, if so Ill leave as is.

Whats does this mean? if you mean can my tank be used as an exmaple or can I so you can teach other, of course

 

[ClownFish664]

Your nitrate is not 10 ppm, since there's so much nitrite.

Just watch and observe.

Neither is toxic at those levels.

Oh OK,

shall i take them bacteria balls out then?

 

[ClownFish664]

here from your descriptions is how updated cycling science knows youre done:

1. all tanks older than a cycling chart shows are cycled. You're 3x the duration.

2. nitrite does not factor in any cycle, throw out the test and never run nitrite again in reefing.

3. rule of benthic establishment: any system that has grown algae, diatoms, or cyano is cycled. those are secondary organisms and primary ones/first in the game are the filtration species (many different ones)

to be wet is to cycle, on a time scale we already know, that convention managers use to make 400 reefs all be ready by a start date. only the buyers are given the false information...that's what happened to your cycle.

you would cease testing for nitrite

and nitrate, for sixty days. you dont need to know nitrate for a while, quit testing for it and begin reefing. dont react to nitrate for two months, begin water changing and feeding, enjoy the ready cycle.

shall I take the bacteria balls out then?

 

[brandon429]

you sure can, they're optional loading the system can carry if you added more, or if you subtract them, its no harm.

the surfaces of your live rock alone will carry all the bioload the tank will ever see. post tank pics so we can see working ratios here

what I meant above is that link above shows new cycling science. we take 100 examples of stalled cycles and show they were never stalled. I would think that bottle bac sellers should dislike that thread very much lol. I hope they see us interrupting their trained buying process right here, live time.

I am against the claims that bottle bac sellers make online, in posts and on youtube videos from macna. we hope to balance out claims with the truth by sheer numbers of collected examples... no reef tank cycle stalls out, they all complete on time such that a marine aquarium convention can exist for thirty years.

the reason I think bottle bac sellers are up to no good is they haven't written updated cycling rules that match the myriad examples we collect and link together above which use opposite rules to earn timely cycle completions, no stalls.

As long as those results, stall-less results are not acknowledged, someone is holding back the truth. The sellers of the bottle bac should be required to explain why they originally told us cycles can be stalled, and then right above we showed they cannot be stalled. The longer they take to address what's linked, the more I think they've been tricking us on purpose to incent massive overpurchases of bacteria. they tried to scare us into retail dependency and we call them out plain as day.

 

[ClownFish664]

you sure can, they're optional loading the system can carry if you added more, or if you subtract them, its no harm.

the surfaces of your live rock alone will carry all the bioload the tank will ever see. post tank pics so we can see working ratios here

what I meant above is that link above shows new cycling science. we take 100 examples of stalled cycles and show they were never stalled. I would think that bottle bac sellers should dislike that thread very much lol. I hope they see us interrupting their trained buying process right here, live time.

I am against the claims that bottle bac sellers make online, in posts and on youtube videos from macna. we hope to balance out claims with the truth by sheer numbers of collected examples... no reef tank cycle stalls out, they all complete on time such that a marine aquarium convention can exist for thirty years.

This is the aquarium in question (more green to the eye, sorry I don't have a filter lense) it's a 50L, 50x 34x34 cm dimensions

 

[ClownFish664]

This is the aquarium in question (more green to the eye, sorry I don't have a filter lense) it's a 50L, 50x 34x34 cm dimensions

Oh The filter is also a hang on, has siporax in it and purigen also

 

[brandon429]

a fine tank

you have orders more surface area than needed, so you're set.

no filters you run need extra surface area stuff like bioballs, bricks etc. They're merely nine steering wheels on a car that only needs one.

Now if you want to run granular activated carbon for its polishing ability thats fine, or GFO to scrub out phosphate, that's fine use for media

purigen is an uptake/binding media thats fine if you want. the siporax is merely taking up space and not harming, nor helping, its neutral impact.

you dont need extra surface area, the rocks have plenty. this allows you design freedom now; your tank is cycled, done, and the filter bacteria will handle themselves permanently from here on out. cease testing for ammonia, and nitrite

and resume testing for nitrate in a few mos and you are set. Your bioload has stayed alive in that reef above because its cycled yep.

 

[ClownFish664]

a fine tank

you have orders more surface area than needed, so you're set.

no filters you run need extra surface area stuff like bioballs, bricks etc. They're merely nine steering wheels on a car that only needs one.

Now if you want to run granular activated carbon for its polishing ability thats fine, or GFO to scrub out phosphate, that's fine use for media

purigen is an uptake/binding media thats fine if you want. the siporax is merely taking up space and not harming, nor helping, its neutral impact.

you dont need extra surface area, the rocks have plenty. this allows you design freedom now; your tank is cycled, done, and the filter bacteria will handle themselves permanently from here on out. cease testing for ammonia, and nitrite

and resume testing for nitrate in a few mos and you are set. Your bioload has stayed alive in that reef above because its cycled yep.

Thank you, Could you suggest a Nitrate test kit that wont give me false reasings in that case? As the tropic marin one is coming up at 20+ and carbon dosing does nothing, but my PO4 is at 0.03 which is fine for me, but then how do i monitor the nitrate accurately?

 

[brandon429]

Im the single worst chemist on this entire site lol but from post patterns Im sure of this

hanna digital nitrate is all the rage currently, and seems to indicate fairly consistent sample to sample based on recent comparison posts.

but the titration kits, any name brand, range wildly about 85% of the time on comparison posts...as in api reads 30, salifert reads 90, NYOS reads 2 etc. on same sample... that wildly

so if you want to guess the least, it seems hanna digital nitrate is currently best way unless you own a titration kit that already proofed out nicely on a given sample and was verified. one of the reasons we're waiting a few mos to deal with nitrate again is to given nitrite time to balance out, so it wont mess w your nitrate test.

and also because nitrate levels dont matter. Ive been reefing twenty years mostly in the same single system and Ill never own any nitrate kit from any brand. what matters is diverse strong feeding, consistency, and strong export so the system doesnt go south from storing up waste particles.

nitrate can be used for color tuning in some systems and to regulate invasions, but reacting to it this early is a dinos invasion risk which is why you're betting running higher nitrate vs low for a while. we dont need to know nitrate for several weeks in your system, buy more corals and focus on feed in/water change out work routinely.

 

[ClownFish664]

Im the single worst chemist on this entire site lol but from post patterns Im sure of this

hanna digital nitrate is all the rage currently, and seems to indicate fairly consistent sample to sample based on recent comparison posts.

but the titration kits, any name brand, range wildly about 85% of the time on comparison posts...as in api reads 30, salifert reads 90, NYOS reads 2 etc. on same sample... that wildly

so if you want to guess the least, it seems hanna digital nitrate is currently best way unless you own a titration kit that already proofed out nicely on a given sample and was verified. one of the reasons we're waiting a few mos to deal with nitrate again is to given nitrite time to balance out, so it wont mess w your nitrate test.

and also because nitrate levels dont matter. Ive been reefing twenty years mostly in the same single system and Ill never own any nitrate kit from any brand. what matters is diverse strong feeding, consistency, and strong export so the system doesnt go south from storing up waste particles.

nitrate can be used for color tuning in some systems and to regulate invasions, but reacting to it this early is a dinos invasion risk which is why you're betting running higher nitrate vs low for a while. we dont need to know nitrate for several weeks in your system, buy more corals and focus on feed in/water change out work routinely.

Oh ok, So hanna nitrate or just trust that the rock and bacteria in there is doing its job, so question is then, do I go back to feeding as I was and continue to dose redsea AB+ or should i hold back and feed a small amount as I am currently? I still feed the tank but its only a few brine shrimp. the clowns get about 6-8 each and the rest float to bottom for the crabs to pick up. Before it was like 10-14 each and i was doinsg 2ml of AB+ for the corals in there.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Thank you, Could you suggest a Nitrate test kit that wont give me false reasings in that case? As the tropic marin one is coming up at 20+ and carbon dosing does nothing, but my PO4 is at 0.03 which is fine for me, but then how do i monitor the nitrate accurately?

Just wait for nitrite to decline before worrying about nitrate. 1 ppm nitrite reads as 100 ppm nitrate on some. None avoid the issue entirely. I think the Hanna checker is lower interference, but not none.

 

[ClownFish664]

Just wait for nitrite to decline before worrying about nitrate. 1 ppm nitrite reads as 100 ppm nitrate one some. None avoid the issue entirely. I think the Hanna checker is lower interference, but not none.

thank you, I will let it do its thing in that case. I will feed normally

 

[brandon429]

agreed all.

however you choose to feed, its a full blown cycled reef so any common variation is fine and normal.