Nitrite & Nitrate
- Thread starter jbonez_
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Nitrites typically don’t matter. How old is tank. Nitrate at 20 isn’t too bad either
old salt reefer
Valuable Member
OK for the first six weeks the tank did not have fish in it did you seed/add bottled bacteria? If so when did you add the bacteria and after you added them did you " feed" them ?
Just trying to figure out when your cycle started. As others said those numbers are not bad.
Just trying to figure out when your cycle started. As others said those numbers are not bad.
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OP
OP
jbonez_
Community Member
Yes, I added Dr Tim's while dosing with his ammonia, after that for a week I was getting 0ppm for Nitrites, Nitrates and Ammonia, then I added a pinch of fish food and went to a testless 10 day cycle, after the 10 days I tested and had 0 ammonia, 5ppm nitrites and 80pmm nitrates, did a near 100% water change.
PotatoPig
Valuable Member
The nitrates probably will stay pretty high (this is OK for fish in saltwater) until you get stuff in there that’s doing photosynthesis.
The bacteria that convert nitrates to N2 tend to do so under anaerobic conditions and are fairly slow at it even when such conditions are present.
In many cases the most effective way to remove these from the system is via algae or corals that’ll absorb them, though unless you have lights set up that’ll get photosynthesis going this won’t happen.
OP
OP
jbonez_
Community Member
I do have a light set up and I have been running it, algae growth is starting.
So all in all, these levels are ok for now since no corals? But when I want to start putting corals in is when I need to lower these levels? I plan only to do softies and some LPS.
PotatoPig
Valuable Member
TBH - they’re probably ok for corals as is, especially soft corals. How many fish do you have in there?
Once the algae and corals take off they’ll consume these nutrients, possibly very quickly, with a light bioload you could end up having to go out of your way to keep nutrients up even.
is it true that if you ceased testing for nitrite and nitrate and had to go solely off results of looking at your tank, the testless cycle worked?
at what point did you want to change from testless cycling, which just worked you can see, into test-cycling using the number one misreading test kits in reefing / legit curious about that detail
we had discussed fish disease prep needs, the importance of reading and choosing a disease plan before adding fish
know fallow and quarantine very well.
this thread here is the stage of reefing your tank is at:
www.reef2reef.com
all new reef tanks having just completed a cycle should read that post before they buy fish
at what point did you want to change from testless cycling, which just worked you can see, into test-cycling using the number one misreading test kits in reefing / legit curious about that detail
we had discussed fish disease prep needs, the importance of reading and choosing a disease plan before adding fish
know fallow and quarantine very well.
this thread here is the stage of reefing your tank is at:
Has anyone done coral/inverts only and no fish at first?
Fish seem to be the main cause of disruption in a display tank, given the current circumstances in the hobby with pests (ich, velvet, parasites, etc.). I have been in this hobby for 18 years, and the amount of pests that are showing up lately is much more (could also be the fact that we have...
www.reef2reef.com
all new reef tanks having just completed a cycle should read that post before they buy fish
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Randy Holmes-Farley
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My Tank Thread
The nitrate is not as high as you report due to interference from the nitrite, if it is accurate. These numbers do not suggest any action is required.
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