Still reading Nitrites after 7 weeks

[New9742]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the hobby and have been having some serious problems with my cycle/getting my tank up and underway, almost from day 1 it seems. (I have a full, detailed thread about it here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/fluval-flex-15-jellyfish-conversion.964226/ ). Multiple people at two of my LFS and a friend with some good freshwater experience are stumped for some of my problems and I can't seem to find what I need reading through threads or any other type of research.

What brings me here today is that I am still having Nitrite issues a full 7 weeks after starting my cycle. I recognize the general opinion is that Nitrites really don't matter in the hobby and given the relatively low readings I'm getting I wouldn't be really that concerned about it if I was keeping a fish only or reef system, but I'm not. I'm attempting to keep Jellyfish in this tank of mine and in general they are very sensitive to suboptimal water conditions.

I did a full test of my water's parameters this morning and got these results:
NH4: 0.25-0.5 on API
NO2: 0 on API (It is a darker blue than the baby blue it starts as, but still very much blue) and reading 0.2 on a Red Sea Kit
NO3: 5-10 on API and 5 on Red Sea
Salinity: 1.023
Temp: 75.2
Alk: 8.9 on Salifert
pH: 8.15 on Salifert
PO4: Between 0.1 and 0.25 (Halfway or so in between?)

I've found my Red Sea kit to be pretty accurate and I've been happy with it. The results change as expected (ie: before and after a water change). Working on getting a better NH4 test kit, but my NH4 readings have consistently tested about 0.25-0.5 since the spike so I'm wondering if that's effectively my "Zero" on the API kit. My Nitrites are climbing right now and don't seem to be going away like they should and I'm just at a loss. This is after an 80% water change about 12 days ago now too at what should have been the 'end of my cycle'.

I've included some pictures of the results of my parameter tests. Please ignore the first parts of the graphs (I was experimenting a bit, I had a hard time reading API results, and it was a chaotic start) and pay attention from about 02/08 and onwards.

Any help or advice you guys could give me on this would be greatly appreciated. If you want/need more information I highly suggest you take a quick look at my thread I linked above as it details virtually everything I've done from the start on this, but I'm happy to reply here for whatever other information you want/need. I just really need my NH4 and NO2 to be zero and behave from now on. Thanks!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I'm not aware of any marine organism in 35 ppt seawater than is sensitive to less than one ppm of nitrite. I do not know anything about jellyfish in particular, but I would not anticipate an issue and I think it likely the kits is not very accurate at 0.2 ppm.

 

[New9742]

I'm not aware of any marine organism in 35 ppt seawater than is sensitive to less than one ppm of nitrite. I do not know anything about jellyfish in particular, but I would not anticipate an issue and I think it likely the kits is not very accurate at 0.2 ppm.

That's actually pretty comforting, thank you. It has been a learning curve for sure with this whole thing for me. I certainly don't know a ton about Jellyfish keeping in an aquarium (not for lack of trying), but everything I find is how even small fluctuations can be detrimental to their overall health and they generally don't tolerate semi-poor water parameters well. I didn't even think about the accuracy of the red sea kit playing into this, that's a good point. If nothing else, I guess just wait and see if levels keep rising? What would you recommend I do if that is the case?

Thanks for the help!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

That's actually pretty comforting, thank you. It has been a learning curve for sure with this whole thing for me. I certainly don't know a ton about Jellyfish keeping in an aquarium (not for lack of trying), but everything I find is how even small fluctuations can be detrimental to their overall health and they generally don't tolerate semi-poor water parameters well. I didn't even think about the accuracy of the red sea kit playing into this, that's a good point. If nothing else, I guess just wait and see if levels keep rising? What would you recommend I do if that is the case?

Thanks for the help!

Looking at this graph, it looks like it bottomed out then bumped up a bit. I'm assuming that all those values near the end represent very low values of some sort and are not a concern, but if the values did start a real upward trend, that might be a time to add some additional bacteria of some sort.

 

[New9742]

Looking at this graph, it looks like it bottomed out then bumped up a bit. I'm assuming that all those values near the end represent very low values of some sort and are not a concern, but if the values did start a real upward trend, that might be a time to add some additional bacteria of some sort.

The values near the end (after the sharp drop on 2/28) were after an 80% or so water change and were almost effectively zero after that. There has definitely been a trend over the past couple of weeks since where things are starting to go up. I've been dosing MicroBacter7 as instructed (daily for two weeks with the large water change towards the end, but still a few days after as well), and once a week since. I'm almost through the bottle now too. I may just pick up a 2oz bottle of Dr Tim's all in one and dose the entire thing at once here soon if the trend continues over the next week. Thanks!