Cycle done, high nitrates, what to do?

[DrBoxedWine]

The cycle on my 75g tank with 30g sump/refugugium is complete and the skimmer has broken in and is functioning normally now. 5 PPM ammonia is down to 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites in about 15 hours. I have a pair of clownfish sitting in QT that are ready to switch to the DT whenever it's ready. My nitrates in the DT are upwards of 100. The only way to keep the cycle going that i can see is to keep adding ammonia, which keeps increasing nitrates pretty quickly so it's sort of a losing battle i feel like to keep doing this. I'm wondering what i should do next, here are my options as i see them:

1.) Do a 15% water change today, and add the clowns. I don't have a brute container to do a massive water change, and i can only have 15 gallons of RODI salt mix on hand at once with my current setup. I'm afraid if i drain the tank 1/2 way and do a larger change, by the time i have the tank filled back up i'm probably going to lose a good amount of bacteria, and will have to restart the cycle a bit. I could continue to do 15% weekly (or really maybe every 3 days for a couple weeks) to get nitrates down quickly. Once the clowns are in, i think nitrate production will slow down as i won't be dumping ammonia into the tank twice a day, and the skimmer will help pull out some waste before it turns into nitrates. I am also looking to get some Chateo going in the fuge to help with nitrate reduction in the long term.

2.) Bite the bullet and get a brute container today, do a 60% water change, and add the clowns in a few days to the DT. I was hoping to delay this purchase for another couple months as there are some other things i would like to get, but if it has to happen, then so be it. I could then do a water change quick enough that i'm guessing i wouldn't lose any bacteria.

Option #1 is preferable, but if it's going to harm the fish, i won't do it. Does anyone have any thoughts? Are high nitrates for a couple weeks going to harm the clownfish?

Thanks in advance!

 

[coralsnaked]

Stop dosing ammonia and do 15 G water changes at a time This relates to 20% per 15 G and will reduce Nitrates by only 20% per change. You need to get those Nitrates down to < 40 for the fishes comfort. Those clowns are very hearty and it would'nt kill them, but since they are in QT now and safe leave them there and do it right. But no need for more ammonia. bacteria will survive for weeks without feeding. Do appox. (4) 20% changes to get it down to ~ 40ppm before adding fish. Will probably take you a couple of three to fours days.

 

[shesacharmer]

You don't need any more ammonia! You can drop a few fish flakes in to feed your bacteria. It won't harm anything to do multiple 15 gallon changes until your Nitrates get below 40 ppm. Stopping the ammonia will help.

 

[DrBoxedWine]

Alright, that's good to know about the bacteria, i've often wondered how long they would survive. Thanks everyone, this is exactly what i'll do.

 

[DrBoxedWine]

I bit the bullet and got a 44 gallon brute trash can. After the relative inefficiency of doing 15% water changes and the salt cost as well as time of doing this, i figured i should just do it. Does anyone have any insight as to how long rock can be out of the water until the bacteria starts to die off?

 

[SPotter]

I bit the bullet and got a 44 gallon brute trash can. After the relative inefficiency of doing 15% water changes and the salt cost as well as time of doing this, i figured i should just do it. Does anyone have any insight as to how long rock can be out of the water until the bacteria starts to die off?

why are you taking rock out of hte water? I used the ammonia method on my last build and ended up with extremely high nitrates like you. My system was about 450g total water volume and I was doing 150g water changes to bring them down. It took close to 800g in water changes to bring them down. The bigger the wc you can do the better!

 

[DrBoxedWine]

LOL! Damn! although to be honest, i think most of us would love to have that problem

Well if i do a 70% change, some of the rocks are going to be above the waterline while it's draining then filling back up... Only 30 mins at the most, but still...

 

[SPotter]

LOL! Damn! although to be honest, i think most of us would love to have that problem

Well if i do a 70% change, some of the rocks are going to be above the waterline while it's draining then filling back up... Only 30 mins at the most, but still...

Trust me....it wasnt fun but I guess I see your point! You will be fine with that amount of time. When live rock is shipped its usually shipped without water and its out of the water for a lot longer than that.