Cycle question

[davemaroon]

Hi all, I've been cycling my tank for 3 weeks now and I've recently got my ammonia to 0. My concern is that my nitrites and nitrates are both high. They're high to the point as soon as I put in my last step of the red Sea test it instantly turns purple. So is this normal to have both so high? I did a 50 percent water change to bring the levels down. I retested afterwards and they're still super high. Any advice would be appreciated!

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[Tastee]

Cycle question

If Nitrites are still measurable then your cycle is not yet complete. You don't need to worry about lowering Nitrites, bacteria will take care of that for you.

The final stage is measurable Nitrates only. The amount will depend on the amount of organic matter that decomposed and fed the cycle - if high you could have high Nitrates. When I cycled my FW tank a year ago I used soil with a high organic component (as this is a planted tank) and as a result I had very high Nitrates (80+ ppm) that needed a lot of WCs to get under control. By comparison when I setup my SW tank 18 months ago I used very good quality LR with little dead or dying matter and cycled that in 2 weeks with Nitrates never climbing above 10 ppm.

Your Nitrites will drop naturally over time. Some bacteria in a bottle may speed that up, but as you are 3 weeks in already, probably not much if at all. Once you have no measurable Nitrites your (initial) cycle is complete and you can do WCs to get Nitrates to a level you are happy with.

As you add fish you may experience mini-cycles, particularly if you add a lot at once and overwhelm your bacteria colony. I suggest adding 1 or 2 fish at a time and you should have no cycle issues.


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[mcgyvr]

How did you go about cycling the tank?
Sounds like you overdid it on whatever ammonia source you were using..
You just need to wait for nitrites to drop to zero..

 

[davemaroon]

If Nitrites are still measurable then your cycle is not yet complete. You don't need to worry about lowering Nitrites, bacteria will take care of that for you.

The final stage is measurable Nitrates only. The amount will depend on the amount of organic matter that decomposed and fed the cycle - if high you could have high Nitrates. When I cycled my FW tank a year ago I used soil with a high organic component (as this is a planted tank) and as a result I had very high Nitrates (80+ ppm) that needed a lot of WCs to get under control. By comparison when I setup my SW tank 18 months ago I used very good quality LR with little dead or dying matter and cycled that in 2 weeks with Nitrates never climbing above 10 ppm.

Your Nitrites will drop naturally over time. Some bacteria in a bottle may speed that up, but as you are 3 weeks in already, probably not much if at all. Once you have no measurable Nitrites your (initial) cycle is complete and you can do WCs to get Nitrates to a level you are happy with.

As you add fish you may experience mini-cycles, particularly if you add a lot at once and overwhelm your bacteria colony. I suggest adding 1 or 2 fish at a time and you should have no cycle issues.


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Thanks for the info! So basically leave it be until the nitrites go down then start doing water changes?

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[davemaroon]

How did you go about cycling the tank?
Sounds like you overdid it on whatever ammonia source you were using..
You just need to wait for nitrites to drop to zero..

I think I may have. I used a shrimp to cycle the tank and the ammonia was unreadable for a couple days cause it was so high.

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[HumbleFish]

If Nitrites are still measurable then your cycle is not yet complete. You don't need to worry about lowering Nitrites, bacteria will take care of that for you.

The final stage is measurable Nitrates only. The amount will depend on the amount of organic matter that decomposed and fed the cycle - if high you could have high Nitrates. When I cycled my FW tank a year ago I used soil with a high organic component (as this is a planted tank) and as a result I had very high Nitrates (80+ ppm) that needed a lot of WCs to get under control. By comparison when I setup my SW tank 18 months ago I used very good quality LR with little dead or dying matter and cycled that in 2 weeks with Nitrates never climbing above 10 ppm.

Your Nitrites will drop naturally over time. Some bacteria in a bottle may speed that up, but as you are 3 weeks in already, probably not much if at all. Once you have no measurable Nitrites your (initial) cycle is complete and you can do WCs to get Nitrates to a level you are happy with.

As you add fish you may experience mini-cycles, particularly if you add a lot at once and overwhelm your bacteria colony. I suggest adding 1 or 2 fish at a time and you should have no cycle issues.

^^ I just want to say that this is an OUTSTANDING answer that every newbie should read.

 

[mcgyvr]

I think I may have. I used a shrimp to cycle the tank and the ammonia was unreadable for a couple days cause it was so high.

So yes.. You just need to wait it out..
Typically letting ammonia get to 1ppm is more than sufficient to start a cycle..
After that all you end up doing is causing longer cycle times and have more nitrate to deal with post cycle..

It wouldn't hurt to start doing water changes now to keep dropping nitrates and help with the nitrites..