cycle

[Jwfish13]

Hello everyone, I just purchased a redsea max-E260 reef tank, I have started my cycle its been going a few weeks now, the cycle is moving along nicely so far. My question is my nitrates have been right around 20 ppm for the last few tests. is this normal or should they be moving up more?

other params are ammonia at 0 redosed to 2ppm and it dropped to 0 in a day and a half, nitrites are still off the chart.

what should I do, a water change or just leave it be and continue to wait?

 

[thegrun]

A few things:
Stop dosing ammonia, doing so will only add the your nitrates at the end of the cycle. There is a lot of false information floating around regarding the need to feed the bacteria. The bacteria has been proven to live over a year without food (ammonia), so there is no need to feed.
You will not get accurate nitrate test results when you have nitrite present, so don't worry about your results although you should be glad if they are only at 20ppm.
Nitrites are off the charts because you double dosed the ammonia, you should dilute the test sample 50% with RO/DI water or distilled water and find out how high they really are. Nitrites over 8ppm have been known to slow down your cycle, so if yours are over 8ppm I would make a 50% water change to reduce them.

 

[Jwfish13]

alright will do, thanks

 

[thegrun]

PS, welcome to Reef Central! Where are my manners?

 

[Jwfish13]

lol thanks, I'm just a little overwhelmed right now lol I have wanted a marine tank since I was a kid and finally am able to get it, I want to do things right... I have been researching and getting advice from various forums ... thanks again for the help, I'm currently waiting the 9 mins for the test and I will post with the results

 

[Jwfish13]

ok nitrite results 50% diluted are nearly .5 ppm so that means its at 1ppm correct? sorry I'm so noobish

 

[jlmawp]

ok nitrite results 50% diluted are nearly .5 ppm so that means its at 1ppm correct? sorry I'm so noobish

Don't drive yourself crazy with the levels. The target is 0 for nitrite, so just try every couple days until that happens. If you are looking for something to occupy your mind, you can start planning your clean up crew Once you hit 0 nitrite, plop them in there.

 

[Jwfish13]

nice, I have been planning them but I have heard conflicting info about how much to add... I have a 69 gallon with a rear sump.. not sure how many of what I can add.

I want hermits and emeralds for sure also want a star and some shrimp. Can anyone help with numbers?

 

[bat21]

I have a 65 gallon, and my cleanup crew is this: A skunk cleaner, a peppermint shrimp, and a fire shrimp. About 10 turbo snails, 10 trochus snails, half dozen nessarius snails, about a dozen hermit crabs, mostly blue leg, with a few scarlets.

My advice if you want hermits, is to only buy scarlet hermits because they will not kill your snails. Definitely do not got as much as I have, I grew my crew over 18 months, and I have a heavily stocked tank with no skimmer. So start slow, you can always get more. A good start would be:

A pair of cleaner shrimp
6 regular snails, I prefer trochus and turbo, but there are lots of options
4-6 nessarius snails
10 hermits

I would wait on any stars or big crabs (I don't like the bigger crabs at all honestly)

That should get you started. The shrimp will entertain you and go nuts on any food you put into the tank.

 

[ziggy2]

I had to get rid of my Hermit. For not being a danger to coral, this one cost me a fortune before I finally said enough is enough.

 

[Jwfish13]

with the snails, I have a rimless tank, will the snails crawl out?

 

[Jwfish13]

I had to get rid of my Hermit. For not being a danger to coral, this one cost me a fortune before I finally said enough is enough.

hermits were eating your coral?

 

[jlmawp]

with the snails, I have a rimless tank, will the snails crawl out?

Sometimes they'll go a bit above the water line, but they never venture further than that.

 

[Jwfish13]

alright cool, I will start to plan out my crew

 

[bat21]

Do NOT get nerite snails with a rimless. I've had some and they spent more time out of the water than in