tjm9331
New member
Hello everyone,
I'm starting up a 75 gallon fowlr I currently have 60lbs of pukani rock, 80lbs of caribsea seaflor blend, a maxspect 150 gyre and a Reef Octopus 2000 skimmer.
I started my fishless cycle on June 4th by adding Dr. Tim's One and Only (enough to treat 120 gallons) shut off my skimmer per the instructions and then added enough ACE hardware ammonia to achieve 2ppm ammonia on my Red Sea test kit.
I left my skimmer off for 48 hours and tested my ammonia and it was still around 2ppm so I didn't add any ammonia at this time and turned my skimmer back on.
on June 7th I tested again and saw that the ammonia had dropped from 2ppm to around 0.5ppm so I added ammonia to bring it back up to 2ppm
on June 9th I tested again and ammonia was down to 0ppm and nitrite was around 0.2ppm so I added ammonia to bring the level back up to 2ppm
After this I stopped dosing ammonia for a few days and I tested again on June 12th and ammonia was at 0ppm and nitrite was now around 1ppm. I dosed ammonia again to achieve 2ppm and within 24 hours the ammonia was back down to 0 but now nitrites were higher around 2ppm so I dosed ammonia again to bring it back to 2ppm and left it alone for another couple of days.
On June 15th I tested and ammonia was at 0ppm as expected but now nitrites were around 5ppm, I did not dose ammonia but instead just dropped a pinch of flake food in the tank to keep the ammonia converting bacteria happy.
Currently now on June 21st my nitrites are still high I'm guessing still around 5ppm (its hard to tell with the red sea kit only going to 1ppm, I diluted my sample 1:5 and am getting 1ppm so that's why I'm guessing 5ppm total nitrite)
My question is should I stay the course and just continue dropping flakes in the tank every few days or so and wait for the nitrites to come down or should I perform a massive water change to bring the nitrites back to near 0?
I've done some research and have read some conflicting opinions some say stay the course while others say change the water. I know that the bacteria that converts nitrite to nitrate grows slower than the bacteria that converts ammonia and that's why I'm leaning towards just staying the course but I'd like to get the opinion of the experts if possible.
Thank you in advance for you help and sorry for the long write up.
I'm starting up a 75 gallon fowlr I currently have 60lbs of pukani rock, 80lbs of caribsea seaflor blend, a maxspect 150 gyre and a Reef Octopus 2000 skimmer.
I started my fishless cycle on June 4th by adding Dr. Tim's One and Only (enough to treat 120 gallons) shut off my skimmer per the instructions and then added enough ACE hardware ammonia to achieve 2ppm ammonia on my Red Sea test kit.
I left my skimmer off for 48 hours and tested my ammonia and it was still around 2ppm so I didn't add any ammonia at this time and turned my skimmer back on.
on June 7th I tested again and saw that the ammonia had dropped from 2ppm to around 0.5ppm so I added ammonia to bring it back up to 2ppm
on June 9th I tested again and ammonia was down to 0ppm and nitrite was around 0.2ppm so I added ammonia to bring the level back up to 2ppm
After this I stopped dosing ammonia for a few days and I tested again on June 12th and ammonia was at 0ppm and nitrite was now around 1ppm. I dosed ammonia again to achieve 2ppm and within 24 hours the ammonia was back down to 0 but now nitrites were higher around 2ppm so I dosed ammonia again to bring it back to 2ppm and left it alone for another couple of days.
On June 15th I tested and ammonia was at 0ppm as expected but now nitrites were around 5ppm, I did not dose ammonia but instead just dropped a pinch of flake food in the tank to keep the ammonia converting bacteria happy.
Currently now on June 21st my nitrites are still high I'm guessing still around 5ppm (its hard to tell with the red sea kit only going to 1ppm, I diluted my sample 1:5 and am getting 1ppm so that's why I'm guessing 5ppm total nitrite)
My question is should I stay the course and just continue dropping flakes in the tank every few days or so and wait for the nitrites to come down or should I perform a massive water change to bring the nitrites back to near 0?
I've done some research and have read some conflicting opinions some say stay the course while others say change the water. I know that the bacteria that converts nitrite to nitrate grows slower than the bacteria that converts ammonia and that's why I'm leaning towards just staying the course but I'd like to get the opinion of the experts if possible.
Thank you in advance for you help and sorry for the long write up.
