first marine tank

[ryan1991]

Hi I set up my first marine tank on the 15/5/16 a marine Kent 94l have 16kg of live rock on display and another 2kg in the back sump with filter floss carbon and phosphate remover all levels look good and have been coming down gradually apart from ammonia which has been 0.15 for the last 5 days is this normal and will go down when its ready to or should I do a water change on the tank not sure what to do for the best thanks

 

[Capt.Nemo]

Not yet
Everything will go through and spike
Amonia
Nitrites
Nitrates
Then go for the water change.
After they spike, they will drop to zero, except Nitrates. Then change some water. Amount will depend on who you ask. I did about 30%.
You could be quarantining some fish right now though. That way when tank is ready, they will be too.
Welcome to the addiction.

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[GimpyFin]

How are you cycling the tank? When your tank has finished the cycle, you should see no ammonia or nitrite, but you should start to see nitrate rise. I'd do a water change after that.

 

[ryan1991]

ammonia

ammonia

Thank you for the reply think it has already cycled and is just finishing as on the 19th.nitrite was 0.1 nitrate was 50 and ammonia was 0.5 then on the 21st nitrite 0 nitrate 17.5 and ammonia 0.15 then today nitrite 0 nitrate 10 but ammonia is still 0.15 so every thing is gradually coming down apart from ammonia which I found weird so thought I uwould ask if I should do a water change or leave it alone for now thanks

 

[Capt.Nemo]

Seems odd to me your numbers are like that, but I am not the expert.
I am only offering my experience which is each number will rise and fall one right after the other. When mine fell, the went to zero. I guess there could be difference in the brand of test your using. Maybe yours is reading more specific than mine.
Amonia and Nitrites are the stressed and killed of fish though. They can tolerate some Nitrates.

It's a marathon not a sprint.

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[stupidted]

Your tank will be cycled once ammonia and nitrites have come down to zero. Nitrates will continue to rise until you manually remove them through water changes or other means. I'd let it cycle a little longer and just keep testing ammonia till you see it disappear then test nitrites and they should be pretty much gone that's when you test nitrates and do water changes accordingly.


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[dana_ag]

your tank is still cycling if you started on 5/15 .. it can generally take 4 to 6 weeks. If the ammonia and nitrite are zero and there's some nitrate then it's ready for a water change.