Help me be patient!

[LJsInSC]

Here I am again wanting to do a water change again and having to sit on my hands not to do it. I have had my second shipment in the tank for 1 1/2 weeks now, I am finally at zero on my ammonia, my nitrites are sitting at .25 and my nitrate is 40. Should I do a water change to get the nitrites down or just let it go and level out on it own. Everything in the tank looks great and is doing well. I have not added my fish into the tank yet they are all still in my 20 gallon tank. Let me know your suggestions, I am not sure if I can acheive zero on nitrates or nitrites with TBS rock or can I ?

LJ

:eek1:

 

[hdtran]

Your nitrites will eventually go to zero. Don't sweat it.

I would put your tank on the periodic water change schedule now, e.g. 10% change every 2 weeks (or whatever you choose to do now).

I would not put fish in until the nitrites have gone to zero. Hang in there. 0.25ppm nitrite is only moderately toxic to fish, but you're better off waiting for the main tank to mature before you add your fish. The nitrites *WILL* drop to zero. As I said, don't sweat it. Just spend time staring at your beautiful rock!

Your nitrates are unlikely to drop to zero unless you have some means for denitrification (algae scrubber or refugium, DSB, Jaubert plenum, coil denitrator, etc.) I'm a practitioner of 2 of the above methods, and have undetectable nitrates.

40ppm nitrates is generally considered 'acceptable' in a FOwLR tank, but your periodic water change maintenance will reduce that level slowly.

For keeping corals, many folks advocate keeping nitrates below 10ppm (if not even lower).

Best,

 

[LJsInSC]

Your nitrites will eventually go to zero. Don't sweat it.

I would put your tank on the periodic water change schedule now, e.g. 10% change every 2 weeks (or whatever you choose to do now).


Thanks, that was my thought process since my ammonia was at zero and has been for a couple of days now. I just wanted to verify that it should not mess with the cycle process.

I will plan to do a water change tonight after work or tomorrow morning. I have had water with a bubbler in it and heater so when I was ready, I would really be ready! Thank you for you response.

I also purchased two books from your recommended authors. I am excited to receive them and do a little more studying.

LJ