Could you help me out. I have been doing tests on my tank from 24/3 and its all been going well but my nitrate is stuck a 20 ppm for over 2 weeks now. I have some black sponge filter in the back of the tank should I remove this could it be the problem? I also have some sort of sponge or something on my live rock and its braking up could this be the prob? or will it just take more time to cycle.
Hi nitrate for about 2 weeks!
- Thread starter johnnymac
- Start date
If it's still cycling, it's normal. I'd just keep monitoring.
As for water changes, it depends on your theory for cycling. Some believe that it's best to just let it stew as is to get the bacteria going. Others think that it's best to preserve any existing life in/on the live rocks and will encourage water changes, use of protein skimmers, etc.
I'm personally in the "preserve life" group, so I'd clean the filter sponge, do water changes, and add a skimmer if you don't have one. You could also get a brush and clean off the sponge thing dying on the rock to speed up the process.
btw, 20 ppm isn't bad at all. My tank went north of 50ppm for months and I was doing frequent water changes.
As for water changes, it depends on your theory for cycling. Some believe that it's best to just let it stew as is to get the bacteria going. Others think that it's best to preserve any existing life in/on the live rocks and will encourage water changes, use of protein skimmers, etc.
I'm personally in the "preserve life" group, so I'd clean the filter sponge, do water changes, and add a skimmer if you don't have one. You could also get a brush and clean off the sponge thing dying on the rock to speed up the process.
btw, 20 ppm isn't bad at all. My tank went north of 50ppm for months and I was doing frequent water changes.
Denitrifying bacteria which only does it's job in an anaerobic (oxygen starved) environment such as in deep sand beds and the crevices of live rocks. Because this bacteria is anaerobic, it takes much longer to ramp then the nitrifying bacteria that will convert ammonia -> nitrites -> nitrates, so you should see nitrates rise and then eventually fall back to zero.
Even with about 80#'s of live rock, my tank stubbornly refused to process nitrates. I read a few threads of people that did everything right, but still couldn't get the nitrates under control. I formed a hypothesis that they (and me) didn't have the right bacteria in their tank. I added seachem's stability which is a starter for new tanks, and my tank magically went to zero nitrates about a month later. (Okay, that and I removed filter media like bio balls, sponges, etc. I did add a filter back in later, but I clean it regularly now.)
