I don't think mcgyver was implying a deliberate omission of information, but I do understand his concerns over your nitrite test results; it would be pretty much unheard of to have nitrites that high after three months. When you initially set up the tank did you add anything to the tank as an ammonia source like fish food, a dead raw shrimp or pure ammonia? If not it's possible that you never really had a cycle and are just now starting your cycle with the addition of the clownfish.
New Tank Members
- Thread starter jreefer87
- Start date
hkgar
Active member
He mentioned in a post that he added grocery store shrimp to start cycle.
What i don't know, and may have missed, did the OP ever have a zero reading for ammonia before adding the clowns?
You don't actually want to prevent phosphate; its required for some corals to grow and be healthy. The issue comes once its large.
A general rule of thumb that is nice to follow is don't dose/change/effect anything you can't measure. If you don't know where your phosphates are don't try to treat high phosphates unless you have good reason to suspect your phosphates are unnaturally high. In a three month old tank I'd be surprised unless you have it leaching from your rock.
As for an ammonia neutralizer.... It is good in a pinch, but I would not want to use it in the tank. You don't want to have to treat ammonia, you want the tank to handle it through its bacterial cultures all on its own!
Thank you for your feedback. And I totally get it. I did use the shimp method for about a month. When I went to my LFS to ask more questions, I told him what I had going on and he gave me something called "Cycle" by Fluval and told me to come back in about a month. Went back and my ammonia levels were in fact 0, but I had questions because after 2 months I still had high nitrates and nitrates even after 25% water changes every day. That's when he told me that I would "never get them to 0, its a myth and something people say and what you read online" - and prompted me to get 2 clowns. I got the clowns and for about a month they have been good, eating and swimming freely...but my nitrites and nitrates are still high, and diatoms are all over the place. I removed the GFO, and all of my other parameters are fine. I didn't want to "torture" the fish because of the high levels, but am not sure what to do at this point to get them down. Thanks again for all of your advice.
So after checking on things this morning; ammonia still at 0 and nitrates are at 40ppm and nitrites are at about 3.0ppm. I am starting to see a little hair algae on the glass in addition to the diatoms that is taking over the rock. It does seem like (from all that I've read) the cycling of the tank is coming to a "close" - would that be an accurate assumption? Even though it's taken a little longer than most tanks.
BeachVacationer
New member
Can you post a picture of your tank and filtration system? I'd like to see what type of rock you have. I like to say cycling is completed when ammonia and nitrite ate zero and nitrate is well below 40. The denitrifying bacteria deeper in the rock should be reducing your nitrate. Looks like you need more time to colonize enough of those bacteria. Have you tested your RODI water with the same kit? Also test a fresh batch of salt water just to see what that measures. And don't overfeed.
Thanks for the info. After some time and testing everything is down to 0 that needs to be 0. Still have a diatom issue but I just got my RODI unit so hopefully doing a large water change will start to help with that and I can stop using a Prime and Tap Water, and maybe looking into a few more snails etc. to add to my CUC.
