I know I'm new to the hobby but we have done everything everyone has told us to do but our nitrites are off the chart. This has been going on for over 3 months and now our nitrates are off the chart as well. We have bought and tried everything that we were told to do and still this tank is stuck in this cycle. Our tank is a 58gl tower and we have plenty of live rock and the algae is growing properly. The first cycle we went through was ammonia (what I was told and read is correct) then we were to impatient and got fish ( I know a dumb idea but we are rookies) then the nitrites went throughout the roof so we had to do water changes almost every day for a while to keep our fish alive then some died and we had my cousin take the rest for now. Now its been well over a month since he's had our fish and we were told to stop the water changes and let the tank cycle so we have and still the nitrites and nitrates are off the chart. We have added everything we could and done everything we were told and still no change. We have done nothing but throw money at it and bought everything we could and nothing is even making dent. So if anyone has any ideas PLEASE let me know. Thanks
Nitrite prob help!
- Thread starter Bump87
- Start date
Blitzie
CTARS Member
Hello and welcome to the CTARS area of RC
Tell us a little about your system
How Did your Cycle
Do you have live Rock
Are you using RODI Water
Do you have a sump
If Nitrates are truly high do you have an algae problem, if so are you using a chemical fix or something.
Were are you located.
Tell us a little about your system
How Did your Cycle
Do you have live Rock
Are you using RODI Water
Do you have a sump
If Nitrates are truly high do you have an algae problem, if so are you using a chemical fix or something.
Were are you located.
suicideissleep
Active member
Any sponges? Skimmer? Size of tank? What fish store do you go to? 
welcome
welcome
BubbaBoBobBrain
New member
Ive been trying to help them along but am also kinda baffled by the nitrite issue. They have that red sea skimmer you got for me Ron. Its a very tall 58 gallon tower tank and they have about 40-45 pounds of live and dry rock. The only thing I can think of is that by jumping the gun on fish and doing daily water changes to keep everything alive it screwed up the cycle and just cant seem to get back on track. I am currently housing the rest of their fish until the cycle is complete but cant seem to think of anything useful to help them out with the cycle so if anyone has any info that can help It would be appreciated
Standard advice is to let the tank sit and do nothing.
I think if the tank gets too toxic it's OK to help. If the initial die-off is too great the equilibrium will be hard to reach.
Since you're not opposed to spending a little bit of money here is what I would do.
1) Do as large a water change as possible. Target 50 - 75% if possible. Siphon off as much dead material as possible, look for dead sponges.
2) Immediately after the WC dose Amquel Plus per the label for the total water volume. Little too much is better than too little. Turn off skimmer if label tells you to.
3) Next morning, dose two vials of Prodibio Bio-Digest. (Turn off skimmer for 24hrs if you have one)
4) Do nothing for 10 days. Really nothing more than top-offs of fresh water.
5) Test Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, Salinity and PH and post all values here. Also verify that your temperature is where you think it is.
The amquel plus won't stop the cycle, but will reduce it's toxicity. The water change will restart the cycle a little bit, but that should allow the new bacteria a chance. Then you have to let nature work.
Just my two cents.
I think if the tank gets too toxic it's OK to help. If the initial die-off is too great the equilibrium will be hard to reach.
Since you're not opposed to spending a little bit of money here is what I would do.
1) Do as large a water change as possible. Target 50 - 75% if possible. Siphon off as much dead material as possible, look for dead sponges.
2) Immediately after the WC dose Amquel Plus per the label for the total water volume. Little too much is better than too little. Turn off skimmer if label tells you to.
3) Next morning, dose two vials of Prodibio Bio-Digest. (Turn off skimmer for 24hrs if you have one)
4) Do nothing for 10 days. Really nothing more than top-offs of fresh water.
5) Test Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, Salinity and PH and post all values here. Also verify that your temperature is where you think it is.
The amquel plus won't stop the cycle, but will reduce it's toxicity. The water change will restart the cycle a little bit, but that should allow the new bacteria a chance. Then you have to let nature work.
Just my two cents.
My boyfriend will be able to give you the exact names of all the equipment we have but we are putting in a large refugium on sat and our canister filler does more the triple our gallons we also have a red sea skimmer ( it s set up correctly) and a power head fan. we have well over 40lbs of rock in the tank which we bought at Krystal Klear fish store. It can't be the fish cause they were doing great until one night we lost half of them on a rookie mistake but bob is housing our other ones and they are very healthy. All we have in the tank now is crabs, snails, polyps, and leather and a hammer. and they all are very healthy and happy. Like i said b4 we were doing water changes on a daly basics to keep the fish alive but the tank didn't kill them I did I made a mistake with the salt and thats what killed them. I have 2 Gobies (dead) 1 porcupine puff (dead), 4 damsels (only 1 is still alive) 3 clowns ( all 3 are alive) and pistol shrimp (dead) and a peppermint shrimp (alive) I will completely admit that we should have waited until the tank had cycled b4 adding fish we are well aware now cause i feel really bad about my fish especially the puffer he was awesome. we ordered the same light as bobs tanks but I'm not sure what kind we have now but its a half way decent one my bf would be able to tell you the make of it. We really have tried to do everything possible but everyone is stumped because we should be done with this by now. I do know the origins of our live rock is from fiji so idl if that makes a difference. We don't have an excess of algae in fact the algae is doing great and plenty of color. As for clericals we use anything bob tells us to and once again my bf would be able to better tell u cause we really try hard to have only 1 person medicate the tank so we don't both over do it. I will have him post as soon as he gets home tonight. We did buy 1 rock covered in purple caroline algae from a stone i think it was Ned's fish shake and its a beautiful rock but idk if that makes a difference or not. I feed the tank 1time every 4-5 days and a very tiny bit since we have no fish. other then that idk of anything else that could be causing this to continue lie this. We don't have a PH problem (right where its supposed to be) or an Ammonia prob. SO any other hints would be great. And like i said I will have my bf post under me so he can fill you in on the parts I've missed.
Trump
New member
Could it be the canister filter? I know that I had a problem with my hot magnum once that seemed to decimate my tank. I Am just adding to the possibilities not saying its the problem exactly. I would not do water changes, and give the canister a quick clean. Dump it wash it out with some fresh RO/di if you can set it just on a closed cycle with a 5gal bucket or something. My 2 cents and they might be canadian
The only thing that could be wrong is the speed you guys are going and all the things you're doing to speed up the process may be making the situation worse.
Just my theory, but time will allow your system go into equilibrium... but if you add "this", it'll swing the system one way, then you try "that" and it goes another... And so on and so forth...
The very first time a new tank is setup, it can take a month or more to cycle depending of the flora/fauna in th live rock/sand.
I say slow it down and test your patience...
Just my theory, but time will allow your system go into equilibrium... but if you add "this", it'll swing the system one way, then you try "that" and it goes another... And so on and so forth...
The very first time a new tank is setup, it can take a month or more to cycle depending of the flora/fauna in th live rock/sand.
I say slow it down and test your patience...
the tank is now about 4 months old and the nitrites have been through the roof for 3 of thought months. I'm not what you would call a patient person lol but were trying but everyone said the tank should be fine now. I do believe my bf put some bacteria additives but I'm not sure which ones. We are on different shifts right now so its hard to keep up to date on what he adds lol. The reason were getting a refugium is so we can get ride of the canister filter. But we do clean it out on a regular basses so Im not sure where were going wrong. We did put the fish in WAY to early and i know that a sign that we are rookies lol but thats a mistake we won't do again! EVER! I will try to post a few pics of the tank if that would help anyone out so they can fully understand what we have. Thanks for all your help it is greatly appreciated.
suicideissleep
Active member
Try vodka also maybe the rocks leaching stuff out or somthing else is I don't do a water change on a new tank till it is stable so the bacteria has a chance to grow
4 months is on the long side, but there's many things that can cause it to go on for so long... Following the nitrogen cycle of waste -> ammonia -> nitrite -> nitrate -> free nitrogen... and then being stuck at high nitrite level, indicates that the bacteria colonies needed to convert nitrites to nitrates are not at a high enough level... not doing a water change is a good idea, let the bacteria grow for now... do changes later...
Having a canister filter may build up nitrite to nitrate bacteria but once you clean it or remove it all together, then the remaining tank may go out of equilibrium again as the bacteria was in the canister. So getting the fuge is a good idea...
I think the tried and test method right now is LR/LS and Fuge with skimmer at minimum. Just use these 3 things and wait! Once it's stable.. and IT WILL get stable, then you can look to playing with other technologies like bio-reactors, sulfur reactors, algae scrubbers, etc.. Who knows, you may develop a method that makes the LS/LR technique outdated!
Having a canister filter may build up nitrite to nitrate bacteria but once you clean it or remove it all together, then the remaining tank may go out of equilibrium again as the bacteria was in the canister. So getting the fuge is a good idea...
I think the tried and test method right now is LR/LS and Fuge with skimmer at minimum. Just use these 3 things and wait! Once it's stable.. and IT WILL get stable, then you can look to playing with other technologies like bio-reactors, sulfur reactors, algae scrubbers, etc.. Who knows, you may develop a method that makes the LS/LR technique outdated!
I am happy to say that the NITRITES are finally down to 0 and nitrates are 20ppm. we have 2inch of live sand on the bottom of our tank and and we have several different testing kits. Our fuge is getting set up tomorrow and if in a week all the levels are safe then maybe we can get our fish back!! Hurray Thanks for all your help I'm sure we will need all your help in the future Thanks so much
