Not sure where to next....NH3 - 0, NO2 - 0, NO3 >100ppm

[Punchanello]

Hi all,

looking for some assistance, please.

I have been cycling my 700 litre system for just over a month now. I used what I was told was cured, dead, formerly live rock. In any case I wasn't in a rush so was happy to let it cure in tank. I decided to put it straight in my tank and added a prawn which I removed as soon as I got an ammonia spike. I had a bloom of powdery algae just over a week ago. Where I've scraped it off the glass it hasn't grown back. I didn't add any other bacteria product. No livestock. Skimmer arriving in a week.

I've done a 50 percent water change over the past week and I'm still reading >100 ppm Nitrates.

I assume I need to keep doing water changes for the curing process to continue? Is there anything else I could be doing to lower nitrates? I'd like to do a 100% water change but that would require pumps and containers I just don't have yet and would mean the rock will be dry significantly longer than I am comfortable with (I assume it could cause a bacterial die off). For now I'm limited to removing and replacing about 100 litres at a time.

Should I just continue doing 100 litre water changes or will the algae just consume the nitrates over time? Is there anything else I could be doing to reduce them?

 

[qoeletd]

No water changes during cycling,
I would not have changed the water, I would have done nothing, just clean the glass. When the skimmer arrives, put it, then, hands in your pocket until the nitrates go down ^_^



Inviato dal mio iPhone utilizzando Tapatalk

 

[mcgyvr]

There is nothing wrong with water changes during cycling.. I most certainly would recommend them as nitrate levels start to get really elevated like you seem to have..

Out of curiosity did you use "live sand"?
I'm a little skeptical that you would have had such elevated nitrates if you started with clean/dry rock and sand and just added a single prawn..

How high did ammonia get?

Do you have the ability to get a second opinion on that nitrate reading? Local fish store test it for you?

Thats quite a lot of water and either we are missing a huge source of ammonia here or your test kit is faulty or something..

Have you tried testing freshly mixed saltwater to see what you get there?

 

[Anemone]

I agree with mcgyvr that something is off. My thought is you got formerly live rock that wasn't cured - in other words, live rock that was taken out of a tank and dried, with a lot of dead organics inside. I'd get the skimmer installed and continue doing large water changes. If you have a sump, you could provide some lighting and put some macro algae in the sump and harvest that regularly to help export nitrate as well.

Good luck,
Kevin

 

[Punchanello]

Thanks for your feedback all. I didn't use live sand but I was intending to add some shortly.

Mcgyvr and Anemone, I think you are right. I don't believe all the rock was cured. I noticed when I got that first powdery algae bloom that it coated some pieces of rock completely and almost overnight while others were bone white for days after. The explanation for that I think is that some rock was cured but not all of it. I cracked a left over piece with a hammer and screwdriver and it was literally black with what I assume was decomposed, dry organic matter.

This is probably the source of the nitrates. I will test the salifert nitrate test kit on some mixed salt water tonight though just to be sure.

I've left my lights on because I assumed if the rock was oozing nitrates some algae consuming it wouldn't be a bad thing. Since I'm not worried about the aesthetics at this point, can I drop a lump of chaeto in the DT or is it best in the sump?

I'll also upgrade my water change capacity this weekend and start doing some larger changes.

Anything else?

 

[Punchanello]

Update: Tested my Salifert Nitrate kit on newly mixed water. It read 0 Nitrates so I've ruled the test kit out and accept it's nitrates leaching from the rock. I'm guessing I could be looking at 1-2 months here?

Should I treat it as I would curing rock in a bin? a couple of 100% water changes and time?