Still cycling Nitrates are 100

[IBroughtPopcorn]

I am setting up a 220 tank. My Ammonia was at 4 ppm for the last two days and today it is 1. My nitrates read 100 in with a salifert test kit. Should I do a water change now? If not when should I? I cant find a definitive answer in the forums.

 

[Raintree]

your nitrates are at 100 ppm?? i think you should test your water with another kit just to verify that.

can you detail everything you've done so far to set up and cycle the tank, including what rock you're using?

 

[IBroughtPopcorn]

My salifert and the LFS tested, got the same readings.

 

[Ou8me2]

I would not do a water change till the cycle is complete. You mention ammonia and nitrates but nothing about nitrites. Slow down and let the cycle complete would be my advice. Ammonia goes to Nitrites then to Nitrates and once Ammonia and Nitrites are at zero you can do a 50% water change to help bring the nitrates down hopefully.

 

[IBroughtPopcorn]

Thank You. When I took my water sample to the LFS, they nitrite reading was 4 ppm. That was two days ago. Their test results where very different then mine. I didn't think that the test kits actually expire, but both my ammonia and nitrite where nearly zero on my tests. So instead of selling me a complete kit, they told me to buy a new ammonia kit and when it gets down to zero bring in some water and they would check my parameters. They where saving me money, shocker right? So when I got home I tested with the new ammonia kit and it was indeed 4 ppm just like theirs.

My concern is the Extremely high Nitrates.

 

[JUNBUG361]

How long has the tank cycling(1 to 2 weeks)?

 

[JUNBUG361]

Are you using any chemical additives to speed up the cycle(ammonia) to much will increase the nitrate

 

[IBroughtPopcorn]

Are you using any chemical additives to speed up the cycle(ammonia) to much will increase the nitrate

Yes, I used startsmart Complete by ATI. I read many great reviews on RC and other forums. However instead of putting a fish in with it I used enough ammonia chloride to bring the ammonia to 4 ppm and that threshold was achieved. I added the additives almost 2 weeks ago.

 

[Flagg37]

I usually dose ammonia chloride to get the tank to 2 ppm. 4 is unnecessarily high imo. Like others have mentioned, patience is key for cycling. There are cases where a cycle will stall if there is too much nitrate. If you go another week with no changes in your parameters you can try doing a partial water change to bring the nitrates down. 100 isn't unreasonably high though. I remember my nitrates getting up around 80 before the nitrites started to go down.

 

[sde1500]

4 ppm is way too high. But that's in the past obviously. A decent water change at this point wouldn't really hurt. But nitrites tend to screw with nitrate tests. No reason to test nitrates until you're at least at 0 ammonia

 

[IBroughtPopcorn]

Thanks everyone for your help. I am buying a new kit for nitrite tomorrow. I didn't plan on doing anything until the ammonia is at 0. I was mainly concerned about the extremely high nitrates. I am not above saying that I have spent the last year and a half researching and learning as much as possible and I still don't know much. And what I do know, I don't know if it's right. So I guess I really don't know anything at all.


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[thegrun]

Be aware that since your tank is still cycling and there is almost certainly nitrites present you are not going to get an accurate nitrate reading since the nitrites distort your nitrate readings. I would wait on the water change, while I agree that a 2ppm ammonia cycle is about the prefect number to hit, a 4ppm ammonia level is not going to significantly lengthen the cycle duration. Levels of ammonia at 8 or higher will stall a cycle, but your tank will be fine at 4ppm. Wait for the cycle to finish before you make a water change, but I suspect you will want to make a large water change (50-100% depending on your final nitrate levels) once the cycle is complete.

 

[IBroughtPopcorn]

Be aware that since your tank is still cycling and there is almost certainly nitrites present you are not going to get an accurate nitrate reading since the nitrites distort your nitrate readings. I would wait on the water change, while I agree that a 2ppm ammonia cycle is about the prefect number to hit, a 4ppm ammonia level is not going to significantly lengthen the cycle duration. Levels of ammonia at 8 or higher will stall a cycle, but your tank will be fine at 4ppm. Wait for the cycle to finish before you make a water change, but I suspect you will want to make a large water change (50-100% depending on your final nitrate levels) once the cycle is complete.

Thank you very much for your informative reply. I don't have the ability to do a 100% change at one time. I only have 2 55g containers and 1 30g container. It will be close to 50%. I am not sure if just adding RODI water to the tank and then adding salt would be bad for the live bacteria, so I think my only option is to do one or two 50% changes.


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[mcgyvr]

IMO.. Do one 50% change now..
After the cycle is complete (ammonia and nitrites = 0) then work on getting nitrates down more... (which is probably another 50% water change and more)..