We all start somewhere... right?

Tested the water again today (Wednesday) and it is the same as it was Monday. I have not fed the tank sine Monday. I will be shooting to do a 25-30% water change this coming weekend in hopes to dilute the high nitrite levels. I was reading up and found that high nitrites aren't toxic to marine fish. Is this true?
 
@heathlinder -

The marine aquarium hobby is replete with commentary about nitrite, some of which is, unfortunately, incorrect or misleading. Its toxicity in marine systems is far lower than in freshwater systems. Nevertheless, many aquarists incorrectly extrapolate this toxicity to reef aquariums and suggest that any measurable amount of nitrite is a concern.

In reality, nitrite probably is not toxic enough to warrant measuring in most marine systems.
Click to expand...
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-06/rhf/index.php

ETA: lol is there an echo in here? :)
 
Also, ive began to notice brown "dirt" on top of the sand. Is this because I've only got 2 600gph circulation pumps, and am not keeping the junk in the water floating long enough to get out? There is some crud in thr sump and some accumulated grime on the return pump intake as well.

I plan on, in the next couple weeks, ordering another circulation pump with a 1150gph rating, to add to the left side of the tank. Someone earlier reccomended 3500gph total, and this will give me 3350gph which is pretty close. (1200gph return pump, 2 600gph circulation pumps, and 1 1150gph circulation pump)
 
It is most likely diatoms, natural for a new tank. Keep your nitrates and phoaphates low and they will go away in time.
 
shifty51008 said:
It is most likely diatoms, natural for a new tank. Keep your nitrates and phoaphates low and they will go away in time.
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Nitrites are currently off the charts, and the ammonia is low but not perfect. Nitrates are at like 10ppm and the ph is 8.0. My test kit (Lame API carried by every LFS in my area) only does PH, Ammonia, Nitrites, and Nitrates.
 
heathlindner25 said:
Completely untrue,Nitrite is chemically similar to ammonia, a bit milder.
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Can you support this contention? I'm always looking for new research, I haven't seen any that'd lead to that conclusion.

Re: "probably" you'd have to ask RHF why he wrote it. I can think of a few reasons but it's kind of tangential to the point.
 
CStrickland said:
Can you support this contention? I'm always looking for new research, I haven't seen any that'd lead to that conclusion.

Re: "probably" you'd have to ask RHF why he wrote it. I can think of a few reasons but it's kind of tangential to the point.
Click to expand...

Only my experience from working in a fish store for years,managing many systems for clients,and testing hundreds of water samples when dead fish are involved,it's never a good scenario to add fish before the cycle is complete. Whether it be,ammonium low - nitrite high, or whatever. Animals suffer when you introduce them into an uncycled tank.
 
heathlindner25 said:
Only my experience from working in a fish store for years,managing many systems for clients,and testing hundreds of water samples when dead fish are involved,it's never a good scenario to add fish before the cycle is complete. Whether it be,ammonium low - nitrite high, or whatever. Animals suffer when you introduce them into an uncycled tank.
Click to expand...

The nitrites are not the cause of the fish dying, the nitrites showing up on the test means there was ammonia and thats the reason the fish died
 
yup. or the dead fish produced nitrites.
No one is arguing it's a good idea to add fish before the cycle, but you shouldn't spread false info to scare people from doing it either. I get mixed up too, I think I was mentioned nitrites earlier as a reason to wait until the cycles done. Also, idk about inverts, some cleaners are picky about nitrates and they might not tolerate nitrites. Then if they die you have more ammonia etc. etc.

@OP I linked to a product that buffers ammonia in post 63, might've got buried in this little tangent. A few drops of Prime will help your fish (not as much as taking them out would :p ) deal with the ammonia.
 
I will look into the product, thanks for the suggestion. The fish are looking and acting completely healthy. They are swimming all over the place and have finally stopped trying to attack eachother. I'm not sure if it was the emergency rock removal/re-stack from the other night or what. The clown will come to the glass and follow my finger when I'm near it.

Cleaning the sump will be easy. I want to alter some plumbing and there's nothing crowding the sump just yet.

The 2 fish that died, weren't dead for more than 2 hours. I had spot checked them all night due to the known fact of uncertain death. The second one died when I started pulling the rock out, I feel like I stressed him.
 
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