0 Ammonia, 0 nitrites and 0 nitrates.

[3littlefishies]

Hi all! Super excited on this new journey but I’ve already made a few mistakes and I think I messed up.
Started my fish in cycle exactly a week ago with caribsea live rock, live sand, 2 clownfish and nutri seawater. I used Dr Tim’s one and only at the start but I’ve been running my filter the entire time. My filters jam packed with matrix and chemi pure blue. I didn’t realize I was supposed to leave out all the filter media. My ammonia, nitrites and nitrates have all consistently been zero. Do I need to start the process all over again with the return pump off and take the filter media out? Maybe just run the wave maker?
Please help

 

[Fish Fan]

Welcome to R2R!

I'm sure one of the more experienced members will advise you on how to proceed.

Good luck with your tank!

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Personally I don't agree with fish-in cycles, there is no need to put the fish through that.

But, they've been there since last week, so just keep going, the tank is likely cycled now, the matrix would be absorbing the nitrate.

 

[3littlefishies]

Personally I don't agree with fish-in cycles, there is no need to put the fish through that.

But, they've been there since last week, so just keep going, the tank is likely cycled now, the matrix would be absorbing the nitrate.

Thanks for replying. I wouldn’t do the fish in cycle again. I’ve grown attached to my 2 clowns and thankfully they seem happy. Definitely wanna take it slow

 

[SomeHappyFish]

My guess is since you didn't do a Fish less cycle and didn't dose ammonia it's the reason why you have 0 Ammonia, 0 nitrites and 0 nitrates. By going the fish in cycle with Dr Tim, the bacteria are already consuming/converting the ammonia into nitrite which then converts into Nitrate which is immediately consumed by your matrix. Two small clownish is not a heavy bio load for a 32G so it will take time for nitrates to raise, if you do have Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates it's very low and the test kit are not picking it up...

Continue feeding everyday and you will see the Nitrates going up eventually


Chemi pure blue might not of been needed but has Fish Fan said more experienced members could chime in.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I think you are trying to hard to rush the process. In my signature below is a link to a thread here called 'Minimalist Reefer' and it's a group of people here who have some beautiful tanks, but don't do all the crazy stuff those in the hobby are trying to sell us. I suspect you could get some help there. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/minimalist-reefer.1030960/

 

[3littlefishies]

My guess is since you didn't do a Fish less cycle and didn't dose ammonia it's the reason why you have 0 Ammonia, 0 nitrites and 0 nitrates. By going the fish in cycle with Dr Tim, the bacteria are already consuming/converting the ammonia into nitrite which then converts into Nitrate which is immediately consumed by your matrix. Two small clownish is not a heavy bio load for a 32G so it will take time for nitrates to raise, if you do have Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates it's very low and the test kit are not picking it up...

Continue feeding everyday and you will see the Nitrates going up eventually


Chemi pure blue might not of been needed but has Fish Fan said more experienced members could chime in.

Thanks for the advice. I ended up taking the media out completely and continued to feed lightly daily. According to the Seachem ammonia alert there was never any kind of ammonia spike but the API tests are super confusing.

 

[PotatoPig]

Thanks for the advice. I ended up taking the media out completely and continued to feed lightly daily. According to the Seachem ammonia alert there was never any kind of ammonia spike but the API tests are super confusing.

Looks like your ammonia is being converted to nitrites and your nitrites are being converted to nitrates. This is the cycle you’re aiming for.

Bacteria are very inefficient at removing nitrates from our tanks - the processes that do this are slow, and mostly (entirely?) anaerobic so require conditions that don’t really exist in many saltwater tanks. The only way to remove these in most cases is water changes, have something consume them (corals, algae, macroalgae) or by chemical filtration.

The good news is in saltwater they’re not toxic to fish at any level you’ll realistically reach without killing everything in the tank by some other means first.

If you have aquarium lights on the tank you’ll get algae that consumes these soon enough.

 

[SomeHappyFish]

Thanks for the advice. I ended up taking the media out completely and continued to feed lightly daily. According to the Seachem ammonia alert there was never any kind of ammonia spike but the API tests are super confusing.

Ammonia is a "unstable" parameters, you could test 1min after and get 0.

You are good.

Keep at it