3 weeks into cycling high nitrites

Jack684523

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This is was the first tank I ever put together. I honestly went to my local fish store and got all the info from them before doing much research which I’m wrong for lol. My lfs told me to buy dr Tim’s one and only use live sand and 10 pounds of live rock and a fish and he said to check my levels after 3 days. I did what he told me to do my nitrites and ammonia were at 0. He told me I was cycled and reccomended me to buy 4 snails and A gsp and frogspawn. 3 weeks in the gsp hasn’t opened in a week and half and started to open today randomly. and my nitrites and nitrates are sky high should I do a water change or take out the corals and snails.
 
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cracker

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Welcome Jack ! Ya, You started adding any livestock way too soon. I would think some water changes are in order & Please no more critters for the time being & get some more opinions before spending your $$ at this LFS.
 

Terry Pauley

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How big is your tank?
Are you over feeding ?
Did you clean live rock before adding?
What kind of filtration?

I would personally do 30% water change and add bio-spira / ai prime to get your levels down.
 
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Jack684523

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Welcome Jack ! Ya, You started adding any livestock way too soon. I would think some water changes are in order & Please no more critters for the time being & get some more opinions before spending your $$ at this LFS.
Iknow they led me in the wrong route .. I started doing research a little too late I realized I did everything wrong. 50 percent water change ? I have random copepods growing I’n here too. Some people are telling me to let it be and saying the nitrites will eventually go down on there own
 
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Jack684523

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How big is your tank?
Are you over feeding ?
Did you clean live rock before adding?
What kind of filtration?

I would personally do 30% water change and add bio-spira / ai prime to get your levels down.
10 gallon tank. The lfs told me not to feed anything I don’t drop anything in there I jus top off that’s what they told me to do.
No they told me to dump it right in
I have a aquaclear 70 refugium mod but they told me to keeep the chemipure elite and polyfilter out until the nitrites drop so it’s just the aquaclear right now
 

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Like terry above said. get some more Dr Tim's or another brand & do A water change 30 % sounds about right. Also keep testing the nitrites,if they get high do another water change. You have critters now so Nitrites should be kept lower but I think Some must be there for the cycle to complete. (I'm getting into stuff I'm not sure "chemistry" )
 
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Jack684523

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Like terry above said. get some more Dr Tim's or another brand & do A water change 30 % sounds about right. Also keep testing the nitrites,if they get high do another water change. You have critters now so Nitrites should be kept lower but I think Some must be there for the cycle to complete. (I'm getting into stuff I'm not sure "chemistry" )
2 water changes later nitrites still sky high wait to my lfs to test the water too and he got the same results. He didn’t rlly know what to do he seemed just as confused as me lol
 

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Your nitrites are high because the bacteria is processing the high levels of ammonia in your tank. The bacteria that process the nitrites into nitrates have to catch up. They dont grow as fast as ammonia to nitrite. Your nitrate test will be off because you have nitrites and the test sees those too.
You can add more bacteria in a bottle. Feed very little and try to use only frozen food . No pellets or flakes. Do water changes to keep the nitrite down to levels that will not harm the fish.
Add Prime to help detox the nitrite. This will slow down your bacterial growth. but its something you might have to do to save the fish.
 
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Jack684523

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Your nitrites are high because the bacteria is processing the high levels of ammonia in your tank. The bacteria that process the nitrites into nitrates have to catch up. They dont grow as fast as ammonia to nitrite. Your nitrate test will be off because you have nitrites and the test sees those too.
You can add more bacteria in a bottle. Feed very little and try to use only frozen food . No pellets or flakes. Do water changes to keep the nitrite down to levels that will not harm the fish.
Add Prime to help detox the nitrite. This will slow down your bacterial growth. but its something you might have to do to save the fish.
I don’t hav any fish I have 4 snails and a frogspawn and gsp. I’m almost4 weeks In. He gave me smartstart complete and told me to add some after the water change did another test same results
 

lapin

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So this is off the smart start website:
What effect should StartSmart have and when should those effects be seen? Any measurable ammonia levels should be gone within 24 hours and any measurable nitrites will be eliminated within 48 to 72 hours of dosing.
So if you had ammonia it will be gone. Do you know if you had ammonia to start with. Dead snail or???
So it is not getting rid of the nitrite. Perhaps the bottle was bad or it does not work as claimed. Or you and your LFS have bad test results. Prob not. Or somehow you are adding ammonia and nitrite into the tank.
One last thought. What kind of water did you use to fill your tank?
 
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Jack684523

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So this is off the smart start website:
What effect should StartSmart have and when should those effects be seen? Any measurable ammonia levels should be gone within 24 hours and any measurable nitrites will be eliminated within 48 to 72 hours of dosing.
So if you had ammonia it will be gone. Do you know if you had ammonia to start with. Dead snail or???
So it is not getting rid of the nitrite. Perhaps the bottle was bad or it does not work as claimed. Or you and your LFS have bad test results. Prob not. Or somehow you are adding ammonia and nitrite into the tank.
One last thought. What kind of water did you use to fill your tank?
I put it in about 4 hours ago after I did the water change. He told me to only put 2 cap fulls in my 10 gallon tank which Is pretty much nothing lol. No snails have died. Ive used caribsea sea pure water from the start even for the water changes
 

lapin

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So Im guessing the live sand and rock had a lot of dead stuff in it. That was your ammonia source. The Dr Tims stuff converted that to nitrite. So now its a waiting game for bacteria to grow that will process the nitrite. Since you have the Smarty stuff just put in 1 ounce every 3 days. It cant hurt plus what would you use it for down the road. One day you will wake up and the nitrite will be gone. Keep nitrite low with water changes to help out your snails and coral. Once the nitrite is gone and you have high nitrate begin more water changes to get that down to 5 to 10.
 
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Jack684523

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Stupid question but can I do consecutive water changes or
So Im guessing the live sand and rock had a lot of dead stuff in it. That was your ammonia source. The Dr Tims stuff converted that to nitrite. So now its a waiting game for bacteria to grow that will process the nitrite. Since you have the Smarty stuff just put in 1 ounce every 3 days. It cant hurt plus what would you use it for down the road. One day you will wake up and the nitrite will be gone. Keep nitrite low with water changes to help out your snails and coral. Once the nitrite is gone and you have high nitrate begin more water changes to get that down to 5 to 10.
stupid question lol can I do back to back water changes or do I have to wait daily lol. I already did 2 today because the lfs told to. Some one told me to use seachem prime. I ordered that they said it’s better
 

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