7 weeks into cycle nitrites/nitrates off the charts!!! Need Advice

[nwkennard]

Nitrites and nitrates have been stuck at the same position for the last few weeks.

65 gallon DT with 20 sump/refugium that houses some chaeto.

I was premature with adding fish and am now worried my high fish bioload might have interrupted the cycle. Currently have 5 small chromis 1 small kole tang 2 anthias 1 sixline wrasse and a bicolor blenny.

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[mcarroll]

That looks like fish-killer water to me......fish must leave!!! Do you have another tank? Or a friend or sympathetic LFS?

How did you do your cycle to wind up with nitrites AND nitrates off the charts?

Any chance your test kits are expired or you did the tests wrong?

 

[RamsReef]

Dude what the heck.
"Currently have 5 small chromis 1 small kole tang 2 anthias 1 sixline wrasse and a bicolor blenny. "
COMMON MAN.

Here is my advice, take the fish back to the store where you bought them, get some store credit and do some research.


Major water change,
Cycle products (Seachem stability)
Major water change,
Major water change,
Research,
Major water change,


You need to add fish one at a time, esp new tanks and let your bio get set.

Poor fish.

 

[nwkennard]

It's an api test i bought from amazon. Expiration date is 2022.

 

[nwkennard]

I jumped the gun with the amount of fish i stocked this early. I added 2 bottles of BIO-Spira before adding any fish about 2 weeks into the cycle which i though would jump start the cycle.

 

[nwkennard]

I actually took the photo about 10-15 min after mixing. While the instruction says results are ready at 5 min if that makes any difference.

 

[mcarroll]

Water changes for sure if that's all you can do in the short term. Big ones. A 90% water change would probably be justified.

I'm not sure about ammonia detoxifiers like Amquel and Prime working on Nitrites, but if they do then GET SOME TONIGHT.

See about removing the fish ASAP.

 

[mcarroll]

How do the fish seem to be acting, BTW?

 

[nwkennard]

How do the fish seem to be acting, BTW?

Fish are fine. They eat with no problems.

 

[mcarroll]

If fish are completely unstressed, then I'm back to doubting the test results.

#reefsquad folks have any differing or other thoughts?

 

[nwkennard]

This is exactly at 5min of waiting. Nitrates seems to be very different

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

This is exactly at 5min of waiting. Nitrates seems to be very different

How was the tank cycled? Dry rock or live rock and sand.

What's your water source. Rodi bottled or tap ?

 

[nwkennard]

How was the tank cycled? Dry rock or live rock and sand.

What's your water source. Rodi bottled or tap ?

Tank cycle was 1 inch dry aragonite sand. 40-50 lbs cured live rock and around 50 lbs dry rock. water source for initial fill was tap water but i have since purchased an RO/DI unit. At around 3 weeks in I added the Bio-Spira and had skimmer off for a few days to allow the bacteria to multiply. Around 5 weeks in ammonia drop to 0. But for the last 3 weeks nitrites/nitrates havent really moved down. Just worried i might have stalled the cycle somehow

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Tank cycle was 1 inch dry aragonite sand. 40-50 lbs cured live rock and around 50 lbs dry rock. water source for initial fill was tap water but i have since purchased an RO/DI unit. At around 3 weeks in I added the Bio-Spira and had skimmer off for a few days to allow the bacteria to multiply. Around 5 weeks in ammonia drop to 0. But for the last 3 weeks nitrites/nitrates havent really moved down. Just worried i might have stalled the cycle somehow

Ug. Yea pretty much what I'd call it. Stalled cycle. It's hard to diagnose as there are lot of variables. Tap mainly , on some of the possible errors and odd readings or stunting the cycle with cloramine if you have them in your tap. The tap actually might be fine some folks use it.
and the live dry might me messing with the nitrates readings.

Id start making fresh clean water and doing daily water changes or some big ones if you want to keep the fish in.

An ammonia alert badge may be in order.
You can remove the fish or ride it out with them in the tank. Folks did use to cycle tanks with live fish in there, and bio S is almost as good as it gets.

If you can find dr Tims one and only get some but BIo S is fine.

Ignore anything but the ammonia right now , it'll just mess with your head.

Slow and steady wins the race.

 

[nwkennard]

Ug. Yea pretty much what I'd call it. Stalled cycle. It's hard to diagnose as there are lot of variables. Tap mainly , on some of the possible errors and odd readings or stunting the cycle with cloramine if you have them in your tap. The tap actually might be fine some folks use it.
and the live dry might me messing with the nitrates readings.

Id start making fresh clean water and doing daily water changes or some big ones if you want to keep the fish in.

An ammonia alert badge may be in order.
You can remove the fish or ride it out with them in the tank. Folks did use to cycle tanks with live fish in there, and bio S is almost as good as it gets.

If you can find dr Tims one and only get some but BIo S is fine.

Ignore anything but the ammonia right now , it'll just mess with your head.

Slow and steady wins the race.

Ok. Ill do a 25% water change tomorrow and keep testing. I''m feeding freeze dried brine shrimp soaked in selcon as well as thera a pellets twice a day probably about a large tablespoon in total per day. Should i cut down on feeding in the mean time to reduce nutrients?

 

[brandon429]

Only ammonia matters here

You cannot kill anything in your reef w nitrites or nitrates. We don't even measure the two in a giant cycling thread we use to turn out many tanks

You had a live rock component in your mix which is already cycled so that's lucky

Show your ammonia tests clearly, that's all that matters.

Agreed it was too fast start, you are aware, but after weeks in this condition it only gets better not worse I'd just hold course. It would be different if you stocked all that, had no live component in the rock, and posted on day two of the setup. But it's been weeks and all you need to get to is day ~40 and ammonia will behave if it already doesn't. Nitrite and nitrate measures do not matter in reef cycling whatsoever. If you are concerned your mechanical action should be just simple water changes as large as you are willing to go, that's if you want to take action. They would have already died from ammonia if they were going to

 

[Brew12]

You do have something odd going on, hard to say if it is bad testing or a stalled cycle.

Luckily, while nitrites at those levels would kill fresh water fish, it won't harm salt water fish. Nitrates would have to be much higher to cause damage to the fish, also.

Looks like you need to do some water changes. Do a good job cleaning things out. Take a deep breath.

If your fish are quickly consuming everything you put in the tank, I wouldn't adjust your feeding habits. I would suspect this is more of a husbandry issue than anything else.

 

[brandon429]

your numbers are testing different after partial water changes and a mix of early cycling metabolites than they would test if you started from a clean palette full WC now that it's been past 30 days with cycle boosters in use.

The thread so far is reflecting on the mixed water state, not the state of the tank after a full water change (look to pico reef cycling examples since we change all water)

The resetting full water change is impractical for large tanks, hold course it'll go away in time. Many mechanisms can make that nitrite false register anyway, the use of seachem prime is just one, don't concern if ammonia is good you are good.

Any changes in feed, stocking, additions, should be made to what ammonia does. If APi reads low ammonia, take no action still and get someone with a non API test to verify. The opercular action of fish gills and whether or not they are swimming sideways is the best consequential free ammonia test in reefing

 

[beaslbob]

Hold off.

nitrItes can stall for weeks as you are experiencing.

simple solution is to stop adding food until the nitrItes drop down.

Can take a week but usually drops down in a day or two.

my .02

 

[tdileo]

I agree with everyone else and strongly suggest you cut feeding down. Try feeding every other day for a while. That's a lot of fish and a lot of food, but I think if you're careful not to overfeed and do some water changes you will be okay.. If possible try and get a piece of established rock from another reefer just to get all the bacteria you need and it will populate on its own. I've heard about Dr. Tims, Biospira and others but honestly I would never use those. I don't understand how they get the bacteria into water and then it survives for so long without a food source