- Joined
- Nov 22, 2019
- Messages
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Hey guys, a bit confused on my chemistry here and want some opinions.
20 gallon nano, running water circulation and heater.
12 lb dry rock in tank, 2 lb dry rock rubble in back chamber in a media bag.
1 lb live rock from the lfs operating frag tank setup. Very healthy, worms, bit of coraline, saw a copepod running around on it when it was in my tank.
Dosing Aquaforest Bio S to try to give the bacteria a headstart. ATI test kit (yeah, I know, I need to get something more accurate).
Tank has been wet for a week and a half. Started dosing Bio S immediately.
Didn't see any ammonia, nitrite, nitrate for the first 4 days. Ghost fed a bunch of flake food to try to get some ammonia happening.
Ammonia slowly rose to 1ppm over the next three days (I think this is about right for food breaking down to ammonia).
2 days after ammonia spike at 1ppm, it's back at 0/0.25 by the ATI kit.
Nitrite and Nitrate are testing 0, as they have been the whole time.
So my question is this: is the bacteria supplement giving me the biology to process the nitrogen cycle too fast to be able to test for nitrite and nitrate? Am I ready to throw in a couple small clowns?
Sorry for the newbie questions here. I'm trying to be patient but that'd be easier if I knew how to interpret my test results!
20 gallon nano, running water circulation and heater.
12 lb dry rock in tank, 2 lb dry rock rubble in back chamber in a media bag.
1 lb live rock from the lfs operating frag tank setup. Very healthy, worms, bit of coraline, saw a copepod running around on it when it was in my tank.
Dosing Aquaforest Bio S to try to give the bacteria a headstart. ATI test kit (yeah, I know, I need to get something more accurate).
Tank has been wet for a week and a half. Started dosing Bio S immediately.
Didn't see any ammonia, nitrite, nitrate for the first 4 days. Ghost fed a bunch of flake food to try to get some ammonia happening.
Ammonia slowly rose to 1ppm over the next three days (I think this is about right for food breaking down to ammonia).
2 days after ammonia spike at 1ppm, it's back at 0/0.25 by the ATI kit.
Nitrite and Nitrate are testing 0, as they have been the whole time.
So my question is this: is the bacteria supplement giving me the biology to process the nitrogen cycle too fast to be able to test for nitrite and nitrate? Am I ready to throw in a couple small clowns?
Sorry for the newbie questions here. I'm trying to be patient but that'd be easier if I knew how to interpret my test results!