Cycling Nitrites high - Wait or change water?

[Wisperin]

Hi all,

Here is a short TLDR to see what I am facing and what would you do
Started cycle and dosed 2 times ammonia to 2ppm. Now my nitrites are super high
I checked some other posts and they recommend changing water to get the numbers down but I am also considering waiting and letting it run its course. Biggest question I have is if I let it run for let's say a month will that affect my ammonia eating bacteria.
What would you do?

A bit longer description with all data.

• My Build thread HERE
• Dead sand and dead rock in the tank only
• Started the cycle on 1.May by using Dr. Tim bacteria and ammonia kit
• Testing with Sera test kit box. Prob not the best but it was all in one to start
• Using RO water that has been tested for Ammonia and Nitrite and both read 0
• Started by dosing 2ppm ammonia and it was measuring 2 on the kit. Around day 7 ammonia got between 1 and 1.5 so I dosed 2ppm more. Went to 0 on day 12
• Nitrites were measured first on day 6 around 1ppm and slowly got up to 5ppm on day 10 which is maximum for my test kit.
• On day 14 I tried to dilute the water with 50% RO water and was still measuring 5ppm so I decided to do around 35% water change
• On day 15 I diluted the water 3 times and got a color to be a bit less red (estimate 4ppm) so I think I have at the moment around 12 ppm nitrites (could be totally wrong with diluting and kinda cheaper test kit)
• Tank looks the same as on day 1. No red or brown on the rock or sand

Question and options:
Option 1: Try to do some bigger water changes to get the nitrites back to around 5ppm and let it run from there
Option 2: Do nothing and just wait and test to see if it will go down slowly and how long it will take (I am leaning to do this option)

What would you suggest? If the cycle is now stalled and it takes a month or more to get the nitrites down will that affect my ammonia eating bacteria in the tank?

Also lets say the test kits are super accurate and I dosed 4ppm ammonia what number should I expect on the nitrites level? Is it supposed to also be 4 ppm? Is it possible that my “dead” sand and rock are actually decomposing ammonia but it just gets eaten instantly and I test 0 always?

 

[blaxsun]

How far are you into the cycle?

 

[Wisperin]

Just started. 16 days today
I know that having high ammonia can stall the cycle and if over 5ppt water change is suggested to get it down.
I am not sure if same is the case with Nitrites

 

[brandon429]

How to unstick any seemingly stuck cycle

non digital ammonia test kit readings (api, Red Sea, nyos, seachem badges) make you think you aren’t cycled when indeed you are if you owned a $200 expensive seneye meter, you’d never be doubting your cycle status. since .01% of the reefing population owns these, we need a way to help the...

www.reef2reef.com

31 pages of cycles just like yours, all are the same status.

ready, cycled, not stalled.

the chances your tank is ready is directly related to the number of happy aquarists in that read. Everyone was assigned an exact start date.

your tank is ok to reef now, we ignore nitrite. It’s in the link.

fish disease prep skipping comprises the majority of early tank loss issues for fish, it’s not in the cycle risk. The bottle bac makers have that part all figured out. You’re cycled, Fritz takes ~48 hours to implant and even before adhesion it works while suspended in the water. The only bottle bac cycles that take longer than ten days are found in nondigital ammonia kit owners or the occasional dead bottle owner, yet to be shown on seneye. Digital ammonia kit owners don’t ever see a bottle bac cycle taking longer than ten days, we’ve been testing that prediction date a long time now at 100% outcome

we don’t measure anyone’s ammonia in that thread, they just post the readings anyway because they think the readings factor in the start date assignment: they don’t. I ignored every single parameter reading posted from post #1 to recent post 30 months later.


we used # of days underwater factored with boosts to make every call in the thread, its how we know your tank is ready too. Fritz has been already tracked and charted in Dr. Reef’s bottle bac thread, your assigned start date was factored from his thread too.

 

[brandon429]

your tank can’t keep fish any healthier by waiting longer, handy definition of cycled. Because you have ammonia control and high surface area + internal current to move wastewater across filtration surfaces, the next step is choosing a fish disease protocol method from Jays disease forum…it’s easy to see in the daily work logs there what skipping disease and waiting for perfect nitrite control will get you.

a specific plan to prevent fish disease begins now, no more cycle concerning is warranted, we show.


of all the actions listed in post one, do none.


you are done cycling prep for fish disease before you make use of this bioload carry. I have a link of a guy who started a full reef with fish coral and anemone off one dose of bottle bac on day one, what you’re doing here is far simpler than that. You’ve been done cycling past day two, because thats when a full water change couldn’t stop your filter from working (Dr. Reef’s study shows us)

bottle bac is simply concentrate it’s not that impressive it has jolting ammonia command out of the gate. Every seneye bottle bac cycle I’ve seen was a same day drop to total ammonia control.

 

[Wisperin]

Hey, Thank you for the post
This looks interesting from a quick read. I will check it out and see what I do
Not ready to take Nitrite as not poisonous for the fish before I see some more research

 

[brandon429]

this will help you take it exactly that way, along with three straight years of nitrite positive reef starts above

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-06/rhf/index.php#:~:text=Its%20toxicity%20in%20marine%20systems,measuring%20in%20most%20marine%20systems.

 

[nereefpat]

• On day 15 I diluted the water 3 times and got a color to be a bit less red (estimate 4ppm) so I think I have at the moment around 12 ppm nitrites (could be totally wrong with diluting and kinda cheaper test kit)

Also lets say the test kits are super accurate and I dosed 4ppm ammonia what number should I expect on the nitrites level? Is it supposed to also be 4 ppm?

To go through the math for you and others interested:

Molecular weight of ammonia = 17
Nitrite is 46.
If all ammonia is converted to nitrite, nitrite value will be about 2.7 x whatever the ammonia value was.

So if you dosed you tank with 2 ppm ammonia + another 2 ppm (4ppm total), the expected nitrite in the tank will be about 11 ppm.

For your other questions, I would wait another week or so. You don't need nitrite to be zero for it to be safe for fish, but I like to see it coming down.

 

[Lavey29]

I don't really understand the problem here. If you added ammonia and it went through the nitrogen cycle so now you have a bunch of nitrate in your tank that means your tank is cycling if ammonia reads 0 after 24 hours. There is not really much biodiversity in your new tank to use up the residual nitrate so weekly water changes after your tank cycles is what keeps it in check.

 

[nereefpat]

I don't really understand the problem here. If you added ammonia and it went through the nitrogen cycle so now you have a bunch of nitrate in your tank that means your tank is cycling if ammonia reads 0 after 24 hours. There is not really much biodiversity in your new tank to use up the residual nitrate so weekly water changes after your tank cycles is what keeps it in check.

Nitrites

 

[Lavey29]

Nitrites

Oh ok, I read it wrong. High nitrites are what you expect during the cycle break in thanks for clarifying for me.

 

[Dburr1014]

Hey, Thank you for the post
This looks interesting from a quick read. I will check it out and see what I do
Not ready to take Nitrite as not poisonous for the fish before I see some more research

Nitrite would have to be really high to be a problem for marine fish.

https://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-06/rhf/index.php

I would say you can add a fish. Go slow adding more so your live rock can catch up to each new addition.

 

[ReefGeezer]

Question and options:
Option 1: Try to do some bigger water changes to get the nitrites back to around 5ppm and let it run from there
Option 2: Do nothing and just wait and test to see if it will go down slowly and how long it will take (I am leaning to do this option)

What would you suggest? If the cycle is now stalled and it takes a month or more to get the nitrites down will that affect my ammonia eating bacteria in the tank?

Option 2 would be my solution. In addition, if ammonia is zero, adding a fish would be ok. If you added 4 ppm of ammonia and did all that dilution, nitrite could not be as high as you are measuring. A few ppm is present at most and that is not toxic to fish in saltwater. That will provide some ammonia input to maintain the bacteria population. Just go slow. Feed very sparingly... I mean like 5 brine shrimp or mysis per fish per day for a week or two. They won't starve. That'll provide enough ammonia input to keep things going.

If you decide to wait, just ghost feed the tank a couple time a week to provide some ammonia input to keep things going. You could also use the ammonia you have, but it doesn't take much. I would not be comfortable telling you how much, but I'd not add it to over 0.25 ppm.

 

[Wisperin]

Thank you all for the input.
I was checking it out and it seems like you are right about nitrites
I was surprised to see this data since what I was reading before I only found to wait till ammonia and nitrites are zero.
I will still give it some time to see if numbers are going down as I am in no rush to get the fish in
But I know now I dont need to wait till it gets to 0