I'm brand new to reef tanking. I set up a 180 gallon tank, with a 40 gallon breeder sump. I used Microbacter Start XLM and QuickCycl to get things rolling. It took 3 weeks to get to a point where my ammonia dropped to zero. Since then, I have dosed ammonia twice and it drops to zero in 12-18 hours. I take this to mean the strain of bacteria that consumes ammonia is alive and well. Nitrites, however, are a different story. They don't budge. They were up as high as 4 ppm. I did four 15% water changes in a row. That got them all the way down to 3.2 ppm. Then I stopped doing that because everything else was jumping all over and I thought that I should stablize things and let the bacteria do its job.
I also decided that, having read many different reviews, perhaps Dr. Tim's One & Only would have been a better choice. So I dosed that. Twice. That got Nitrites down to 2 ppm. Where they now stand (for the past 10 days), obstinately mocking my efforts and defying my hope to one day put fish in my tank.
During that time, Nitrates have dropped from 60+ ppm to 19.9ppm and Phosphates from 0.9 ppm to 0.5 ppm, so they look to be heading in the right direction.
But the Nitrites, alas ... Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
For reference, here are all my parameters:
I also decided that, having read many different reviews, perhaps Dr. Tim's One & Only would have been a better choice. So I dosed that. Twice. That got Nitrites down to 2 ppm. Where they now stand (for the past 10 days), obstinately mocking my efforts and defying my hope to one day put fish in my tank.
During that time, Nitrates have dropped from 60+ ppm to 19.9ppm and Phosphates from 0.9 ppm to 0.5 ppm, so they look to be heading in the right direction.
But the Nitrites, alas ... Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
For reference, here are all my parameters:
