Cycling with live rock, test nitrites?

[Lonewalkerr]

While I'm setting up my main tank I want to start QTing some fish (firefish and royal gramma) so I've set up a 20 gallon tank with 6 lbs of live rock that I bought from the fish store (they had it in the tanks and it looked good so I went with it and it was pest free). I started last Sunday with the live rock and dosed 4 oz with Fritz and have been using Stability every day per the instructions. Ammonia dropped within a day when I dosed it to 1 PPM, I did 1 PPM because it's only 2 fish and they are such a low bio load. I can dose 2 PPM if needed. Currently, my levels are

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0.2
Nitrate: 30

I'm testing with Red Sea and sometimes with API but mainly Red Sea now and I assume the cycle is complete because I have 0 ammonia, some nitrates and based on what I'm reading between here and Facebook people can't seem to find common ground with nitrite levels. Some say test, others say don't then I see the common "If you aren’t measuring any nitrate it is not cycled" responses. Well, I have nitrates. Should I test for nitrites? Should I wait until I'm at 0 before dosing ammonia again? I assumed with live rock I would have an instant cycle and it was with ammonia but the nitrites have been taking a week to drop from 1-2 PPM (API) to now 0.2 (Red Sea). If the answer is wait, I'll wait but I wanted to ask here and not Facebook.

 

[Fish Fan]

Welcome new member!

It's an awesome idea to quarantine your fish

I typed this about 3 minutes ago, so I'm not going to lie, I'm phoning this in

I'm also quite sure others will be along to share their thoughts for you too, but if you're going to be QT'ing your fish, I'd really recommend a medicated tank, and for that, we don't use live rock or sands.

Here's a recent post, and I hope it helps here too, but by all means post back if/when you have further questions.

Best of luck!

Fallow Tank Question

I’ve been reading a lot of threads on QT tanks, and always wanting to keep learning and be prepared, my question is this…if you have a fully cycled tank and you are moving everything except some rock and sand to a new tank, can you keep the tank fallow and use it as a QT tank? Would there be...

www.reef2reef.com

From the above link:

My little hot tip is to always have a "stash" of plastic bio media in your main tank, in case you ever have to quickly set up a QT or hospital tank. I think everyone who runs only one tank should do this.

I'm a big believer in biosecurity, and I QT everything "wet" from fish to corals, and even inverts like snails, crabs, shrimps, etc., as best that I can.

For fish, I follow the R2R approved QT protocol, and the reason is that the author(s) are right here on R2R if you need help

Current Quarantine Protocol​

2024 Quarantine Procedures Jay Hemdal David Scarborough Protozoans (Cryptocaryon/ich, Amyloodinium/velvet) and Metazoan trematodes/flukes are by far the most common parasites found on newly acquired fish. A carefully managed, proactive quarantine process can effectively eliminate these...

www.reef2reef.com

As mentioned above, if you're going to do a medicated QT paradigm (and I personally suggest that you do), medications such as copper interact with calcium carbonate materials such as rocks and sand, so keeping your copper at the required therapeutic level can be tricky. It's best to have a bare tank if you're going to be using medications. You can use pieces of PVC pipe and PVC fittings and/or silk plants for fish hides so they feel secure.

It's a bit of a dealers choice if you want to keep your QT tank running and cycled at all times, or break it down in between use. I prefer to break mine down, and restart it when I need to QT new fish. You can mitigate ammonia in an un-cycled QT tank through water changes. Or, you can keep some pre-cycled bio media on hand for just these occasions (I swear I've heard that somewhere before ).

I suggest plastic biomedia specifically because it's inert and won't interact with medications. I often use plastic pot scrubbies from my local dollar store, something like these:

I hope this helps; good luck!!!