End of cycle Nitrate levels... Next step?

DirkCourage

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I'm 17 days out from starting my cycle with Dr. Tim's, dosing with ammonia chloride.

I observed Nitrite spiking up to 3ppm, and Ammonia dropping out to zero. Dosed and went to zero in 24 hrs, though still showed 2ppm Nitrite. Nitrates tested well high at this stage, roughly 64ppm via Red Sea test and confirmed with 50ppm Salifert test. I was not running any filtration during this time. Cycle seemed to be rolling.

With nitrates where they were, it seemed ready for a big water change. WC roughly 30% one day, still read 50ppm for Salifert. RedSea was better but hard to gauge. Performed another 30% WC the next day. Got filter floss in place, added carbon bag and installed a skimmer to boot. Two days later, now testing at 25ppm Salifert and 12ppm with RedSea. Ammonia is cold zero, but I'm showing maybe .5 Nitrites still. My lights are off and there is no sign of any algae.

What next? Do I:
1) Perform 1 more 30% WC and knock those Nitrates down for sure?
2) Get some fish in the tank and observe from there?
3) Just wait and see a few days if nitrites clean up and nitrate stays level?

Leaning towards 2. (And maybe buying ANOTHER Nitrate test (Nyos) because I'm not loving these right now :confused: )
 

supernanoguy

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Sounds like you should have done a bigger change the first time. I did 50% and added fish 3 days later with nitrates still in the 10-20 range down from 50-60. Nitrites are the more concerning thing. I would bet if you just added fish and got the tank going on it’s light cycle you’d be in business. Gl.
 
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DirkCourage

DirkCourage

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Ps try and get a refugium if you don’t already have one. They are the bomb.com
Thanks, I was thinking the same thing. Agree that WC should've been all at once. I've now done more like a 40% WC. It was a lot at once for my first go. I was not ready.

I don't quite know what to make of the Nitrite reading. I'm reading a lot of opinions on here, that it's neither that important nor that toxic to the fish...

Lol at the refugium. I'm absolutely fascinated with them since I've started looking into the hobby! It doesn't quite fit in with my setup right now, but if I ever upgrade...
 

NigelRichardson

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I had similar "When am I done" questions when I finished cycle on my tank.... If you followed the Dr Tims to the letter (as I did), I'd drop in a couple of Clowns and then watch / wait

My Nitrates were still a little high, but dropped to close to zero after an additional week or so... Clowns were more than happy.
 

homer1475

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Positive NITRITE readings will show an abnormally high NITRATE reading, specially with the API kit.

With that said, until your nitrites drop to 0, you don't truly know what your nitrate number is.

What I have always done in cycling a SW tank was to just wait til ammonia and nitrites drop to 0, then do 100% water change to get rid of the eventual high nitrates.

FWIW, Nitrites aren't as harmful in SW as they are in FW, but as you noticed will show a really high nitrate reading when testing.
 

piranhaman00

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You shouldn’t do anything until nitrite is 0. Your nitrates appeared high because you had nitrites present.
 

brandon429

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Handy to compare and contrast to convention quick cycles

nobody who manages MACNA conventions cares about the rules we are told to follow, they have a start date to meet with strong fully ready cycles, not weak ones, so that their $50K dollar frag tanks are ready to sell to you

what doesn’t sell at MACNA is skip cycled back home.


An instant MACNA cycle is as strong as a 200 day wait cycle, nobody trusts a tank of bounce shrooms to a guess.

Dr Reefs thread shows how long it takes bottle bac to adhere to surfaces, and be immune to a 100% water change. It takes as long as the directions say on the bottle, about ten days for dr tims mix

that’s the proof/equalizer for all cycles. When you can change 100% of the water and still pass oxidation tests, you’re cycled. That’s all MACNA reefs, or a 200 day waited slow cycle. Same abilities. The tank from this thread would pass too

One way of cycling isn’t stronger than another regarding waste filtration, very handy to know, it allows you to attain consistent start dates.



This cycle was done when ammonia initially went down said above. In no way are any of the api or Red Sea tests agreed as accurate, they don’t line up with other testers in comparison threads. they’re sometimes accurate.

I’ve got two threads linked in our updated cycle science thread where nitrate alone was fifty on api and zero on Red Sea. Constant battles

imagine being the Red Sea owner, you now begin furiously dosing nitrate thinking there was none


since today’s cycles aren’t ran by seneye, we have to use new metrics to handle literally constant misreads. You met the time frames on the bottle bac directions, ten days. Gtg as said above

nitrite no longer factors in reefing, at all. Quit testing for it permanently, source of false hesitation. I’m literally shocked you got zero ammonia, nice rare read there. When ammonia goes down that’s cycle done, can begin. Most tests hover at .25 it’s why we only look to lowering, not zero

nitrite cannot stall a cycle (am aware of sellers video on YouTube claiming otherwise, people then buy bottle bac to ‘unstick’ cycles $)

nitrite harms no fish shrimp corals crabs etc in reefing, even if it’s there. It’s not casually neutral, it’s as neutral to us as helium would be factored in reefing, this is the new rule to get forum cyclers closer to the reality of what runs conventions for 25 yrs

follow the flow of cash at conventions to find truth in cycling

we all are trained to doubt, wait, buy


they are trained to skip cycle and sell to us, exacting start dates. one way cash direction.
Aqua shella Dallas 2018 had both live rock transfer tanks and dry start tanks full of fish, ready by start date. Hundreds of reefs.
.



watching all brands of reef convention start on time, no stalls, and then comparing to forum practice really shows a stark contrast

we should adopt their rules, and retire ours.
 
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DirkCourage

DirkCourage

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Handy to compare and contrast to convention quick cycles

nobody who manages MACNA conventions cares about the rules we are told to follow, they have a start date to meet with strong fully ready cycles, not weak ones, so that their $50K dollar frag tanks are ready to sell to you

what doesn’t sell at MACNA is skip cycled back home.


An instant MACNA cycle is as strong as a 200 day wait cycle, nobody trusts a tank of bounce shrooms to a guess.

Dr Reefs thread shows how long it takes bottle bac to adhere to surfaces, and be immune to a 100% water change. It takes as long as the directions say on the bottle, about ten days for dr tims mix

that’s the proof/equalizer for all cycles. When you can change 100% of the water and still pass oxidation tests, you’re cycled. That’s all MACNA reefs, or a 200 day waited slow cycle. Same abilities. The tank from this thread would pass too

One way of cycling isn’t stronger than another regarding waste filtration, very handy to know, it allows you to attain consistent start dates.



This cycle was done when ammonia initially went down said above. In no way are any of the api or Red Sea tests agreed as accurate, they don’t line up with other testers in comparison threads. they’re sometimes accurate.

I’ve got two threads linked in our updated cycle science thread where nitrate alone was fifty on api and zero on Red Sea. Constant battles

imagine being the Red Sea owner, you now begin furiously dosing nitrate thinking there was none


since today’s cycles aren’t ran by seneye, we have to use new metrics to handle literally constant misreads. You met the time frames on the bottle bac directions, ten days. Gtg as said above

nitrite no longer factors in reefing, at all. Quit testing for it permanently, source of false hesitation. I’m literally shocked you got zero ammonia, nice rare read there. When ammonia goes down that’s cycle done, can begin. Most tests hover at .25 it’s why we only look to lowering, not zero

nitrite cannot stall a cycle (am aware of sellers video on YouTube claiming otherwise, people then buy bottle bac to ‘unstick’ cycles $)

nitrite harms no fish shrimp corals crabs etc in reefing, even if it’s there. It’s not casually neutral, it’s as neutral to us as helium would be factored in reefing, this is the new rule to get forum cyclers closer to the reality of what runs conventions for 25 yrs

follow the flow of cash at conventions to find truth in cycling

we all are trained to doubt, wait, buy


they are trained to skip cycle and sell to us, exacting start dates. one way cash direction.
Aqua shella Dallas 2018 had both live rock transfer tanks and dry start tanks full of fish, ready by start date. Hundreds of reefs.
.



watching all brands of reef convention start on time, no stalls, and then comparing to forum practice really shows a stark contrast

we should adopt their rules, and retire ours.
Thank you for your detailed response. I’m sure I had been reading through some of those threads. It’s definitely a different, though thoroughly logical, take on cycling orthodoxy. There’s a lot of info and discussion, so I appreciate you taking the time to cut through the haze. The science behind what we’re doing in a reef tank is part of what has interested me in the hobby. Still, for a noob like myself it’s hard to be confident in what you’re seeing. Thanks again.
 
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DirkCourage

DirkCourage

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Thanks everyone for the feedback! After all the reading I had done getting here, another “is my tank cycled” post feels a bit embarrassing.

I think I’m going to get my clowns in Friday and monitor from there. A 100% water change at this point seems like overkill, but I’ll plan on a 20% next week and likely 10% weekly going as I get an idea of where things are.
 

brandon429

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shows one of many apps of the new method
 
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DirkCourage

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Just a quick follow up. Tested tonight and Nitrites went to zero! Think this was definitely impacting Nitrate reading. RedSea test was maybe 10-12 ppm, confirmed with Salifert (I found it easier to view through the side and divide by 10). I'll have fish in the tank by this weekend. :)
 
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