Fish IN cycle questions (bare bottom)

[YaTampaBoy]

Question or questions for you: This is my first bare bottom tank. Started the cycle 8/13 (FISH IN). 40 breeder, about 60lbs of Marco rock. Ammonia has always been 0 (atleast from API). However, my nitrites are still testing above the test kit. I have done a few water changes just to make sure ammonia isn’t affecting my fish (first time doing fish in cycle). I started to get impatient and decided to turn the lights on last week (acclimation mode for 90 days).

Question: I know nitrites do not affect fish, but would they affect inverts? I want to pick up some scavengers for the leftover food.
Question: Should I go back to turning the lights off? I’m hearing mixed reviews on algae affecting the bac that helps turn nitrites into nitrate.

**Note** I went way overboard with bottle bac as well. I used Dr Tims, Fritzyme 900 and Fritzyme 9.

I’m just confused as to what to do next, I’d like to get inverts if I can to help with the leftover food, but I’m not opposed to waiting or turning the lights back off. This is my first time with not only a bare bottom, but also Fish In cycle. I’ve only ever had sand before and did the fishless cycle. It’s definitely true to what they say, sand is much quicker than bare bottom cycling!

Thank in advance

 

[cdemoss01]

Bump. No nitrates usually don't affect inverts as long as they aren't sky high. Doing a blackout may help algea but you need to get your nutrients down. Do some tests.

 

[YaTampaBoy]

Nitrites, not nitrates. My tank is not fully cycled. Only ammonia cycled

 

[Fish Fan]

Nitrites, not nitrates. My tank is not fully cycled. Only ammonia cycled

Nitrites are non-toxic in saltwater, and nothing to worry about at all:

Nitrite Toxicity

Hey guys I have an aquarium system that has about 45gallons of water cycling so I Let it cycle for about week and I added seeded marine pure ceramic balls and the bacteria in a bottle. I had no choice but to add my 2 clownfish from my quarantine into the tank.. because I needed to put a sick...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[X-37B]

My 150 BB will have nitrites if I test for them. No need to though as said above.
With BB starts Live Rock becomes a valuable addition.
Dead rock starts for most lead to the uglies taking over if not properly managed.
Lights on from day one.
You will have to deal with algae. Better now than later.

Cleanup crews in BB and dead rock starts have nothing to eat for quite awhile.

Take out 30lbs of Marco and replace with 30lbs live. Then add cleanup crew and deal with the algae as it grows on the dead rock.

Pics?
How many fish?

 

[Euphyllia97]

hi! As long as your nitrites are not skyhigh (which should be fairly okay during a normal cycle) it should not hurt your inverts. Stay away from starfish, shrimp or urchins until nitrites are also at 0.

As you are mentioning it is a bare bottom tank I would suggest to turn on the lights so that your snails have some extra’s to munch on :)

 

[BryanM]

I'm not sure how to advise here since I don't like the idea of fish in cycle starts anyway.

My 1year+ old tank still has nitrites if I test, its a small number, and I was told long ago not to worry about it.

The biggest red flag I see here is "Ammonia has always been zero". If you've been testing for it since you started, then I don't see how you have anything cycled. You should have seen ammonia, and watch it go to zero, indicating you've established your biological filtration.

At this point you could dose 2ppm of ammonia, test for it, wait 24hrs and test again, if your cycle is complete it should be back to zero.

 

[Euphyllia97]

I'm not sure how to advise here since I don't like the idea of fish in cycle starts anyway.

My 1year+ old tank still has nitrites if I test, its a small number, and I was told long ago not to worry about it.

The biggest red flag I see here is "Ammonia has always been zero". If you've been testing for it since you started, then I don't see how you have anything cycled. You should have seen ammonia, and watch it go to zero, indicating you've established your biological filtration.

At this point you could dose 2ppm of ammonia, test for it, wait 24hrs and test again, if your cycle is complete it should be back to zero.

I guess he has never seen measurable ammonia levels the moments he tested for it. As he did see nitrites, (if not from his water source) I would say the ammonia levels are being used up before measurable as the nitrite is coming from somewhere. Fish IN is not my favourite way either, but doing the 2 ppm dosing with those fish in the tank is not the greatest idea.

Fish are producing waste, ammonia is being produced and converted so if I was OP, I would just give it a couple of weeks and keep testing for ammonia. (No WC if ammonia stays 0)

 

[YaTampaBoy]

I’m 99.99% certain I just missed the window for when ammonia registered as it is a fish in cycle and as stated above, fish produce ammonia alone along with the food I feed. So I’m not concerned about that. My concern was the nitrites with inverts. All i see is that it is not harmful to fish, but didn’t know if it was the same with inverts. Same with the conflicting advice on lights (not due to algae blooms….i’m not concerned with that as I have dealt with that for many different tanks), but my concern was if it outcompetes the bac that converts nitrite to nitrate. As stated, in all my previous tanks, I’ve never had an issue with nitrites like this before.