Help! Nitrite and Nitrate Spike

Ashley0925

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I recently started a new bio cube 32. Under the advice of my LFS I started out with fritzyme turbo 900, live rock from their tank, and live sand. I added frozen fish food as ammonia source. After two weeks cycling my readings for Ammonia, Nitrite were 0 and Nitrate was 5ppm or less. I did a 20% water change cycled 24 hours and added 3 fish. Now 24 hours after adding livestock my Nitrites shot up to 0.50 and Nitrates to 20-30 ppm, ammonia still 0... I quickly added some Seachem Prime to drop my levels what is my next step? 50% water change while using prime or just try only water change? Please no insults that the cycle wasn’t finished and I should return fish to store because that is not an option at the moment and I was only going off of what the LFS told me. I took water to them to test regularly. I have a strong algae growth also. Thanks
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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prime causes misreads on those kits,

live rock doesn't need extra bac they did a little bad there

nothing is wrong with your tank. neither of these parameters matter in cycling, only ammonia matters

fritz is 1000% certain to control your ammonia, no matter what the kit says. tops bac out there...but not needed when they already sold the wet live rock. that had bac already.

did the live rocks come from a vat of water, literally they were in water then you moved them home?

not anything is wrong with your cycle/no concern at all. even if the rock isn't skip cycle wet rock, fritz adheres to surfaces in under 24 hours after addition ~

you're double and likely triple cycled if used wet sand too.
 
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Ashley0925

Ashley0925

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Yes the rock was from a trough with fish and corals in it, I do have some dry rock also, and the bagged live sand. I tested my water prior to adding the prime today after fish being in for 24 hrs and that’s when I had the readings kd .50 Nitrite and between 20-40 on Nitrate.....I saw those readings panicked and added the Prime, I’ve never added it before. My fish are acting 100% normal and were when I tested honestly....so should I just retest tomorrow then water change if still elevated?
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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you can literally do nothing day by day and there's no harm to any of it :)

how fun is that. reefing is like landmining just not in this case. new cycle science applies inflexible rules to each system given a few details. in your case, no doubt. we make entire threads with half a million bucks in instant reefs off exactly what you did here:

 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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retire the nitrite test permanently, and ammonia you'll never need to know them.
they will only misread and cause dismay


even if a fish dies and you can't get it out, they're controlled, it'll take fifteen fish to overcome your live rock / guesstimate but its a massive dieoff needed, nothing common in reefing.

nitrate readings come later on as you tune for algae and coral growth. I promise you don't ever have to test for ammonia and nitrite ever again, ive been reefing 21 years and have never even owned anything beyond a swingarm and a temperature therm taped to the end of a bendable wire lol.

ammonia is predictable at all times in your reef, without a tester.

nitrite flat out doesn't matter we don't care about it anymore they just haven't updated cycling rules yet they're all still from 1876
 
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Ashley0925

Ashley0925

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Stress! Lol so basically I should apply my principals I use on my swimming pool.....”How do you keep your pool so clean?” Uh I throw some chlorine pkts in vacuum up the crud......”you don’t test for blah blah ling list of chemicals?”......nope never lol
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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well Im only getting away with total no testing because of a cheat

my tank is very small, so common 50% water changes totally fix my ph, calcium, and alk. testable components you'll likely need to run in the future.


but no form of cycling param ever needs to be tested again at this phase, Im 100% sure of that / will remove much stress.

reasons that even matters: soon/1 day you'll have new tank uglies and maybe you don't want to ride it out eighty weeks.

you may want to deep clean that tank, big/full water change, vac sand clean rocks

you can, since cycles lock vs stall.
 
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Ashley0925

Ashley0925

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The new tank uglies have already began.....the live rock went from a nice shade of bright tan to now covered in diatom, some hair algae and coralline and now starting in sand and dry rock I have a cuc on the way!
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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that is the highest expression, most ultimate application of current cycling biology/how cleaning does not cause cycles/we can find on this whole board.

we lucked into that fine example just today, look what that massive reef did.

not saying you have to take your tank apart, everyone strives to avoid that.


but when/if the time comes, a roadmap you have.

that takedown method he used, the exact steps, you can use to:

relocate the tank to a new room/don't move dirty sand. take the time to clean off your rocks like a garden.


or upgrade to a larger tank, move no dirty items. relocate only clean items.


or to cure dinos.


or to cure diatoms or cyano

or to just make any reef live longer vs sitting there, compiling waste. that thread can change your reefing.

Im so, so, so happy he didn't post any api ammonia readings they cause mis trust. that clean happy reef causes trust.
 
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Ashley0925

Ashley0925

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that is the highest expression, most ultimate application of current cycling biology/how cleaning does not cause cycles/we can find on this whole board.

we lucked into that fine example just today, look what that massive reef did.

not saying you have to take your tank apart, everyone strives to avoid that.


but when/if the time comes, a roadmap you have.

that takedown method he used, the exact steps, you can use to:

relocate the tank to a new room/don't move dirty sand. take the time to clean off your rocks like a garden.


or upgrade to a larger tank, move no dirty items. relocate only clean items.


or to cure dinos.


or to cure diatoms or cyano

or to just make any reef live longer vs sitting there, compiling waste. that thread can change your reefing.

Im so, so, so happy he didn't post any api ammonia readings they cause mis trust. that clean happy reef causes trust.
you can literally do nothing day by day and there's no harm to any of it :)

how fun is that. reefing is like landmining just not in this case. new cycle science applies inflexible rules to each system given a few details. in your case, no doubt. we make entire threads with half a million bucks in instant reefs off exactly what you did here:

I will add one more thing that I did omit on purpose because I’ve already been Internet yelled at about it on another post but the store that I purchased my two clowns from is a little vietnamese owned store, The clowns were in a tank of their own with a green BTA.... they were insistent that I take this anemone too even though I told them multiple times I had a new tank they told me it would be fine. Now the other local store says you can’t have an anemone until at least six months in or it will die within hours. Now, it may still die but here I am 24+ hours later thinking I’m having a Nitrite/Nitrate Spike but I have a fully inflated seemingly happy anemone, took a poo this morning which looked horrendous then blew right back up.
 

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Stress! Lol so basically I should apply my principals I use on my swimming pool.....”How do you keep your pool so clean?” Uh I throw some chlorine pkts in vacuum up the crud......”you don’t test for blah blah ling list of chemicals?”......nope never lol
Chlorine in a reef tank might not end well . ..

all jokes aside , essentially , testify at this point is not needed .
but to know nitrate levels to know yes , water change day can’t come
Fast enough .

Salinity , temp and nitrates are all
I’d worry about until you cross to the corals side of the tracks .
That’s when we will introduce a whole army of testing and dosing devices , equipment
You’re not there or close to ready for that yet .
 

Rmckoy

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I will add one more thing that I did omit on purpose because I’ve already been Internet yelled at about it on another post but the store that I purchased my two clowns from is a little vietnamese owned store, The clowns were in a tank of their own with a green BTA.... they were insistent that I take this anemone too even though I told them multiple times I had a new tank they told me it would be fine. Now the other local store says you can’t have an anemone until at least six months in or it will die within hours. Now, it may still die but here I am 24+ hours later thinking I’m having a Nitrite/Nitrate Spike but I have a fully inflated seemingly happy anemone, took a poo this morning which looked horrendous then blew right back up.
It’s not impossible to keep One this early
But not the best idea ...
if you can re-home it or add to a local friends tank while yours matures .
Invest in guards for your wave makers ,
Keep a close eye on it .
it will travel

Do as much research on keeping them as you can and to identify their needs , requirements as well as signs of unhealthy or unhappy .
 
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Ashley0925

Ashley0925

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It’s not impossible to keep One this early
But not the best idea ...
if you can re-home it or add to a local friends tank while yours matures .
Invest in guards for your wave makers ,
Keep a close eye on it .
it will travel

Do as much research on keeping them as you can and to identify their needs , requirements as well as signs of unhealthy or unhappy .
I have read so much lately it hurts lol that’s why I knew this morning it took a poo because I was under the assumption it was dying at first. It moved from the rock I placed it over night just another rock over so that being said I only have 1 wave maker going currently but it’s guarded I ordered that on initial setup because I had seen lots of horror stories even with smaller fish.
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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I agree

you can tell from our skip cycle thread we can keep anemones there, your tank is as old as its rock substrate is...the actual new glass walls don't matter/cool benefit of the pre cycling.

you need the good params other than these here, plus strong feed, it'll be fine I bet. keep up good feeding and water changes and agreed it will not open if things get bad, but by then just do the water changes matching temp and salinity.
 

Rmckoy

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I have read so much lately it hurts lol that’s why I knew this morning it took a poo because I was under the assumption it was dying at first. It moved from the rock I placed it over night just another rock over so that being said I only have 1 wave maker going currently but it’s guarded I ordered that on initial setup because I had seen lots of horror stories even with smaller fish.
What lights and size tank ?
 

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Dan_P

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I recently started a new bio cube 32. Under the advice of my LFS I started out with fritzyme turbo 900, live rock from their tank, and live sand. I added frozen fish food as ammonia source. After two weeks cycling my readings for Ammonia, Nitrite were 0 and Nitrate was 5ppm or less. I did a 20% water change cycled 24 hours and added 3 fish. Now 24 hours after adding livestock my Nitrites shot up to 0.50 and Nitrates to 20-30 ppm, ammonia still 0... I quickly added some Seachem Prime to drop my levels what is my next step? 50% water change while using prime or just try only water change? Please no insults that the cycle wasn’t finished and I should return fish to store because that is not an option at the moment and I was only going off of what the LFS told me. I took water to them to test regularly. I have a strong algae growth also. Thanks
Apparently nitrite is not an issue for saltwater creatures. If ammonia is zero, you could be OK.

While bottled bacteria products will establish ammonia oxidation capability very quickly, that is convert ammonia to nitrite, establishing nitrite oxidation to nitrate takes much longer.
 

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