I still have really high nitrites and nitrates while cycling new tank??

[Leon Gorani]

I used fritz turbostart 900 for my 29 gallon saltwater tank. I had dry rock with live sand (40 pounds) and I used ammonium in a bottle to cycle the tank. It has been set up and running for almost 10 days and here are my levels:
my nitrites are at 5.0 ppm,
nitrates at 10.00 ppm,
and ammonia at around .25 ppm.
I have been dosing aquavitro seed for the past 4 days to help. But my nitrites are still too high and I don’t know why. Should I do a water change at all? Or keep dosing more bacteria and wait? Any suggestions?? Thank you!

 

[EmdeReef]

The cycle isn’t completed until there’s no more ammonia. Your nitrates are fine and nitrites aren’t that toxic in saltwater. You can probably expect nitrates to go up.

I wouldn’t do water changes now, you can dose more bacteria to help speed it up.

 

[Cell]

Stay the course. Nitrifying bac are slow growers. It's only been 10 days and could still take up to 3 or 4 weeks even with the boosters.

 

[ReeferReefer]

I don't see a problem at all. You are mid cycle with those levels.

I would just stop worrying and give it a few weeks to stabilize.

 

[lapin]

If you still have high nitrites at week 8 then you have a problem. For now kick back and enjoy the nice clean tank.

 

[brandon429]

your cycle is done but you are measuring waste water so that’s subject to interpretation and test differences home to home. There’s another way to prove it’s cycled, it’s not using the current method

We cannot apply concentrated formulated bottle bac into a high surface area + hydrated media and fail to get a cycle

I’m aware of stated limitations they just never play out in cycling threads, they’re done by this time considering boosters used. Even if you added no ammonia within ten days a bottle bac juicing will have covered all surface area

The way to prove it’s cycled is by arranging the ammonia test a certain way then redoing it for proof of bac establishment. If yours fails the test we will log it as the first example in our cycling thread

 

[Leon Gorani]

your cycle is done but you are measuring waste water so that’s subject to interpretation and test differences home to home. There’s another way to prove it’s cycled, it’s not using the current method

We cannot apply concentrated formulated bottle bac into a high surface area + hydrated media and fail to get a cycle

So how would I test that it is cycled without this method?? Should I do a water change? I put in two hermit crabs and they are alive for the past 2 days

 

[Leon Gorani]

If you still have high nitrites at week 8 then you have a problem. For now kick back and enjoy the nice clean tank.

It’s only been up and running for a week

 

[lapin]

I put in two hermit crabs and they are alive for the past 2 days

Are you feeding them? They do need food.

 

[Cell]

If you still have high nitrites at week 8 then you have a problem. For now kick back and enjoy the nice clean tank.

Clean tank? What's that?

 

[brandon429]

No need to test further, didn’t realize the system has been carrying a small bioload that’s enough for sure. It’s best to introduce fish after you do the fallow + quarantine approach which adds another 76 days anyway but you can stock some easy starter corals now, they’ll live.

We shouldn’t spike ammonia in the present of animals, that they’re alive presents ammonia to the system and small bioload tax it’s perfect. Add a couple zoanthids if lighting is ready etc

The way to calibrate any reef + tester for proof or not of bac, but not when animals are present, is to take a picture of the ammonia test as it stands now from the tank.

If those animals are alive daily it’s not compounding any ammonia, so what the tester reads now would be calibrated zero even if not perfect yellow (the classic .25 reading is no surprise)

We would re dose ammonia back up to the first increment of change your tester can read, close to half a ppm if possible


Whatever makes the first visual change to light green for api...stop there. Retest in 24 hours it w be back to calibrated zero on the tester / proof. The reason nitrite and nitrate don’t factor is nitrate is for algae tuning, we have full running reefs that can’t even sustain nitrate above zero with stump remover dosing, so it’s presence varies. Nitrite is neutral in reefing, doesn’t matter if it’s there or not. every google cycle chart already shows nitrite and ammonia always comply with each other by day forty, so who cares what it reads now as a neutral nitrogen species in reef tank chloride amnts

Ammonia performance is how to call a cycle done for sure but we already know yours is done by time frame stated plus boosters and bioload.

 

[brandon429]

Hey I didn’t recall we just ran one of these exact tests

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/tank-cycle-help.626882/#post-6263950

All aquariums cycle by the same time approx, they don’t stall

 

[brandon429]

How is this tank / update

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/nitrates-disappeared-mid-cycle.251059/

That’s a neat thread on single point cycle verification

Based on that, curious to know if ammonia is still zero here