On Sep. 5th, I got my fluval evo tank with about 15 pounds of dry rock and 20 pounds of pink fiji sand. I started cycling my tank with 1oz of Fritz turbo start 900 along with a cleaner shrimp and a hermit crab, since the owner of the LFS told me that I can immediately add livestock after using the turbo start 900. I let the tank cycled for about 4 days, I tested my water everyday and the Ammonia, nitrite level are 0. I was thinking that my tank is cycled. On Monday Sep. 9th, I added two clownfish with an emerald crab, also some soft corals including a kenya tree coral, a pulsing xenia, a duncan coral, a green start polyp, and a candy cane (which I now know is a mistake, I should not have added coral this early). I also added a bottle of Fritzzyme 9 just to be safe. After adding the clownfish, the ammonia level stays on 0.25 sometimes 0.5, but the nitrite is about 0.25 and kept rising. One of my fish is swimming on the surface and the edge of the tank, on Sep 12 it jumped out of my tank and died, which made me very sad. I immediately move the other fish to my friend's 50-gallon tank and he is doing fine in there. After that, I tested my water every day, the ammonia level is decreasing down to almost 0, but my nitrite level keeps rising to almost 5ppm and nitrate is staying at 20ppm. The corals are doing perfectly fine in the tank. I did 25% water change every 3 to 4 days and I am running a fluval ps2 skimmer and a media rack with filter floss, purigen, and chemipure elite. I also use seachem water conditioner every day. I am wondering what is the cause of the high nitrite level. Is my tank fully cycled yet? What should I do from now on?
New Fluval Evo 13.5 Tank Help!!
- Thread starter JayChen
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Willu
Active Member
There’s not much you can do apart from waiting. The high nitrite is the result of your tank not being fully cycled and so the high nitrite is just the second pat of the cycle. Even though you used the bacterial boost, it isn’t going to immediately cycle your tank, rather it will speed up the process.
When you first added it with the hermits and the shrimp, you tested and got zero ammonia and zero nitrite because your bioload was so small and so ofc there wouldn’t be any detectable ammonia or nitrite. But when you added fish and corals, you experienced an ammonia spike bc fish produce much more ammonia, hence why you currently have high nitrites as the ammonia was converted to nitrite and will eventually convert to nitrates.
Although it is too late I would have suggested that in conjunction with the bacterial boost, you should have dosed ammonia in the tank either via some ammonia solution or by throwing fish food to increase the ammonia in order to feed the bacteria you are dosing. Then I would have waited until my ammonia and nitrites are both zero and perform a large water change and then add animals.
Some advice you should keep in mind, don’t always listen to what the guy at the store tells you, their main goal is to make sales. Not saying that they are always wrong, perhaps they have different experiences, but you should always take their advice with a grain of salt and do as much of your own research as possible. Also, Rushing anything in this hobby is bad, it often leads to people struggling and not understanding why their tanks are doing so poorly, nothing good happens fast in this hobby and on the contrary, bad things happen fast.
When you first added it with the hermits and the shrimp, you tested and got zero ammonia and zero nitrite because your bioload was so small and so ofc there wouldn’t be any detectable ammonia or nitrite. But when you added fish and corals, you experienced an ammonia spike bc fish produce much more ammonia, hence why you currently have high nitrites as the ammonia was converted to nitrite and will eventually convert to nitrates.
Although it is too late I would have suggested that in conjunction with the bacterial boost, you should have dosed ammonia in the tank either via some ammonia solution or by throwing fish food to increase the ammonia in order to feed the bacteria you are dosing. Then I would have waited until my ammonia and nitrites are both zero and perform a large water change and then add animals.
Some advice you should keep in mind, don’t always listen to what the guy at the store tells you, their main goal is to make sales. Not saying that they are always wrong, perhaps they have different experiences, but you should always take their advice with a grain of salt and do as much of your own research as possible. Also, Rushing anything in this hobby is bad, it often leads to people struggling and not understanding why their tanks are doing so poorly, nothing good happens fast in this hobby and on the contrary, bad things happen fast.
juanrmattos
- Frag Plug Hater -
Simplifying... When you start a cycle with only Sand, Rock and Water your ammonia will be nearly undetectable in the water column for days... Usually is advised that you wait around 15 days to add a hardy fish (Even though some reef hobbyist are against it), you can ghost feed for the ammonia to show up. In the meantime additional dosing of components is just not necessary, just make sure to maintain your salinity up to par. The first sign of cycling progress is Diatoms (Stage of the Nitrites), then some green (Stage of the Nitrates)... And depending on what you have been doing by then maybe even some Phosphates.
My advise to you is let it be, it will be ugly for a few weeks, there is no way around it!... Remove the Purigen and everything else... Right now you only need a Biological medium (Sand, Rock and some media where bacteria can colonize, like Seachem matrix, Aquaforest Life Bio Fil, or similar porous material - Please stay away from Bio-Balls).
I read often from people saying they cycled in a few days using "this or that other product", regardless, it is impossible to mature a tank in such a short period of time, and often you see most of these examples with crashed systems or all sorts of algae problems just a couple months after (Roll eyes)
BE PATIENT... "Everything in the hobby is about being patient"...
Do yourself a favor and research everything you hear or read before trying it, there are tons of reviews in social media, @Bulk Reef Supply has an extensive channel with all sorts of tests and demonstrations of pretty much every single product available. This forum is also an excellent tool to learn from example if you know how to interpret and apply to your own reef.
Best of luck, we have all made mistakes and learned from them.
My advise to you is let it be, it will be ugly for a few weeks, there is no way around it!... Remove the Purigen and everything else... Right now you only need a Biological medium (Sand, Rock and some media where bacteria can colonize, like Seachem matrix, Aquaforest Life Bio Fil, or similar porous material - Please stay away from Bio-Balls).
I read often from people saying they cycled in a few days using "this or that other product", regardless, it is impossible to mature a tank in such a short period of time, and often you see most of these examples with crashed systems or all sorts of algae problems just a couple months after (Roll eyes)
BE PATIENT... "Everything in the hobby is about being patient"...
Do yourself a favor and research everything you hear or read before trying it, there are tons of reviews in social media, @Bulk Reef Supply has an extensive channel with all sorts of tests and demonstrations of pretty much every single product available. This forum is also an excellent tool to learn from example if you know how to interpret and apply to your own reef.
Best of luck, we have all made mistakes and learned from them.
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