- Joined
- Sep 11, 2019
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- 191
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- 82
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?