Nitrite explosion

[JFJ]

Hi, I am cycling a Red Sea Reefer 350 in day 13 of 21 days with the RedSea mature kit. I do have an algie explosion, pH is 8.1 Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0,3 and The shocker is Nitrate of 50 and it is supposed to be 10, 5% waterchange scheduled for tomorrow. How do I lower the Nitrate fast?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Hi, I am cycling a Red Sea Reefer 350 in day 13 of 21 days with the RedSea mature kit. I do have an algie explosion, pH is 8.1 Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0,3 and The shocker is Nitrate of 50 and it is supposed to be 10, 5% waterchange scheduled for tomorrow. How do I lower the Nitrate fast?

Ignore it. 0.3 ppm nitrite can easily read "correctly" as 30 ppm nitrate, which is within the kit error of the 50 ppm you mention. Thus, there may be almost no nitrate present at the moment. Just monitor.

 

[Salemsoul]

Lowering them through water changes. Honestly that would be the fastest approach to removing nitrates from your water. Is the 10ppm per instructions of a bottled bacteria? Or your own desire ?

 

[JFJ]

Lowering them through water changes. Honestly that would be the fastest approach to removing nitrates from your water. Is the 10ppm per instructions of a bottled bacteria? Or your own desire ?

It is the suggested level according to the Reef Mature starter kit.

I did a waterchange in any case, it is only one day premature.

 

[JFJ]

Ignore it. 0.3 ppm nitrite can easily read "correctly" as 30 ppm nitrate, which is within the kit error of the 50 ppm you mention. Thus, there may be almost no nitrate present at the moment. Just monitor.

Thanks for the reassurance, is the algae boom normal?

 

[kaceyo]

There should be high nitrate at the end of your cycle. It tells you that the cycle is completing and all the nitrogen consuming bacteria have grown and multiplied enough to produce the nitrates you have. When the nitrites hit 0, do a huge (80% to 90%) wc to remove the nitrate laden water and your good to go on adding some life to the tank.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I think lots of folks misunderstand the cycle and mistakenly think there is a lot of nitrate because of the way the nitrate kits are designed. Don’t overreact to elevated readings of nitrate.

 

[JFJ]

I think lots of folks misunderstand the cycle and mistakenly think there is a lot of nitrate because of the way the nitrate kits are designed. Don’t overreact to elevated readings of nitrate.

Thank you, and the fact that my tank is currently greener than my lawn is that OK? Still got a week or so NOPOX and KH coralline grow to dose.

 

[Thespammailaccount]

Thanks for the reassurance, is the algae boom normal?

I kept the lights off when my 10 gallon was cycling so there would be no algae

 

[Cerberusfish]

As long as there are no fish and corals to worry about I say don't worry about it. My personal opinion is let it cycle for as long as it needs to then a little more just to be safe. Like someone else said, once the ammonia and nitrite are fully converted just do I big water change to bring them down to acceptable levels. Plus if you're like me and just cycle the tank with fish food, this is a great time to clean up your rocks and sand bed of any debris that may have ended up there.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Thank you, and the fact that my tank is currently greener than my lawn is that OK? Still got a week or so NOPOX and KH coralline grow to dose.

Algae typically grows just as well at 10 ppm as at 1,000 ppm. Neither is growth limiting is most situations.

 

[JFJ]

Did run all the tests again as suggested in the RedSea Mature kit for day 14.
also did a 15% water change yesterday.
Temp 26
PH 8.17
KH 8.5
Salinity 1026
Ammonia 0
No2 Nitrite 1 (max on test kit)
No3 Nitrate 50 (max on test kit)
Algea is getting worse, please see pic's
Still dosing NoPox and KH Coralline grow daily as suggested by the Mature kit.

What do I do, complete the 21 day's? My LFS sugested I do a 50% water change today and stop dosing the NoPox and KH Caroline grow, and only dose reseed bacteria.
Running no lights, just natural light.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Did run all the tests again as suggested in the RedSea Mature kit for day 14.
also did a 15% water change yesterday.
Temp 26
PH 8.17
KH 8.5
Salinity 1026
Ammonia 0
No2 Nitrite 1 (max on test kit)
No3 Nitrate 50 (max on test kit)
Algea is getting worse, please see pic's
Still dosing NoPox and KH Coralline grow daily as suggested by the Mature kit.

What do I do, complete the 21 day's? My LFS sugested I do a 50% water change today and stop dosing the NoPox and KH Caroline grow, and only dose reseed bacteria.
Running no lights, just natural light.

Do not assume you have elevated nitrate. With many kits, 1 ppm nitrite can read as 100 ppm nitrate.

 

[JFJ]

Do not assume you have elevated nitrate. With many kits, 1 ppm nitrite can read as 100 ppm nitrate.

So what do you suggest, just continue or do as the LFS suggest?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

The algae seems excessive assuming you are not adding any foods to the tank.

What sort of rock did you use?

But in general, waiting for the cycle to finish while manually removing algae is a decent plan.