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- Mar 14, 2017
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OK, this is my first saltwater aquarium. I migrated over from 8 years or so of freshwater and I've never encountered this issue before. I'm going to give a timeline so it's easier to follow:
Mar 9th: Cycle started with dead grocery store shrimp.
Mar 9th - 20th: Ammonia spiked and went to zero (removed shrimp after 1st week). Nitrites spiked to 5+ppm. Nitrates spiked to 160+ppm (blood red on API test).
Mar 20th-25th: Nitrites continued to stay at 5-8ppm. Would not drop. Thought maybe cycle stalled.
Mar 26th: 70% water change. Dropped Nitrite to .5-1ppm or so. Nitrates 30-40is ppm. Added 1 peppermint shrimp and 1 hermit crab.
Mar 26th-Apr 2nd: Nitrite dropped to .25ppm. Nitrates rose and stayed around 100ppm or so. Ammonia stayed at zero. Shrimp and crab stayed alive.
Apr 2nd: Decided to add small clown, small yellow tang, and two small damselfish. By small, total inches of all four fish is about 4 inches.
Apr 2nd-Apr 5th: Nitrite shot up higher than API test could read. Diluted tank sample by factor of 16 with RO/DI water. Test at .5-1ppm. That's 8-16ppm!! Nitrates skyrocketed back to 160+ (blood red again). Added live bacteria to system (entire bottle, enough for 250 gallon system. Mine is 100). Brown Hair Algae started growing on all of my live rock and the glass of the tank. The hermit crabs are loving it.
Apr 5th-Apr 8th: Nitrite stays at 8ppm (have to dilute to even get a rough reading still). All tank livestock are alive and well, showing no signs of distress. They all eat like crazy when fed and swim freely through the tank. (I've read that Nitrites don't bother saltwater fish, so that may be why)
So here's what I don't get:
1) Why is Nitrite being converted to Nitrate at humongous levels, yet not going to zero? Obviously the Nitrite bacteria exist and aren't stalled, since they're converting to Nitrate. Why aren't the bacteria finishing off the Nitrites? They seem to bring it down to 8ish ppm and just stop...?? And since Ammonia stays at zero, even with a 4 fish bioload, there must be creation of Nitrite. Yet...the Nitrite stays at around 8ppm, neither rising or dropping, and Nitrate rises and rises, indicating conversion of Nitrites. This makes zero sense to me....
2) Why did Nitrite drop after the water change, indicating a completed cycle, yet it can't keep up now?
I used live sand during set up, I have 50lbs of live rock in the display, and 2 lbs of Seachem Matrix in the sump, along with 1 lb of activated carbon, a refugium with live sand, Chaeto in the refugium, and mechanical filter media where the water drains into the sump.
It can't possibly be that I don't have enough surface area for the bacteria to propagate. And it doesn't seem like 3-4 inches of fish would be too much of a bio load.
So...what gives??
Help!
I don't want to continue doing water changes and dumping $30-40 of salt into the tank every time just for it to continue.
I've considered removing half of the water, putting it in a trash can with 30 gallons fresh salt water and some media from my tank and letting the trash can cycle, and then slowly exchanging that trash can water with tank water at a rate the bacteria can handle.
Other than that, I don't know what else to do....
Mar 9th: Cycle started with dead grocery store shrimp.
Mar 9th - 20th: Ammonia spiked and went to zero (removed shrimp after 1st week). Nitrites spiked to 5+ppm. Nitrates spiked to 160+ppm (blood red on API test).
Mar 20th-25th: Nitrites continued to stay at 5-8ppm. Would not drop. Thought maybe cycle stalled.
Mar 26th: 70% water change. Dropped Nitrite to .5-1ppm or so. Nitrates 30-40is ppm. Added 1 peppermint shrimp and 1 hermit crab.
Mar 26th-Apr 2nd: Nitrite dropped to .25ppm. Nitrates rose and stayed around 100ppm or so. Ammonia stayed at zero. Shrimp and crab stayed alive.
Apr 2nd: Decided to add small clown, small yellow tang, and two small damselfish. By small, total inches of all four fish is about 4 inches.
Apr 2nd-Apr 5th: Nitrite shot up higher than API test could read. Diluted tank sample by factor of 16 with RO/DI water. Test at .5-1ppm. That's 8-16ppm!! Nitrates skyrocketed back to 160+ (blood red again). Added live bacteria to system (entire bottle, enough for 250 gallon system. Mine is 100). Brown Hair Algae started growing on all of my live rock and the glass of the tank. The hermit crabs are loving it.
Apr 5th-Apr 8th: Nitrite stays at 8ppm (have to dilute to even get a rough reading still). All tank livestock are alive and well, showing no signs of distress. They all eat like crazy when fed and swim freely through the tank. (I've read that Nitrites don't bother saltwater fish, so that may be why)
So here's what I don't get:
1) Why is Nitrite being converted to Nitrate at humongous levels, yet not going to zero? Obviously the Nitrite bacteria exist and aren't stalled, since they're converting to Nitrate. Why aren't the bacteria finishing off the Nitrites? They seem to bring it down to 8ish ppm and just stop...?? And since Ammonia stays at zero, even with a 4 fish bioload, there must be creation of Nitrite. Yet...the Nitrite stays at around 8ppm, neither rising or dropping, and Nitrate rises and rises, indicating conversion of Nitrites. This makes zero sense to me....
2) Why did Nitrite drop after the water change, indicating a completed cycle, yet it can't keep up now?
I used live sand during set up, I have 50lbs of live rock in the display, and 2 lbs of Seachem Matrix in the sump, along with 1 lb of activated carbon, a refugium with live sand, Chaeto in the refugium, and mechanical filter media where the water drains into the sump.
It can't possibly be that I don't have enough surface area for the bacteria to propagate. And it doesn't seem like 3-4 inches of fish would be too much of a bio load.
So...what gives??
Help!
I don't want to continue doing water changes and dumping $30-40 of salt into the tank every time just for it to continue.
I've considered removing half of the water, putting it in a trash can with 30 gallons fresh salt water and some media from my tank and letting the trash can cycle, and then slowly exchanging that trash can water with tank water at a rate the bacteria can handle.
Other than that, I don't know what else to do....
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