Waiting out the uglies or getting the uglies out of the way?

[trevorhiller]

I seem to be through my tank cycle. Ammonia is zero, nitrite is ? ( I don’t know how to read this purple color on API Kit, it’s been stuck at this color before and after 90% water change), Nitrate was maxed on API kit. Tank is on day 14 after being dosed with Microbacter Start and Dr. Tim’s ammonia.

I did a 90% water change, afterwards Nitrate is still 40 ppm so I’m planning another large one. This makes me think it was REALLY high at the end of the cycle.

My next question is about the lights on or off. It’s been a few years since I’ve had a reef tank and there seems to be two schools of thought now. Keep the lights off and wait out 4 months or turn them on short cycle/low intensity and let the uglies begin to work themselves out. What to do? I personally think, it needs to happen and work itself out, but I also trust the BRS folks so I’m torn.

I dosed the tank with Purple Helix and Pink fusion the other day—I’m a sucker for Purple). I’d also like to dose some copepods at some point.

I’m perfectly fine waiting to put fish and coral in, but I’d really like to start seeing some life in the tank. My last tank I used live rock from petco and while messy, it was definitely full of organisms (good and bad). This dry rock is just so darn…. White.

appreciate your opinions.

 

[Waters]

I personally would leave the lights off until you get your nutrients under control. Turning lights on with your nitrates being that high will just feed anything undesirable that will quickly start growing.

 

[Aqua Man]

Tank is on day 14 after being dosed with Microbacter Start and Dr. Tim’s ammonia.

If you added the 4 drops per gallon, than it’s highly likely that ammonia was overdosed. So that explains why nitrates are so high. And possibly the Nitrites.

how to read this purple color on API Kit, it’s been stuck at this color before and after 90% water change),

The test vial does not look full ? While API is not the greatest, if directions are followed exactly, they work ok.

I dosed the tank with Purple Helix and Pink fusion the other day—I’m a sucker for Purple). I’d also like to dose some copepods at some point.

Coralline is going to need light to grow. Well at least those colors. They are a couple other colors that do grow in very low light conditions. Adding copepods and phytoplankton is a good plan.

Also regarding coralline and a new tank in general, start testing the other water parameters too. Alkalinity and PO4. Your dry rock could have phosphate or maybe not. Good to know now. Hanna ultra low phosphorus is highly recommended.

I say turn the lights on at a lower intensity if possible and add some snails!! Please post a picture, FTS!!

 

[Chrisv.]

With regard to NO2 the consensus is split. Plenty of people just advocate for ignoring it. It's not toxic to fish in the presence of the ions in salt water. There is more nuance to the discussion, but honestly that's probably all you need to know. The only concern I have is that extremely high nitrite will 1) actually interfere significantly with the performance of a nitrate test (you can't trust a nitrate test with high nitrite present, period.) and 2) eventually in that nitrite has to go somewhere, likely it will become a nitrate issue later on. This is such a ...discussed... topic here that by posting this you almost certainly said Beetlejuice's name three times. I'd advocate for patience and a couple of water changes. After each water change you can dose more bottled bact. Those products work. In my tank I used both Dr tims and biospira. One key detail is that the bacteria that convert nitrITE to nitrATE take longer to grow than the the ones that metabolize ammonia to nitrite. They have a replication time of like 40 hours.

Purple Helix and Pink Fusion require light.

Going from bare dry rock to something you actually want is an example of ecological succession. Certain things grow and give way to more (or less) desirable things until some sort of balance is achieved.

I don't know if microalgae dominance is an important step along the way, but some degree of microalgae colonization is certainly a part of what most people consider mature reef rock.

At some point it will grow and it must. My vote is lights on when your cycle is done. When that nitrite test looks clean go for it.

And since everyone will no doubt say it, api test kits are sort of crap.

 

[mike89t]

If you still have nitrite your nitrate will test off the chart

don’t test for nitrate until your nitrite gets closer to zero. The bacteria that convert nitrite to nitrate take a while to multiply.

 

[Chrisv.]

If you still have nitrite your nitrate will test off the chart

This.

 

[Jekyl]

Ugly phase is a natural, normal part of owning a reef. Allow nature to takes its coarse and stop reading forum warriors or articles that say otherwise.

 

[Chrisv.]

Also, add a couple of pieces of live rock and your "uglies" will be greatly reduced or not happen at all. We never ever had "uglies" when we used live rock for our tanks. It's a word BRS came up with to justify the fact that the dry rock they sold made most people's tanks look like a point of sale for a year.

 

[mike89t]

I recently went through a cycle on my Display Tank and Quarantine Tank using bottled bacteria. In both instances it took about 3 weeks for the nitrite to start to come down.

 

[shadow_k]

I would also just suggest letting the uglys pass through its stage it happens to everyone we can’t prevent it but we can certainly contain it ! I would say no light in the tank it’s just fueling the algae in the tank.

How my rock started in January very white lol

The rock now ! It’s gonna take a while for the rock to culture all the good bacteria

 

[tharbin]

I would leave the lights off until you can get the nitrates down around 20 or so with no nitrites (as stated you won't get accurate nitrate readings while you have nitrites) but then I personally turn on the lights and let the uglies do their thing. It's almost for sure going to happen anyway so I feel it is better to do it before I've stocked heavily. In fact I usually don't stock at all until I have a diatom bloom going, then add trochus and cerith snails to do battle.

 

[trevorhiller]

Wow! Thanks for all the replies! Let me address some of your responses.


re: ammonia overdose. I did half dosing and tested until ammonia was 2 ppm. It never exceeded 2 ppm. But maybe?


Re: phos
- i have some Hanna nitrate and phosphate checkers coming to try to get some better reads. The API kit was on clearance for $20 at petco and I picked it up to try to get through the cycle. Right now the phos is testing at 0.25 (the lowest the api kit reads).

Re: high nitrate- definitely planning to water change before adding anything. I expected the Nitrate to be much lower after the water change, but that wasn’t the case, so I’m repeating. It takes me a little while to mix up 15 gallons of salt water though since I only have the 75 gpd RO system. I’m just asking for tips on how to proceed once the nitrates are back down.

re: live rock - the only source I have for live rock locally that I can find is petco and their rock looks horrendous. I’d prefer not to put in my tank

re: test vials not being full. Those aren’t the api vials, they are my own spare set of test tubes, that’s why you can’t see the line.
I appreciate all the feedback. My salt should be finished mixing today, I’ll do another large water change and post the parameters.

 

[mike89t]

Re: high nitrate- definitely planning to water change before adding anything. I expected the Nitrate to be much lower after the water change, but that wasn’t the case, so I’m repeating. It takes me a little while to mix up 15 gallons of salt water though since I only have the 75 gpd RO system. I’m just asking for tips on how to proceed once the nitrates are back down.

Again you probably don't have high nitrates. It's your Nitrite that is showing up on the Nitrate test. Don't waste your time testing for Nitrate until your Nitrite is at zero.

 

[ReefGeezer]

You are not likely to skip the ugly phase particularly if you started with dry rock and an elevated ammonia dose. Embrace them, manage them until they pass, learn.

 

[trevorhiller]

Again you probably don't have high nitrates. It's your Nitrite that is showing up on the Nitrate test. Don't waste your time testing for Nitrate until your Nitrite is at zero.

Ok, I just retested out of curiosity before the water change and this is what it’s looking like today along with my log. It does seem the Nitrite is a different shade of color than before, definitely lighter. I think I’m just going to go hands off for a few days and hold the water change since the Nitrite appears to be changing colors since the big water change.

I don’t know how I would have overdosed ammonia, but maybe I did and this water change restarted the stalled cycle.

Looking back in my log, I added 20 drops ammonium chloride on 11/5. That should be about 2 drops per gallon as I estimate I have about 11.5-12 gallons of water after completing my 95% water change. (I sucked out everything I could before the siphon wouldn’t hold).

 

[mike89t]

Ok, I just retested out of curiosity before the water change and this is what it’s looking like today along with my log. It does seem the Nitrite is a different shade of color than before, definitely lighter. I think I’m just going to go hands off for a few days and hold the water change since the Nitrite appears to be changing colors since the big water change.

I don’t know how I would have overdosed ammonia, but maybe I did and this water change restarted the stalled cycle.

Looking back in my log, I added 20 drops ammonium chloride on 11/5. That should be about 2 drops per gallon as I estimate I have about 11.5-12 gallons of water after completing my 95% water change. (I sucked out everything I could before the siphon wouldn’t hold).

Yeah it looks a little bit lighter. Once it goes to blue you can start testing for Nitrate.

 

[trevorhiller]

Yeah it looks a little bit lighter. Once it goes to blue you can start testing for Nitrate.

Nice thank you.
Didn’t realize high nitrite would throw off the Nitrate reading. My Hanna nitrate checked also just showed up in the mail, so once I’m blue hopefully can get some accurate results.

 

[Jekyl]

Nice thank you.
Didn’t realize high nitrite would throw off the Nitrate reading. My Hanna nitrate checked also just showed up in the mail, so once I’m blue hopefully can get some accurate results.

Something I will do with my next tank is get rock from gulfliverock.com
Something for you to look into if adding live rock is something you're interested in.

 

[trevorhiller]

Something I will do with my next tank is get rock from gulfliverock.com
Something for you to look into if adding live rock is something you're interested in.

I definitely would have been interested in this before I bought dry rock, however, I was trying to save some money and most sites are out/backordered so dry rock was the obvious choice.