Water parameters

MrMeanyHead · Apr 7, 2026

So I’m a little worried about my pH, I’m not always the best with colors so I have my gf help me with the colors. We think the pH is at 7.8.

How can I fix this while I’m still cycling my tank?
Also what pH should I be looking for?

MrMeanyHead · Apr 7, 2026

This is my third day cycling. Second time testing water parameters. And to me it seems like the bacteria have almost run through all the ammonia and have started making a ton nitrate.

Here’s my initial test from the second day. I didn’t test pH that day because my salinity was high and I syphoned the tank a little bit and filled with some Rodi water to bring it down.

Mebbid · Apr 7, 2026

I wouldn't worry much about the pH, especially while cycling. Optimal target for a reef tank is 8.3, but 7.8 to 8.5 is considered fine. For a fish only tank, it's less important.

Right now while cycling the parameters you need to worry about are ammonia, nitrate, temperature, and salinity.

The salinity shouldn't budge as long as your tank is getting topped off appropriately. The temperature should be fine as long as your heater is functioning properly and is calibrated, shoot for 78 degrees. Beyond that, it's just a waiting game.

Mr. Mojo Rising · Apr 7, 2026

......

Gumbies R Us · Apr 7, 2026

This article might be useful to you!

Cycling a Brand New Reef Aquarium

The cycling stages of a brand new reef aquarium.

www.reef2reef.com

get-salty · Apr 7, 2026

Agreed. Please the article above, it will give you a better understanding on cycling an aquarium. It will help you save time and money

good luck

MrMeanyHead · Apr 7, 2026

Thank you for the help

Gumbies R Us said:
This article might be useful to you!

Cycling a Brand New Reef Aquarium

The cycling stages of a brand new reef aquarium.

www.reef2reef.com

MrMeanyHead · Apr 7, 2026

Gumbies R Us said:
This article might be useful to you!

Cycling a Brand New Reef Aquarium

The cycling stages of a brand new reef aquarium.

www.reef2reef.com

So I have a few questions regarding the article. First is the Nitrate cycle.

The article says to wait for the nitrates to bottom out to confirm your nitrogen cycle is complete. Everywhere online says at this point to do a big water change and then slowly start to add in live stock. Should I be waiting for my Nitrates to bottom in my nano tank or at that point do a water change and start slowly adding in clean up crew.

Second is do I let the diatoms and cyano run their course and go away on their own.

Finally for the hair algae it sounded like I remove it once it shows up. Do I add in clean up crew to deal with it or just as well let it run its course.

Fish Fan · Apr 7, 2026

From the article above:
"Nitrates are removed within the live rock deep inside in all of the deep pores. This hidden bacteria consumes the nitrate and creates nitrogen gas as a byproduct. The nitrogen gas rises in the water column and escapes into the air. When one gas leaves, another enters. Oxygen is then infused into the water. After the Nitrates start to dissipate your oxygen will increase and you will be ready for the intermission."

I wouldn't worry about this at all, it's more theoretical that practical. It takes very deep, dense rock for denitrification to happen in your tank, and this isn't really a part of the initial nitrogen cycle that prepares your tank for livestock.

In your first pic I can see that your ammonia concentration was elevated; that's good. What is the ammonia now?

You want your ammonia to go down to nearly zero (~0.25 ppm) and you should then be god to start to slowly add some hardly livestock. There's no need to measure or be concerned with nitrite, it's not toxic.

Many suggest that you do a large water change when your fish-less cycle is done to lower high nitrate. In my opinion, this is unnecessary because when you have nitrite in the water, it causes your nitrate test to read artificially high, so for this reason you don't really know what your nitrate concentration is until all the nitrite has gone down to zero. This is maybe the only reason to test for nitrite, and even then you don't have to, just give it a couple more weeks.

I hope that helps, post back with further questions!

Fish Fan · Apr 7, 2026

Also for the above article:
"Stage 2: Nitrite Cycle

Ammonia when broken down by bacteria becomes nitrite, which is still a toxin"

That's incorrect, nitrite is non-toxic in marine tanks. It's an old throw-back to keeping freshwater tank where nitrite is toxic, but it's nothing to worry about in saltwater tanks

Nitrite Toxicity

Hey guys I have an aquarium system that has about 45gallons of water cycling so I Let it cycle for about week and I added seeded marine pure ceramic balls and the bacteria in a bottle. I had no choice but to add my 2 clownfish from my quarantine into the tank.. because I needed to put a sick...

www.reef2reef.com

MrMeanyHead · Apr 7, 2026

Fish Fan said:
From the article above:
"Nitrates are removed within the live rock deep inside in all of the deep pores. This hidden bacteria consumes the nitrate and creates nitrogen gas as a byproduct. The nitrogen gas rises in the water column and escapes into the air. When one gas leaves, another enters. Oxygen is then infused into the water. After the Nitrates start to dissipate your oxygen will increase and you will be ready for the intermission."

I wouldn't worry about this at all, it's more theoretical that practical. It takes very deep, dense rock for denitrification to happen in your tank, and this isn't really a part of the initial nitrogen cycle that prepares your tank for livestock.

In your first pic I can see that your ammonia concentration was elevated; that's good. What is the ammonia now?

You want your ammonia to go down to nearly zero (~0.25 ppm) and you should then be god to start to slowly add some hardly livestock. There's no need to measure or be concerned with nitrite, it's not toxic.

Many suggest that you do a large water change when your fish-less cycle is done to lower high nitrate. In my opinion, this is unnecessary because when you have nitrite in the water, it causes your nitrate test to read artificially high, so for this reason you don't really know what your nitrate concentration is until all the nitrite has gone down to zero. This is maybe the only reason to test for nitrite, and even then you don't have to, just give it a couple more weeks.

I hope that helps, post back with further questions!

So it looks like my ammonia went down from 2 to 0.5 in a day, and as well my nitrites have stayed the same at 2, for the past 2 days, and then finally my nitrates have started to go up from 0 to 2.

My question is basically, is my tank cycling too fast?

And then as well once I’m done cycling what do I do once diatoms, cyano and hair algae come along?

get-salty · Apr 7, 2026

MrMeanyHead said:
So it looks like my ammonia went down from 2 to 0.5 in a day, and as well my nitrites have stayed the same at 2, for the past 2 days, and then finally my nitrates have started to go up from 0 to 2.

My question is basically, is my tank cycling too fast?

And then as well once I’m done cycling what do I do once diatoms, cyano and hair algae come along?

What are you using to cycle the tank?

in my experience, if you're using dr. tims ammonia and bacteria in a bottle, give or take 10 days.

with diatoms, i'd do small wc and beef up your cuc. other than that nothing for few wks.
and lets hope you will not get cyano or gha

MrMeanyHead · Apr 7, 2026

get-salty said:
What are you using to cycle the tank?

in my experience, if you're using dr. tims ammonia and bacteria in a bottle, give or take 10 days.

with diatoms, i'd do small wc and beef up your cuc. other than that nothing for few wks.
and lets hope you will not get cyano or gha

Yea I’m using Dr Tim’s one and only and a random bottle of ammonium chloride.

So basically I don’t want cyano, or hair algae.
Diatoms I just deal with by adding clean up crew

Fish Fan · Apr 7, 2026

You're going to get all those uglies and more, especially if you've used dry base rock to start off with. Don't worry too much about them, there's only a couple that are really difficult to deal with, like dinoflagellate algae.

In my experience, a fish-less cycle using Dr. Tim's One and Only with bottled ammonium chloride takes +/- 3 weeks, but we've seen as fast as one week.

No, I don't think your tank is cycling too fast, but I do doubt that the ammonia dropped from 2.0 ppm to 0.50 ppm in one day, that seems a little quick. I would just make sure you're consistent with your testing, make sure you're reading the colors under the same lighting, etc.

Test your ammonia again tomorrow and in a day or so, and if it's about 0.25 ppm to lower I'd say you're in good shape

MrMeanyHead · Apr 7, 2026

Fish Fan said:
You're going to get all those uglies and more, especially if you've used dry base rock to start off with. Don't worry too much about them, there's only a couple that are really difficult to deal with, like dinoflagellate algae.

In my experience, a fish-less cycle using Dr. Tim's One and Only with bottled ammonium chloride takes +/- 3 weeks, but we've seen as fast as one week.

No, I don't think your tank is cycling too fast, but I do doubt that the ammonia dropped from 2.0 ppm to 0.50 ppm in one day, that seems a little quick. I would just make sure you're consistent with your testing, make sure you're reading the colors under the same lighting, etc.

Test your ammonia again tomorrow and in a day or so, and if it's about 0.25 ppm to lower I'd say you're in good shape

Thank you for the help. I probably lowered the ammonia levels slightly when I took about a gallon of water out of tank. I was just being stupid, I hadn’t properly calibrated my refractometer and the salinity read 1.03.
Basically me being stupid and new to the hobby.

Ive also been dosing extra Dr Tim’s one and only. I figure why not it doesn’t hurt and it’s just going to expire otherwise.

Fish Fan · Apr 7, 2026

If your salinity was 1.030 that might make the bacteria take a little longer to populate. According to Dr. Tim, they grow more quickly at lower salinities.

Some members here at R2R do advise that you can overdose these bacterial products. It might sound wasteful, but I wouldn't add more of the Dr. Tim's One and Only, you likely have all that you need, they just need a chance to grow and populate on the rocks and sand, etc.