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- Oct 23, 2018
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So I am starting my first reef tank using mostly dry rock and have been learning about how cycling works for dry rock setups. In my readings, I noticed a fair number of people recommending that we ignore nitrite and just focus on ammonia and nitrate.
The primary reasoning behind ignoring nitrate appears to be due to its low toxicity to marine fish and ornamental inverts (eg snails, crabs, shrimp, etc). But what about corals, anemones and clams?
Now in addition to my new dry rock tank, I have a bin of mature live rock (infested with bubble algae) where I have clams and gigantea anemones that are healthy.I also have a smaller tank full of live rock from the ocean with magnifica anemone and other corals doing well. Both live rock systems have zero nitrites while my relatively newer dry rock tank with fiah and snails has noticeable nitrites.
I have been trying to decide when to move some of my anemones clams and corals from the live rock systems to the dry rock tank and have been super weary of the nitrite... while nitrite might not be fatal to fish and CuC, perhaps it is an indicator of other aspects of tank maturity (eg bacterial).
Thoughts? Is it possible to have mature tanks with nitrites or nitrite oxide which might be showing up in our nitrite test results? Should we stop ignoring Nitrite when it comes to tank maturity beyond initial cycling for fish?
The primary reasoning behind ignoring nitrate appears to be due to its low toxicity to marine fish and ornamental inverts (eg snails, crabs, shrimp, etc). But what about corals, anemones and clams?
Now in addition to my new dry rock tank, I have a bin of mature live rock (infested with bubble algae) where I have clams and gigantea anemones that are healthy.I also have a smaller tank full of live rock from the ocean with magnifica anemone and other corals doing well. Both live rock systems have zero nitrites while my relatively newer dry rock tank with fiah and snails has noticeable nitrites.
I have been trying to decide when to move some of my anemones clams and corals from the live rock systems to the dry rock tank and have been super weary of the nitrite... while nitrite might not be fatal to fish and CuC, perhaps it is an indicator of other aspects of tank maturity (eg bacterial).
Thoughts? Is it possible to have mature tanks with nitrites or nitrite oxide which might be showing up in our nitrite test results? Should we stop ignoring Nitrite when it comes to tank maturity beyond initial cycling for fish?