Help a newbie please

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Misspoke, my bad. If you add exess of organic material than it will spike ammonia before converting to po4 and no3, and will of course raise your nutrients

Um, yes, because "nutrients" are po4 and no3...

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

Um, yes, because "nutrients" are po4 and no3...

Yes

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Honestly you're probably right on that one, was just trying to give basic knowelage and advice.

And unfortunately, the "basic knowledge and advice" you gave was totally incorrect.

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

And unfortunately, the "basic knowledge and advice" you gave was totally incorrect.

In my defense not totally incorrect

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

And unfortunately, the "basic knowledge and advice" you gave was totally incorrect.

I'll just... go back to giving coral and hitchhiker advice...


Got a bit too carried away, probably shouldn't be giving advice on something I know little about

 

[Thresher's Reef]

I'll just... go back to giving coral and hitchhiker advice...


Got a bit too carried away, probably shouldn't be giving advice on something I know little about

Well I appreciate you trying anyways, thank you!

 

[Thresher's Reef]

All this means is that your nitRATE probably isn't as high as the test indicates. The presence of nitRITE makes nitRATE results higher than they actually are. If your inverts aren't dying, your ammonia is not too high. It's possible that a snail died and decayed in the tank, raising the ammonia temporarily. A water change is your best defense right now. It will immediately reduce ammonia.

A quarantine tank will be just as likely to accumulate ammonia since it definitely won't be cycled.

Take a breath, you're doing fine. If your ammonia is creeping up, do a water change. If you're really concerned, add some Fritz Turbo Start or Biospira. DO NOT ADD PRIME OR OTHER "AMMONIA DETOXIFIER"; they will make your test results meaningless.

Alright, I do have another bottle of turbostart 900 so what I might do is just pour that in tonight after a 75% water change just to be safe. I'm sorry I know that I may have moved too fast but I thought the tank was cycled truly. I wanted to do everything right in the beginning and still screwed up I guess. But you think if wouldn't be the solution to build a holding tank real quick?

 

[DrDirt]

This seems like a good strategy. If ammonia continues to rise then consider increasing your total biological filtration capacity be adding some additional rock.

Hang in there. You are doing fine.

 

[Thresher's Reef]

This seems like a good strategy. If ammonia continues to rise then consider increasing your total biological filtration capacity be adding some additional rock.

Hang in there. You are doing fine.

Thanks, I'll do that and update how it goes! That is if anybody cares haha

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Alright, I do have another bottle of turbostart 900 so what I might do is just pour that in tonight after a 75% water change just to be safe. I'm sorry I know that I may have moved too fast but I thought the tank was cycled truly. I wanted to do everything right in the beginning and still screwed up I guess. But you think if wouldn't be the solution to build a holding tank real quick?

The only problem with a "holding tank" is that it will definitely be uncycled... If you only have corals and inverts, and the inverts are still alive, then there's no need to move them to another tank.

 

[Uncle99]

Alright, I hate to be the noob with the issue this time, but I have to admit my lack of knowledge even after research. My tank has been up and running for almost 4 weeks. When I first started cycling, I accidentally dosed too much ammonia from algaebarn and I think it killed off at least half of the fritz turbostart 900 that I added at the time. To try and remedy that mistake, I did a 50 % water change and which lowered the ammonia enough that the bacteria kicked in ( I assumed) because the next day the ammonia was almost zero even though it was down to around 2ppm after the WC.
I then had another mistake happen where I wanted to add copepods to help out my bacteria but there was a miscommunication between me and Dinkins about the dosage of their phyto and I ended up pouring the entire 16 oz bottle of phyto into my 25 gallon lagoon (as you can imagine, that didn't go well). They said it would still clear up overnight when I contacted them, however it didn't and so I finally did another WC to rid the tank of its green coloration.
Shortly after the phyto incident I noticed my ammonia was showing 0 and do was my nitrite and I had around 50 ppm nitrates. I did a test to see if the tank was truly cycled by dosing ammonia to 1 ppm and within 24 hours, then ammonia was almost at 0 so I assumed the tank was cycled. Since then I have added some corals, a clean up crew consisting of snails only, and a peppermint shrimp due to having aiptasia on one of my frags. P.S. I didn't add the clean up crew until I saw diatoms growing on my rocks.
Here is my situation now:
Since adding the cleanup crew and the algae showing up, my ammonia hanna checker has been showing my ammonia slowly creeping up and not slowing down.... the first day it was at 0.06ppm, second day was 0.07ppm, and after adding snails it was at 0.20ppm yesterday and now today it is 0.27ppm. What have I done wrong? PLEASE KEEP IN MIND IM COMPLETELY NEW TO THIS WITH A FEW MONTHS OF RESEARCH BEFOREHAND! I realize I am going to make mistakes and that I've probably made one here and I'm trying to fix it so please take it easy on me. It's taking a lot for me to post on here and ask for help so any help would be greatly appreciated! I also forgot to mention that my alkalinity is staying in the 6-6.8 dKH range. I'm assuming this may just be the algae and corals using it up? Do I need to start dosing alkalinity even with just 8 small frags of coral? Sorry if it is a stupid question, but again I'm just a beginner my knowledge is not vast. Again, thank you for any help!

Maintain a stable 8-12 dkh at all times.
Did anything die? If not, forget the ammonia.
Hard to measure accurately, like phosphate, so little in the water.

 

[Thresher's Reef]

Maintain a stable 8-12 dkh at all times.
Did anything die? If not, forget the ammonia.

That's another thing, my dKH won't get any higher than 6-6.8 range. Should I dose alkalinity when my tank is actually cycled?

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

That's another thing, my dKH won't get any higher than 6-6.8 range. Should I dose alkalinity when my tank is actually cycled?

What all does your salt mix to? Assuming salinity is close to 1.026, a water change might be enough if the salt mix's alk is above 7.

 

[Uncle99]

That's another thing, my dKH won't get any higher than 6-6.8 range. Should I dose alkalinity when my tank is actually cycled?

First, put MG in the 1350-1400 slot. When MG low, Alk reads inconsistent.

Then measure Alk and CA.

Adjust by either water change or 2-part into the ranges.
Keep them there.

You may likely be able to keep everything in line with regular 10% water changes. Start dosing when water changes are not enough.

 

[Thresher's Reef]

What all does your salt mix to? Assuming salinity is close to 1.026, a water change might be enough if the salt mix's alk is above 7.

I use the AF reef salt and I've been making it to the LPS readings on the bucket which is 1.025 and the dKH it says on the bucket is in the 7.3-7.7 range so idk what's happening there

 

[Thresher's Reef]

First, put MG in the 1350-1400 slot. When MG low, Alk reads inconsistent.

Then measure Alk and CA.

Adjust by either water change or 2-part into the ranges.
Keep them there.

You may likely be able to keep everything in line with regular 10% water changes. Start dosing when water changes are not enough.

According to my hanna checker, the magnesium is at 1416

 

[F4u-SuperCorsair]

If it were me I would start doing 20% water changes every day until your tank stabilizes. No matter what everyone is saying nitrites and ammonia are very bad for your tank and you need to get those numbers down.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

If it were me I would start doing 20% water changes every day until your tank stabilizes. No matter what everyone is saying nitrites and ammonia are very bad for your tank and you need to get those numbers down.

Ammonia, yes.
Nitrites, no.

 

[F4u-SuperCorsair]

Ammonia, yes.
Nitrites, no.

I would suggest you read up on the side effects of nitrites. Hint, it's not good.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I would suggest you read up on the side effects of nitrites. Hint, it's not good.

You really don't understand marine cycling/chemistry, do you?
Sure at insanely high levels, nitrite can be bad. At the levels we're re talking about, ALL NITRITE DOES IS MESS UP YOUR NITRATE TEST!