Nitrates still 160 ppm

[mike007]

If you have no fish or corals then I don't think your tank has cycled. If you added live rock you could have some die off from It. Also you said you were using spring water which might be high In nitrates. You must not have any nitrifying bacteria growth as of yet. I would do as others and do a larger water change with ro water and you might consider adding some bacterial additives. There are many good brands that you can buy at your lfs. [h=3]Bacterial Additives: Not Just for Cycling 0308[/h]

 

[Mike in CT]

I started a tank with all dry rock and my nitrates were super high as well. After 6 months I finally stated dosing vodka and. 4 months later plus some cheato, they finally came down. Now I off the vodka and keeping an I on it. Not saying it's time to dose vodka yet , just that things take a while to mature.

 

[gemini9]

I put the dead shrimp in there. Shouldnt that have cycled the tank?

 

[Bad Company]

Yes. It should have. Did you get previous ammonia and Nitrite readings that have dropped to zero? If that is the case your tank has "cycled". That said, your dry rock could still be decomposing, but the bacteria have cought up, and are staying on top of the resultant ammonia and nitrites. You really need to consider how you are going to handle the nitrates, but an early tank can have an extreme amount of it as a result of rock based decomposition. I would not add any livesock until you can ge tthe nitrates to at least below 40, but lower is much better. If you have tank lighting, algae should be having a field day! Water changes, macro algae, aglae scrubber, or other means will control the nitrates.

 

[gemini9]

I never noticed ammonia spike bu nitrites were sky high and zeroed out

 

[gemini9]

Have my light on 8 hrs but no algAe is visible

 

[Mjpisanti]

I think the test kit may be wrong or something is getting lost in translation, those nitrate levels are ridiculous and there are certain kits that if you do no follow the directions they do not work or read properly. If it is not a kit issue it would be a water issue, are you using an RO/DI? or any form of filtration for the new water you add to the tank? It is important to filter the water and actually just switched from a pharmaceutical to a Ro/DI because I needed better filtration and better water quality. Besides that I usually cycle with a couple of damsels or chromis and live rocks. I've never used the dead thing method and ive never had a problem cycling new tanks

 

[gemini9]

I did a larger 30% water change and retested my water again. Now I'm being optimistic here, but it LOOKS like it's not quite as blood red as before. I repeat, I'm being optimistic, but It looks like I've maybe reduced the nitrates from 160+ down to maybe.... 160 flat? Dare I even say, 150? Good news is, I'm starting to see some diatom growth in there so I seem to be on the right path. And for the past few water changes I have switched from natural spring water by the house, to straight RODI from walmart. Hopefully that helps.

 

[gemini9]

Did a 20% water change today and checked the nitrates. Vacuumed the substrate really well. Nitrates still 160. I've got diatoms in the tank and it seems all my copepods have vanished. Died I guess. I only see one flatworm on the glass where I used to have quite a number of them. These nitrates aren't budging. I don't even have anything in the tank. I'm changing my filters every 2 weeks, doing 20-30 percent water changes every 3-4 days and nothing seems to be working. I don't have anything in my tank except live rock. Starting to think like this is hopeless. Thought there was something wrong with my test kit so I tried testing some RODI water straight from the jub and it came out 0. This just sucks. It it's this difficult now I can only imagine how hard it will be to maintain once I finally do get fish in there. I'd never be able to keep them alive.

Tests are
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: over 160
PH was 8.0 so I added API Proper PH 8.2
Salinity is 1.023

 

[newjack0000]

Some will argue this but I would not disturb the substrate anymore. Speaking of witch. Your substrate wouldn't happen to be crushed coral or reef or w/e they call it would it? If so I bet anything that's your problem. What are you using. As for the chaeto I mentioned before I just noticed this thread is still active. Get 1 lbs or 2. It will grow pretty fast. Yes it needs to ship wet and be in atleast 12 hour light. Chance of it during is pretty slim if its overnighted. Longer than that idk.

 

[Mjpisanti]

If you're still having an imense amount of trouble getting this tank to cycle properly, and you don't have anything in the tank, i''d suggest simply starting over. I know it's not the best option but i see you're still having trouble witht he nitrates. I'm someone who has been battling nitrates myself and after i switched over to a refugium setup i have now gotten the nitrates to hold steadily between 20 and 30 ppm every week which is a record low for me down from about 80ppm per week about two months ago. I have a crushed coral bed as well and i have found that it harvests a ton of waste and ammonia build up that comes out every time i move anything. If i could switch to sand now i would but it would be too much work and all my fish are happy as is now. If i were you i would simply remove all the water, give the substrate a good rinsing outside in a bucket with a hose several times until the water comes out clear. Then start over using several damsils or chromis. I know it's not the best option but if the nitrates are already very high and you do have tons of dead copeapods and whatever else still decomposing the nitrates are not going to decrease as is anytime soon. Like i said, as someone battling nitrates still myself i know how frustrating it can be but fortunately if you havn't started with any fish yet you can try and start over to solve the problem from the start. Just my opinion, good luck with whatever you decide to do!

 

[icsparks]

Here is how I cycled my 155 gal tank that has about 115 lbs of BRS dry rock and 20 Lbs of live rock in sump.
Day 1 added dry rock to tank
Day 2 mixed up 20 gal batches of ro/id water and RC salt.
day 3 added 80 pounds of live reef sand and 20 Lbs of live rock to sump.------ Total system net is 145 Gal
Day 4 added 5 medium frozen shrimp in mesh bag to sump. started up skimmer GFO and Carbon reactors
Day 5 Phos .29 Nitrite .25 Ammonia .25 Nitrate 0
Day 8 Phos N/A Nitrite .25 Ammonia .50 Nitrate 0
Day 10 Phos .12 Nitrite 2.0 Ammonia 1.0 Nitrate 20 ------Removed very stinky shrimp from sump
Day 13 Phos .13 Nitrite 5.0 Ammonia .25 Nitrate 40
Day 16 Phos 0.1 Nitrite .25 Ammonia 0 Nitrate 20 --------adding a pinch of flake food
Day 20 Phos .08 Nitrite 0 Ammonia 0 Nitrate 20 ----------30 gal water change
Day 25 Phos .09 Nitrite 0 Ammonia 0 Nitrate 5
I have cycled many fish tanks over the years and have never had a problem with doing it this way.

 

[gemini9]

I have crushed coral. Ive heard various opinions about it but I have considered switching it out because many fish are incompatible with it. But I have also heard bad talk about the sand. Sigh

 

[Mjpisanti]

I have the crushed coral, it limits your options for fish more which works for me. For nitrates sand is much better

 

[gemini9]

If I switch out my cc for sand now, will I start another cycle?

 

[gemini9]

I dont REALLY want to start over. Its been over a month already.

 

[newjack0000]

there is a process for it. You want to do a little at a time. I would take a cup of CC out and a cup of sand in every few days until its 100% this way your bacteria colony will not be completely taken out. It could start a mini cycle but in the long run sand IMO is better. The only bad thing about sand that I know of is you can get some bad HKs. People take care of there sand in 2 ways. One they leave it alone. I don't touch my sand bed unless there something wrong like cyano. Others like to clean it or shift it around and so on. I rather leave that up to fish and inverts to do that more naturally.

 

[gemini9]

I may do that. Live sand or Bagged sand? The only thing they have at LFS is bagged sand. They have a tank of live rock, but no live sand.

 

[newjack0000]

usually what you want is the bagged live sand like this

Marine Substrates: CaribSea Ocean Direct Caribbean Live Sand at Foster & Smith Aquatics

 

[fishroomlady]

your tank is so young I think dealing with the CC as your problem is premature imo. Have you gotten your LFS to test your water? After so many water changes, you should be seeing more of a substantial decrease in your nitrates. Your test results do not make sense to me. I would suggest you get a second opinion on your test results before doing anything drastic like changing your substrate. FWIW, I have a mix of cc and sand and it looks good and I haven't had issues related to it. It's about 1 - 1 1/2 inch deep.