Newbie

[edsbeaker]

Hello and welcome!

 

[Brisk]

Welcome!

 

[FrugalReefer]

 

[Peace River]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!!!

 

[michy]

Welcome to R2R!

You don't want to be doing water changes until your initial cycle is complete. The water changes will just slow down the cycle. Until both Ammonia and Nitrite are reading zero, your Nitrate reading is pretty much useless as the Nitrites will skew the results. What you are trying to do is to build up two different types of bacterial populations, one that converts Ammonia to Nitrite, and a second that converts Nitrite to Nitrate. Reducing the Ammonia or Nitrite through water changes just makes it take longer to build up a sufficient bacterial population. Once the Ammonia and Nitrite go to zero, and return to zero shortly after adding more Ammonia to the system, usually with something like Ammonium Chloride today, your tank is cycled. Then a water change will reduce the Nitrates that have built up in the tank.

Once the tank is cycled you can add non-bacterial life to the tank but do it in small amounts as each new inhabitant will increase the tanks bio-load and the bacterial population needs time to grow to match the new bio-load.

Thank u I was unaware of this , someone told me do the water change to get ammonia down , so in future I won’t change water until cycled the ammonia and nitrites don’t be seem to be going down just staying where they are is that normal ? Also when u said add ammonia in does that mean I start adding ammonia again when it goes to 0 as I was under the impression I don’t add ammonia again as I added it at the start and it reached 2.2ppm so I stopped adding it. All I’m adding daily now is stability. Sorry for all the questions just trying learn and make sure I do everything as good as I can . Really appreciate your help

 

[Jimbhoy13]

Welcome to R2R and the salty world Michy. Good advice about test kits from Vetteguy. Take things slowly. Lots of knowledgeable and helpful people here who will support and advise you when needed.
Where in the Midlands are you?

 

[zheka757]

Welcome to R2R

 

[michy]

Welcome to R2R and the salty world Michy. Good advice about test kits from Vetteguy. Take things slowly. Lots of knowledgeable and helpful people here who will support and advise you when needed.
Where in the Midlands are you?

Thank you and I’m from Stoke on Trent … trying do lots of research so all tips welcome I’m completely new and so interested in researching

 

[tharbin]

Thank u I was unaware of this , someone told me do the water change to get ammonia down , so in future I won’t change water until cycled the ammonia and nitrites don’t be seem to be going down just staying where they are is that normal ? Also when u said add ammonia in does that mean I start adding ammonia again when it goes to 0 as I was under the impression I don’t add ammonia again as I added it at the start and it reached 2.2ppm so I stopped adding it. All I’m adding daily now is stability. Sorry for all the questions just trying learn and make sure I do everything as good as I can . Really appreciate your help

Water changes will indeed bring the Ammonia level down but that is not what you want initially. You want to encourage the growth of specific strains of bacteria that will act as your first-line biological filtration. That is one of the reasons that a saltwater tank uses live/dry/manufactured rock in the display and/or sump. The bacteria live mainly on and in the rock and sand.

Starter bacteria bottles contain some of the correct strains of bacteria to get things going but they need a food source. The reason you elevated the Ammonia level in the tank was to provide food for the first group of bacteria. They start to consume the Ammonia and release Nitrite. Once there is Nitrite in the water column there is a food source for the second group of bacteria. They consume the Nitrite and release Nitrate. In a normal start up cycle you should see your initial dosing of Ammonia start to go down. The first group of bacteria are starting to grow and feed. As they feed, the Nitrite will start to accumulate so you will see the Ammonia level going down and the Nitrite level going up. That is totally normal. At some point there will be enough Nitrite in the water for the second group of bacteria to start actively feeding. For a while you will see Ammonia continue to decrease and Nitrite to either stay the same or increase and the beginnings of Nitrate formation. That is the second group of bacteria starting to feed and multiply. Eventually, depending on quite a few variables including your rock and substrate, your initial dosing, the bacterial colonies you used to seed the tank (if any), water temperature, etc. but generally you should see things resolve in 2 weeks to a month depending on the various factors.

The reason for the re-dose a day or two after you are at 0 Ammonia and 0 Nitrite is to ensure that the bacterial bed is indeed established. You could get to 0/0 by just doing water changes and not even have a bacterial population although it is impossible not to eventually establish one as long as there is Ammonia input. It should rapidly go to 0 Ammonia and 0 Nitrite again. If it doesn't wait until it gets there and then dose again.

Ammonia is very toxic to marine fish so it is important that the bacterial bed is established before adding fish, although there are a few fish that can tolerate (that is possibly survive) elevated Ammonia levels for a while. Chromis and Clownfish are two examples that were tortured on a regular basis before the no-fish methods caught on.

Once you are sure that your biological filter is established, go ahead and do a fair-sized water change to bring the Nitrates down some. Nitrates are generally not considered harmful to marine fish but it is one of the main components of fertilizer so you want to keep the levels down some to discourage algae growth but don't let the Nitrate level go to 0. Your corals need it and dinoflagellates can outcompete just about anything in their absence.

 

[kevgib67]

Welcome, glad you are here!

 

[RockRash]

 

[michy]

Water changes will indeed bring the Ammonia level down but that is not what you want initially. You want to encourage the growth of specific stains of bacteria that will act as your first-line biological filtration. That is one of the reasons that a saltwater tank uses live/dry/manufactured rock in the display and/or sump. The bacteria live mainly on and in the rock and sand.

Starter bacteria bottles contain some of the correct strains of bacteria to get things going but they need a food source. The reason you elevated the Ammonia level in the tank was to provide food for the first group of bacteria. They start to consume the Ammonia and release Nitrite. Once there is Nitrite in the water column there is a food source for the second group of bacteria. They consume the Nitrite and release Nitrate. In a normal start up cycle you should see your initial dosing of Ammonia start to go down. The first group of bacteria are starting to grow and feed. As they feed, the Nitrite will start to accumulate so you will see the Ammonia level going down and the Nitrite level going up. That is totally normal. At some point there will be enough Nitrite in the water for the second group of bacteria to start actively feeding. For a while you will see Ammonia continue to decrease and Nitrite to either stay the same or increase and the beginnings of Nitrate formation. That is the second group of bacteria starting to feed and multiply. Eventually, depending on quite a few variables including your rock and substrate, your initial dosing, the bacterial colonies you used to seed the tank (if any), water temperature, etc. but generally you should see things resolve in 2 weeks to a month depending on the various factors.

The reason for the re-dose a day or two after you are at 0 Ammonia and 0 Nitrite is to ensure that the bacterial bed is indeed established. You could get to 0/0 by just doing water changes and not even have a bacterial population although it is impossible not to eventually establish one as long as there is Ammonia input. It should rapidly go to 0 Ammonia and 0 Nitrite again. If it doesn't wait until it gets there and then dose again.

Ammonia is very toxic to marine fish so it is important that the bacterial bed is established before adding fish, although there are a few fish that can tolerate (that is possibly survive) elevated Ammonia levels for a while. Chromis and Clownfish are two examples that were tortured on a regular basis before the no-fish methods caught on.

Once you are sure that your biological filter is established, go ahead and do a fair-sized water change to bring the Nitrates down some. Nitrates are generally not considered harmful to marine fish but it is one of the main components of fertilizer so you want to keep the levels down some to discourage algae growth but don't let the Nitrate level go to 0. Your corals need it and dinoflagellates can outcompete just about anything in their absence.

Brilliant that makes total sense … thank you so much very helpful

 

[ChrisfromBrick]

awesome! welcome!

What are you looking to accomplish with tank? Corals? If so, which ones? Fish only? That will depend greatly on what else you need.

 

[ChrisfromBrick]

Ive really liked the results I get from Hanna test kits specifically for Nitrate and Phosphate. For the others I use Salifert.

 

[56longroof]

Welcome to R2R

 

[Jimbhoy13]

Thank you and I’m from Stoke on Trent … trying do lots of research so all tips welcome I’m completely new and so interested in researching

Close to me. I’m Ashbourne.

 

[Gman83]

Welcome!