Ammonia won't drop

[Nick862]

Hi I have been running my new set up for 7 weeks now, I cycled using a shrimp, all my live rock was from my previous set up that was fully cured. my ammonia is stuck at 0.2. Nitrate and nitrite are 0.

I'm using 30kg of LR
1kg ceramic media in sump,
Gyrator 1000 with 500ml of bio pearls( added bit by bit as directed by manufacturer)
Bubble Magnus curb 7,

Total water volume is about 400l

Any ideas why the ammonia won't drop? I have done 2 water changes, 25l each time. Should I be turning the skimmer off and my reactor off for a week or so? Although the skimmer is pulling out some gunk

Cheers




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[BigRedsReefs10]

First things first, with those numbers it looks like your cycles just starting. Have you had nitrates elevate to a high level? 50l on 400 wouldn't drop your nitrates to 0, so I'm guessing you either have bad tests, or are doing them wrong because those numbers don't add up to me. What tests are you using?


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[Nick862]

My test is a tropical marine expert. Not a cheap kit,

My rock was very well matured and I have been told on this site when I first set up the system that I would probably only have a short cycle. As I'm running a nitrate and phosphate reactor so I wasn't expecting them to show up on any tests, I thought I would need to do a big water change?


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[Nick862]

Just retested and my prams are

Ammonia: 0.02
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0

I tested about 2 weeks ago and my prams was at

Ammonia: 1,0
Nitrite: 0,1
Nitrate: 2

I'm sure it's cycled, do I need to just do a big water change?

I'm still adding flake food daily but the ammonia doesn't seen to go up or down.

Any Ideas? Keep in mind that all the rock was from a fully matured tank that was running for 4 years. And I'm running 500ml of bio pearls so I'm guessing nitrates wouldn't show up unless I had a fully stocked tank

Cheers


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[Nick862]

Just to add I had a algae bloom that made my water green/brown, after a few days the water cleared and is now clear,


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