cycling

[Frogspawn]

i just added 16 more Lbs of LR to my pre-existing 24g it already had 16lbs of LR in it, and knew it would re-cycle when i added the new LR. i had nothing in my tank except a few hermits and snails.
its been almost 3 weeks now and my ammo. has peaked and my nitrites are very high around 5.0ppm and still i have no nitrates showing. still at 0pmm. why? and is this normal?

 

[Ziggy953]

I'm going to say that means that the bacteria hasn't caught up yet. I expect that you have a little ways to go yet.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

its been almost 3 weeks now and my ammo. has peaked and my nitrites are very high around 5.0ppm and still i have no nitrates showing. still at 0pmm. why? and is this normal?

Yes, it's normal. Most likely, you won't see any nitrAtes until your nitrItes peak and seem to level off. You've now got the critters to convert ammonia to nitrItes, but your critters to convert nitrItes to nitrAtes are still not up to speed. That's why you're not seeing any nitrAtes. You probably will in a week or so. I'm guessing that you've still got 2-3 weeks left.

I've found that while the ammonia levels seem to gradually go up, then gradually go down - the nitrites seem to shoot up and stay high for a while. Then when they start coming down, they come down fast. At least that's been my experience.

 

[Frogspawn]

cool thanks alot guys.

 

[Ziggy953]

Anytime!!!! Get some pics posted!!! WE love to look at pics of new tanks!!!

 

[Frogspawn]

well the LR is still curin in to old 24g. its not done yet and my light wil be here tomarrow and rest of the stuff i ordered will be here on the 1st. so i will have alot of new pics coming as soon as the LR is done and every thing gets here
u can check out my gallery. i am posting pics there as i set up my tank.
for salt i picked reefcrystals. is that a good salt to go with for a reef setup?

 

[roka64]

I use RC. I switched over from IO.

 

[Frogspawn]

thats cool i got a little 50g mix of it and well see how it works. how do u mix your salt? and do u think distilled would be a ood idea for a reef?

 

[Ziggy953]

Distilled water? I ONLY use RO/DI water for my tanks. I would suggest testing any source water that you decide to use for ammonia PO4 ect before using it. RO/DI is the best option!

 

[Frogspawn]

i am going to get one come spring time when i can use the hose out side. but i got to either use distilled or bu the ro water from my LFS and i am wiling to bet they dont change the filter very often. how often should a RODI filter be changed?

 

[roka64]

RO/DI should be changed when the DOCs rise. There is no real time limit, if you use it only a little it will last longer. If you use it a lot, you will have to change them more often.
You can use distilled water, but just test it, as stated before.
This is how I premix mine:
1. Friday- add salt, water, ph, heater
2. Saturday-check salinity adjust water/salt, if needed
3. Sunday- remove old SW clean equipment in that and replace with premixed water.