Cycling Problems, please help

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dinotrex

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Jan 26, 2004
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82
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I've been cycling my 55 gallon tank for about 5 weeks now. My ammonia is at zero, Nitrite is at <0.3 and Ph is at 8. Here's the problem, Nitrate is still at 12.5, I know thats ok but it's not going down, it's been at 12.5 for 2 weeks now. I have a dual protein skimmer running and about 7 lbs of liverock and 25lbs of Livesand. I don't know if this info is of any contribution.

Another problemm, this is complicated so bare with me...... When I first filled the tank with water, I filled the whole tank with saltwater from the lfs. Only until 2 weeks ago I found out that I was supposed to fill the evaporated water with Freshwater. so as the waters been evaporating these past two weeks, I've been replacing the tank with freshwater. After 2 weeks, my SG is still at 1.032. What should I do???
 
take out some salt I would say a gloon at a time or so and add fresh unsalted but at temp if theres fish. MAybe once every 30 min untill it goes down.

And you need lots more live rock if you want to use it as your filtration.
 
Nitrates aren't really converted into anything else like Ammonia and Nitrites are, they are the conclusion of the whole Nitrogen Cycle - the best way to reduce them, if you have them, is to do frequent water changes. Frequent small water changes are preferable to large montly ones etc.

The best way is to reduce the level of Nitrates that accumulate in the first place, it's very hard (if not impossible) to get them down once they're up, only by a waterchange.
 
If you've got no fish in, just add some saltwater with a lower SG than you want. Depending on how much water you intend to change (of course, when you do your routine water changes AFTER your tank's cycled and you have fish in, you want to match up temperature, pH and SG identically, or as near as physically possible, to your tank), just add less salt to the new water and get it to a lower SG. If you want to fine-tune when the new water has mixed in your tank, either take out some water and replace it with fresh RO water (if the SG is still a bit too high), or take some out and put it in a container, and mix in some more salt (if the SG is still too low), then put it back in. Don't add salt directly into the aquarium if you can avoid it.

You should be looking to get SG in the 1.021 - 1.024 range, ideally.
 
MarkW19 said:
Nitrates aren't really converted into anything else like Ammonia and Nitrites are, they are the conclusion of the whole Nitrogen Cycle -
Nitrates are only the 3rd stage in the nitrogen cycle. Nitrogen gas is the final stage.

NH3>>NO2>>NO3>>N

Only through anaerobic or anoxic denitrifictaion will that be possible through natural means. In a younger tank that will be near impossible as it has not yet had time to mature and properly develope these area's. In the meantime, water changes are the best alternative.

Also FWIW, an ideal salinity is 35 ppt or 1.025 SG (depending on temp) :wink:

Cheers
Steve
 
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