nitrite

[opie]

I have a 150 gl tank with a amiracle wet/dry filter I used live crush coal for the bed and put in 25 pounds of live rock in . this tank was set up on 12/25/03 . I have not done a water change on it should I ? when I test the water I get high levers of nitrite how long will this take to cycle or is there anything i can do to help it along?

 

[fishfreek]

WIth a wet/dry filter the tank should have cycled by now unless you got some really nasty dieoff from the live rock.

Are you sure your not getting nitrIte and nitrAte mixed up? NitrIte is fairly toxic to fish where as nitrAte is not so toxic to fish.

IMO you should do a water change of 15 gal on your tank and you should get in the habit of doing this every two weeks.

 

[Gauge]

You shouldn't do water changes while cycling because it's counterproductive. However, like fishfreek said, your tank should be cycled enough that your nitrites are undetectable, so who knows.

 

[opie]

I have a 150 gl tank with a a miracle wet/dry filter I used live crush coral for the bed, this tank was set up on 12/25/03. I put in 25 pounds of live rock on 1/15/04. This was shipped to me overnight and I didn't cure it before putting it in. I have not done a water change yet, should I ? when I test the water I get high levels of nitrite and low levels of ammonia. I'm using fasTest test kit. How long will this take to cycle or is there anything i can do to help it along?

 

[steve-s]

Even a small amount of uncured rock can cause an elevation in the numbers. Since the tank was started it only had 20 days to run through the cycle before a new nitrogen source was introduced. This basically puts you back a few steps as it will ned to process the extra nitrite.

Since you used uncured LR, you can do some water changes to keep the DOC lower and the nitrites at a less leathal level. This will allow for a greater portion of the hitchikers to survive and should not prolong the cycle that much. These articles will help.

How to cycle your tank with out the use of fish.
Curing Live Rock? I didn't even know it was sick!!

Cheers
Steve