Cycle question.

[reefbound]

Hey all, Im have my QT up and running waiting for it to cycle, three days ago the ammonia and nitites were off the chart and the nitrates were up there too. Now i come home from work today and decide to check things out and this is what i got...

Three days ago : /// today:

Ammonia - 0.6 ///Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0.8 /// Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 20 /// Nitrate - 0

I thought Nitrates stay high until a water change? by the way I checked twice...

 

[melosu58]

Did you transfer anything over from the main which might have caused cycle to go faster?

 

[Brenden]

I am guessing test or testing was bad. I see no way that 20ppm nitrate can go to 0 in a new tank in 3 days other than with WC's.

 

[reefbound]

Did you transfer anything over from the main which might have caused cycle to go faster?

no, nothing was transferred, this was a fishless cycle with all new equipment. Im stumped, i just checked again this morning and all is zeroed...

I am guessing test or testing was bad. I see no way that 20ppm nitrate can go to 0 in a new tank in 3 days other than with WC's.

I was thinking a bad test kit too, but I checked the main also at the same time and with my main my Nitrates were about 10ppm so I did a water
change there and retested the QT and received a zero with no water change. Im going to take some water to my LFS and see what they get.



EDIT: I just looked at my kit and it starts at 5ppm and thats what is showing in the test tube.

I dont know, is this QT ready to be used after a PWC ?

 

[Brenden]

I would at least have levels checked by a second source for peace of mind. I recently had a similar problem. I was getting 25 ppm NO3 with my salifert test. I tested with 2 different brands and got zero. I also took it to the LFS and they got zero. You could use the QT but I would have some SW mixed in the event you needed to do a WC quickly.

 

[reefbound]

You could use the QT but I would have some SW mixed in the event you needed to do a WC quickly.

I have 10 gal of new water mixing now as I write this for a pwc,
(20 gal QT) when that is done I will keep fresh saltwater made up for the entire qt period, which by the way may start tommorow.a LFS I buy fish from recieved a couple Dwarf Potters angels in and they are a beautiful gold body with dark blue markings,One would make a sharp contrast against all of the purple going on in my tank.