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No. I have about 10 pounds of cured live rock that I added last Wednesday. I have 20Lbs of live sand added the day before that. My Nitrites are 5 PPM's not almost zero and my trates are over 100 PPM's. It has been this way since Friday. No ammonia.
 
No. I have about 10 pounds of cured live rock that I added last Wednesday. I have 20Lbs of live sand added the day before that. My Nitrites are 5 PPM's not almost zero and my trates are over 100 PPM's. It has been this way since Friday. No ammonia.

Fish less cycle right?
 
Well I have you now your cycle seems to be thru the ammonia phase and the fact you have so many nitrates with high nitrates indicates to me you are putting too much flake in there I'd give it a could more days see if the nitrites go to zero it should happen quickly once it starts then I'd still do a 25% water change after your nitrites go to zero but no more pellets or flake to much seeding
 
I just had a thought, have you been cleaning out the junk from your filter cartridges just a rinse with RO water? With all that flake floating on the water surface and sucked into the filter it could be overloaded I clean mine out twice a week without and livestock. That may help some. Also I run a skimmer and I am getting a fair amount of skimate, are you using one? My research says its a big deal
 
Looks like you and I have about the same system I'm now at day 12 and apparently completely cycled to my suprise. I think the difference is I started day one (to review) 17 lbs fully cured and wet fiji rock, I only used 10 lbs of live (damp) sand and the premixed store bought water game me a terrific boast. Over the last couple of days I added 3 turbo snails, 3 dwarf hermits a small xeinia frag and a coral banded shrimp Everything minus one hermit is alive and well. I'm trying not to overfeed, and I clean my sponges twice a week (they get funky too) Skimmer is really starting to stabilize and produce, My heater is finally settled in at 77 to 18, Lights are steady on timers and I have to circulators on wave program running 15 seconds each with a 5 second pause between switching. I use 2 slipstream nozzles so my water flow is great. You can't be far form the end of cycle. but again I would suggest cutting out food till you have livestock as I believe you have produced enough fuel for your cycle. I think nitrites will drop at any time like a brick off a building, then 25% water change and you'll be in business, Good luck buddy
 
I'm about to take Convict's route and smash this tank. My Biocube cycled in less then a week. The Nitrates are even higher now at 160 PPM's. Nitrites are still solid at 5 PPM's. No Ammonia.
 
Small tanks are a HUGE pain. I lost my patience with it. The auto top off, evap issues, salinity issues, parameter issues. Anyone that says a little nano tank is easy isn't being honest IMO. There tough to maintain but if some right and you stay on top of it they can work.

I just didn't have it in me to keep that little 8 gallon going.
 
Well, I cleaned the sponges out, added purigen and put a carbon sponge in one of the media baskets that for some reason, wasn't in there. I did about a 4 gallon water change. No ammonia, Nitrites were down to just a trace but Nitrates were at 160.
 
Well, I cleaned the sponges out, added purigen and put a carbon sponge in one of the media baskets that for some reason, wasn't in there. I did about a 4 gallon water change. No ammonia, Nitrites were down to just a trace but Nitrates were at 160.

You haven't had the tank running all that long IMO, so don't get frustrated quite yet. If you are cleaning out media and doing water changes, I think you are only extending the length of time the cycle will take to complete.
 
Well maybe someone can help me with this. Yesterday afternoon, last night and this afternoon ammonia AND nitrites were zero. Nitrates were still very high. Now I just checked it and ammonia is zero and Nitrites are back way high again. WTH is going on?
 
Well maybe someone can help me with this. Yesterday afternoon, last night and this afternoon ammonia AND nitrites were zero. Nitrates were still very high. Now I just checked it and ammonia is zero and Nitrites are back way high again. WTH is going on?

There's nothing in the tank yet right? just live rock and some sand right?
 
The bacteria that consumes the nitrites are much slower to grow than the ammonia-consuming bacteria. Your obviously converting ammonia to nitrites well, so that part is complete. And you are converting a lot to nitrates, but there just aren't enough BB to convert all of the nitrites yet. Now it's just a waiting game for the nitrite-eating bacteria to grow more. That's usually the longest part of the cycle. Once it starts to happen, though, it happens fairly quickly. Don't give up yet. It took my reef tank a month to cycle and I use all live rock and live sand.
 
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