First off I’d like to say how much I enjoy this site and all of the wonderful advice I’ve read
I just started my SW tank the first week of Aug and it seems like the parameters on the chemical tests haven’t changed in the last month.
Currently I’m showing:
0 Ammonia
2 Nitrite
20 Nitrate
This has been a constant for the last month and at about week 3 I saw a small increase in ammonia and my Nitrite spiked to 5+ but Nitrate has always hovered around 20.
I did a 30% PWC (16 gal, I have a 55 gal tank) after a month of cycling.
I only have 4 small damsels which have been doing great during the cycling, eating well and are very active, but I wonder if they are producing enough ammonia for the cycle process to complete. Also I started with 80 lbs of Carib-Sea Agra-Alive which I thought would help with a good bio base.
I even bought 3 1oz bags of BIO-Spira last Sat on the recommendation of my LFS and put in the tank but have still not seen any changes in the readings. The only thing I noticed was a change in color on the nitrite test which has me baffled. It’s a very slight light orange color instead of blue/red hues and at first I thought I had mixed up the Nitrate test with the Nitrite test but after checking I hadn’t. It’s been this same color for the last week.
I’ve kept African Cichlids for the last 8 years until I had to give them away to friends after I moved.
I had 6 of them all over 5” along with a 9” Pleco and my 350 never had trouble keeping up with the bio load. I don’t use a mesh with the 350 and change out my activated charcoal every 3 weeks. Currently I haven’t bought any LR but plan to in the future.
Any help on this subject would be greatly appreciated.
I just started my SW tank the first week of Aug and it seems like the parameters on the chemical tests haven’t changed in the last month.
Currently I’m showing:
0 Ammonia
2 Nitrite
20 Nitrate
This has been a constant for the last month and at about week 3 I saw a small increase in ammonia and my Nitrite spiked to 5+ but Nitrate has always hovered around 20.
I did a 30% PWC (16 gal, I have a 55 gal tank) after a month of cycling.
I only have 4 small damsels which have been doing great during the cycling, eating well and are very active, but I wonder if they are producing enough ammonia for the cycle process to complete. Also I started with 80 lbs of Carib-Sea Agra-Alive which I thought would help with a good bio base.
I even bought 3 1oz bags of BIO-Spira last Sat on the recommendation of my LFS and put in the tank but have still not seen any changes in the readings. The only thing I noticed was a change in color on the nitrite test which has me baffled. It’s a very slight light orange color instead of blue/red hues and at first I thought I had mixed up the Nitrate test with the Nitrite test but after checking I hadn’t. It’s been this same color for the last week.
I’ve kept African Cichlids for the last 8 years until I had to give them away to friends after I moved.
I had 6 of them all over 5” along with a 9” Pleco and my 350 never had trouble keeping up with the bio load. I don’t use a mesh with the 350 and change out my activated charcoal every 3 weeks. Currently I haven’t bought any LR but plan to in the future.
Any help on this subject would be greatly appreciated.