I have a 75 gallon and tested yesterday and everything zero.Just checked again and ammonia is off the chart.nitrate and nitrite still zero and ph 7.8.I've done around 10 cycles in the past but forgot if i should leave it alone or do a water change.Store gave me a yellow tail damsel so he is in there also.
salt water cycling
- Thread starter dwint
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Andy Sager
Aquarium Advice Addict
Your Ph is a little low for a marine tank. Should be above 8.0. There are a couple thoughts when it comes to cycling a marine tank. If you try to save the fish by doing water changes during the cycle, you increase the time it takes for the tank to fully cycle. If you let it go "natural", you risk the fish in the tank. Damsels are hardy and often are used for cycling because they handle the poor water quality better than most other fish. Is that 100% they will live? No. They can still die during the cycling process.
You do have the option of adding live nitrifying bacteria which will cycle your tank faster. I have used Fritzyme #9 since the product came on the market and it worked better than most other items available at the time. If you have access to filter material from an established tank that you can add to your filter or live rocks from an established tank, these will do the same thing as adding the Fritzyme.
So the choice is yours.
Colin_T
Aquarium Advice Addict
If the ammonia is above 5ppm, it can stop the cycling process. You only need to have 2-3ppm ammonia to cycle a filter. If the ammonia is above 4ppm, do a water change to dilute it and bring it down to 2ppm.
Any ammonia in water with a pH above 7.0 is going to do harm to fish or other creatures in the water. The higher the pH, the more toxic the ammonia becomes. Ammonia does cause long term damage even when it doesn't kill the fish. Marine tanks and Rift Lake cichlid tanks should always be cycled without fish or invertebrates in.
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You mention having done 10 cycles in the past. Was that on other tanks or this particular aquarium?
If you have an established marine tank, you can take some of the filter media/ material from the established tank and add it to the filter on the new tank to speed up the cycling process.
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If you use artificial marine salts to make up sea water for your tanks, make sure you let the tap water and marine salt mix for 24 hours before using them. And check the salinity several times during this 24 hour period to make sure the salinity is correct.
Any ammonia in water with a pH above 7.0 is going to do harm to fish or other creatures in the water. The higher the pH, the more toxic the ammonia becomes. Ammonia does cause long term damage even when it doesn't kill the fish. Marine tanks and Rift Lake cichlid tanks should always be cycled without fish or invertebrates in.
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You mention having done 10 cycles in the past. Was that on other tanks or this particular aquarium?
If you have an established marine tank, you can take some of the filter media/ material from the established tank and add it to the filter on the new tank to speed up the cycling process.
-------------------
If you use artificial marine salts to make up sea water for your tanks, make sure you let the tap water and marine salt mix for 24 hours before using them. And check the salinity several times during this 24 hour period to make sure the salinity is correct.
Andy Sager
Aquarium Advice Addict
Are you showing nitrATES?
brown algae started awhile ago but everything is 0
Andy Sager
Aquarium Advice Addict
I suggest you take a sample of your water to your local shop and get it tested to confirm your readings. There should have been nitrites by now.
That said, you do have the option of adding fritzyme #9 for saltwater tanks and then you will have added the bacteria necessary to convert ammonia to nitrites and nitrites to nitrates. You have a very small bioload ( 1 yellowtail Damsel in 70+ gallons of water) so your readings should never really get all that high for a really long time so I start to question your high ammonia result as stated in your original post. Fritz #9 will allow you to move forward adding more stock ( slowly) as the bacteria bed grows with the load.
That said, you do have the option of adding fritzyme #9 for saltwater tanks and then you will have added the bacteria necessary to convert ammonia to nitrites and nitrites to nitrates. You have a very small bioload ( 1 yellowtail Damsel in 70+ gallons of water) so your readings should never really get all that high for a really long time so I start to question your high ammonia result as stated in your original post. Fritz #9 will allow you to move forward adding more stock ( slowly) as the bacteria bed grows with the load.
Andy Sager
Aquarium Advice Addict
Okay, an expired kit is giving you useless information. You can't trust any of it. And with API, the Nitrate reagents have a history of expiring before the rest of the reagents in a master kit do so you really want to get your water checked out by another source and also purchase new reagents.
Here's the bottom line tho, if you had ammonia and now have nitrates that did not come from your source water, you have completed your cycling. If you only have the 1 fish in the tank when it cycled, there is only enough bacteria bed to support what little ammonia that 1 fish is producing, proceed very slowly adding new stock because everything you add now will cause a "mini cycle" where it's going to add ammonia but the bacteria bed will grow and should keep it in check if you don't overload it. If you overload it, you will have spikes of ammonia and nitrites which will not do your new stock any favors. If you dilute it with water changes, your bacteria bed won't grow enough to support it right off and you will be doing water changes constantly. If you add slowly, it will grow continually to catch up with the new load. The good news is that once established, the bacteria bed grows rapidly so most often, you won't see the spikes unless you have 24 hour monitoring for it. In an overload, you could have spikes high enough to kill your fish, the bacteria bed catches up to the load before you test your water and you test out as everything in order. ( This is what 24 hour monitoring can show you. :^0 Just so you know. )
I would definitely have an outside source test your water then you test again with your new test reagents to confirm the readings.
Here's the bottom line tho, if you had ammonia and now have nitrates that did not come from your source water, you have completed your cycling. If you only have the 1 fish in the tank when it cycled, there is only enough bacteria bed to support what little ammonia that 1 fish is producing, proceed very slowly adding new stock because everything you add now will cause a "mini cycle" where it's going to add ammonia but the bacteria bed will grow and should keep it in check if you don't overload it. If you overload it, you will have spikes of ammonia and nitrites which will not do your new stock any favors. If you dilute it with water changes, your bacteria bed won't grow enough to support it right off and you will be doing water changes constantly. If you add slowly, it will grow continually to catch up with the new load. The good news is that once established, the bacteria bed grows rapidly so most often, you won't see the spikes unless you have 24 hour monitoring for it. In an overload, you could have spikes high enough to kill your fish, the bacteria bed catches up to the load before you test your water and you test out as everything in order. ( This is what 24 hour monitoring can show you. :^0 Just so you know.
) I would definitely have an outside source test your water then you test again with your new test reagents to confirm the readings.
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