New reef tank

[Dhurga]

Hi all , I am Dhurga
I am happy to joining this .. I am new in this hobby. I started my fishless cycle in 30 gallon tank . I followed dr. Tim procedure.Today is 30th day of my cycle . I added ammonium chloride (Dr.Tim) 60 drops at 27 th day it became zero today but my nitrite is changed from 0.5ppm to 1ppm it doesn’t comes zero but nitrate reduced from 40 ppm to 10 ppm .. is this going on right a way or wrong pls some help me how long nitrite will take to come it zero ..
My tank has 10 kg live rock and 9 kg sand bed and I am using 4x Fluvel filter. My tank is clear now and I am using 0tds RO water ..
In 25th day
ammonia- 0ppm
nitrite. - 0.5 ppm
nitrate. - 20 ppm
Thanks in advance.

[Aiken Drum]

Going to preface this with "im not a saltwater guy", but the cycling process is essentially the same as freshwater.

You are cycled when you can dose 2ppm ammonia, and 24 hours later see zero ammonia and nitrite. If it takes 3 days for ammonia and nitrite to cycle to zero, redose ammonia to 2ppm and continue to test daily until it drops to zero again and then redose again. Keep doing that until the ammonia and nitrite is cycled out in 24 hours.

It typically takes a couple of months to cycle a tank.

As to why your nitrate is falling there are a couple of possibilities.

- The nitrate test isnt accurate. Lots of things affect the nitrate test causing false readings. One of these is nitrite. If you have nitrite in the tank your nitrate will be inaccurate. Its pointless testing for nitrate while there is nitrite in the water.

- Live rock supports anaerobic bacteria that consumes nitrate releasing nitrogen gas. Its possible that your cycling process is progressing that this anaerobic bacteria is also establishing and consuming nitrate. This wouldnt happen in freshwater aquariums, but will in saltwater.

I would suggest its innaccurate nitrate testing though. Dont even test for nitrate until you are cycled as the inaccuracy just confuses things.

[Dhurga]

Thank you for replying sir