Almost Ready?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

bootz

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Feb 10, 2011
Messages
277
My ammonia drops around 2-3ppm a night down to 1ppm

Salalinity level= 1.024
Nitrite = .5ppm
Nitrate= 80-160ppm


am i close to be able to actually putting fish in? and when will the nitrate go down
 
Noooooooooo!!!!!! Do your nitrates are way high!! They should be below 10 at the highest. If you try to put a fish in it will die in less then a week
 
You should have absolutely no ammonia or nitrItes at all. I'm not sure about the nitrAte range for saltwater, I'm a freshwater girl myself, but yours is excessively high. I agree, any fish that you put in there would get sick best scenario, or die, worst scenario. Either way, any fish in those conditions would be very ill, and would be in a ton of pain. Your cycle isn't finished yet.

Courtesy of Dakota's iPod.
 
Have you done any research on how a tank cycles????? Because you seem a little under prepared to set up and maintain a saltwater aquarium
 
SteveFishman said:
Have you done any research on how a tank cycles????? Because you seem a little under prepared to set up and maintain a saltwater aquarium

I agree.

To the OP: do a lot more research before putting ANYTHING in that tank. Saltwater fish in my understating are pretty sensitive. Don't put any in until your cycle is COMPLETE.

Courtesy of Dakota's iPod.
 
yeah i was just posting the fact that my nitrites were shrinking i just figured i was half of the way there. i am not a moron i did my research. This is month 1 after beginning my fish-less cycle i am not running to the [moderator edit] store tomorrow to throw some random fish in an un-cycled tank. Furthermore, your not supposed to let your ammonia fall to 0 because then the bacteria have nothing to feed off of. i was simply trying to get an estimation of how much longer i have before my nitrate falls
 
Ammonia and nitrites need to be 0. As soon as they are there then do a PWC and that will drop your nitrates down some. If you are talking just putting fish in there you will be OK with nitrates. Just work on it with less feedings and PWC`s and you`ll get it down. Zero is the goal but is not obtainable at the beginning. But with work it can be done.
 
from what i have read everyone states not to let ammonia fall to zero i have been dosing back up just the way the article states.
 
I for example used a raw shrimp for my fishless cycle like a lot of others do. While the source is still around giving off ammonia, it should read zero because the bacteria are doing their job converting it to nitrites. And then more bacteria to convert that to nitrates. So yeah, Ammonia and Nitrites 0, then big water change to get the Nitrates down to a level that fish can handle. At that point, slowly add fish to give the bacteria time to adjust to the bioload. Can you give some details, for example, tank size, sand depth, lbs of LR, how much ammonia you are dosing to feed the cycle..etc.
 
Tank size: 30 gallons, 24inches wide, 18 1/2 high, bowed front
20lbs or dry rock
Sandbed: around 1_1/2 inches
I am not using the shrimp method i am dosing with pure ammonia it dropps to almost 0 every 24 hours after being 3-4ppm the day before then i dose back up to 3-4ppm.
 
its my first post in this thread Nitrite - .5 almost zero, Nitrate is very high but i thought a 90% water change would get rid of that. I am using an API testing kit.
 
UPDATE:
Ammonia- Drops to 0 ( after less than 24 hours when dosing)
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 20-40ppm ( closer to 20)
Salt Level - 1.025

I am going to get Ph buffer to get it exactly at 8.2.

Thoughts? i was thinking about doing a large PWC to drop the Nitrate Levels
 
Not to be rude, but what are you pulling?

Ammonia- Drops to 0 ( after less than 24 hours when dosing)
Nitrite - .25
Nitrate - 20-40ppm ( closer to 20)
Salt Level - 1.025

Don't forget even though you editted above, the email you sent doesn't change....
 
I know the waiting sucks, we've all been there. It is worth it though. Your tank and livestock will thank you. Rushing things just causes issues.
I'd wait until I had ammonia and nitrites are 0 two days in a row and then do the large PWC.
 
Back
Top Bottom