Gunk
Aquarium Advice Regular
Hi I've got my 46 bowfront up and running and fishless cycle started. I'm starting to see lower ammo and am now getting nitrites too. Right before I tested my water for ammo and nitrite I turned on my protein skimmer for the first time (SWC 120 cone). My question is will the skimmer mess up the cycle by removing stuff that should be turning into trites and then trates or does the skimmer only remove the stuff after it has been turned into trites but before trates.
So kind of what I mean is
Ammonia turns to nitrite then skimmer removes DOC
or
Ammonia then skimmer removes DOC thus bypassing any trites spike and therefore no trates spike.
Basically I don't want to mess up my cycle since it's going so good already. Should I wait to it cycles before using skimmer? The only reason I have it running is I'm off for a couple days so I thought I'd let it try to break in while I'm here to watch it
So kind of what I mean is
Ammonia turns to nitrite then skimmer removes DOC
or
Ammonia then skimmer removes DOC thus bypassing any trites spike and therefore no trates spike.
Basically I don't want to mess up my cycle since it's going so good already. Should I wait to it cycles before using skimmer? The only reason I have it running is I'm off for a couple days so I thought I'd let it try to break in while I'm here to watch it