Sebastian91
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
About 3 or 4 weeks ago, I started to set up a 60 gallon saltwater tank with live sand, 20lbs of live rock, and 35lbs of dried out live rock. I'm using an aquatop CF400 canister filer (with carbon) and just purchased a reef octopus BH2000 protein skimmer yesterday.
I was told that after putting the live rock in my tank, some bacteria would die off and cause the ammonia level to rise, thus, starting the cycling of my tank. I also bought three turbo grazers for the fun of it and discovered that I have a keyhole limpet living on one of my pieces of rock.
I did a baseline water test to see what my levels were and they were as follows:
pH: 8.0
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
I thought this was a good thing and with the expected increase in ammonia, was greatly anticipating my next water test.
Fast forward the 3 or 4 weeks to today and my water levels are as follows:
pH: 8.0
Ammonia: .25
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20
I'm really confused as to what's going on. I'm aware of the nitrogen cycle and how it goes, but don't quite understand if my tank is actually cycling, or if I should add something or anything really for that matter...
What should a cycling tank's levels look like?
Is there some other element that I've missed entirely?
I'm very new to this and apologize for my inability to find an answer through research or another thread.
I just hope that someone has some words of wisdom for me
for your time!
I was told that after putting the live rock in my tank, some bacteria would die off and cause the ammonia level to rise, thus, starting the cycling of my tank. I also bought three turbo grazers for the fun of it and discovered that I have a keyhole limpet living on one of my pieces of rock.
I did a baseline water test to see what my levels were and they were as follows:
pH: 8.0
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
I thought this was a good thing and with the expected increase in ammonia, was greatly anticipating my next water test.
Fast forward the 3 or 4 weeks to today and my water levels are as follows:
pH: 8.0
Ammonia: .25
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20
I'm really confused as to what's going on. I'm aware of the nitrogen cycle and how it goes, but don't quite understand if my tank is actually cycling, or if I should add something or anything really for that matter...
What should a cycling tank's levels look like?
Is there some other element that I've missed entirely?
I'm very new to this and apologize for my inability to find an answer through research or another thread.
I just hope that someone has some words of wisdom for me
for your time!