HELP... Nitrites?

[Dewman]

OK... first off let me give the set up.
29 gallon over1 month old. Ammonia dropped to 0 the first two weeks.
PH is 8.3
Calcium is 450
Alkalinity is 3.25
Nitrates are o.k.
Spec Gravity 1.024
35 lbs Marshall live rock.
Temp 78*
3.5 inches of crushed live coral.

Nitrites, going up. I expected them to taper off by now. I have two 125 powerheads keeping the water moving. A penguin 125 for solid waste, a pyramid skimmer. Friend gave me 6 red legged crabs and told me they were hardy and should be able to handle it once the ammonia dropped.
But now instead of decreasing my Nitrites are increasing. It's been 1 month and 9 days since the live rock was put in. All soft tissue (sponges and such) rotted off a long time ago ( or was eaten). New worms appearing all the time, and Macroalgae growing back some. Is it unusual for the Nitrites to stay around this long? I have taken the crabs out and put them in my quarintine tank for now. Can anyone tell me why my nitrites have not dropped yet? And , Is there something I can do about it?

Any help would be great. Thanks

 

[HARRISON]

Hey there, congrats on the new tank... Hope your reading! hahah.

Anyway, the first thing that cam to mind was, how long have the nitrites been at a high level? How long did it take for the ammonia and nitrates to drop. I don't think it is all that uncommon for a tank to take a month to drop levels. Lots of things to factor in. Things like water quality and did you do water changes in the mean time and other things that would factor into the bio load. IMO if things are starting to grow I would just be patient and wait for the levels to drop. You are at the end of the cycle right now, might just be taking a while for the appropriate bacteria to take off. Once they do you will be fine. Then you can start slowly adding things. Keeping track of your levels as you add stuff and things stabalize over all. I honestly don't do a whole lot of testing now, but I did alot when I first started out and when I moved stuff to a bigger tank. Now I watch certain corals to see how they are growing and reacting as my indicators that something is wrong.

Good luck, keep us posted.

 

[Dewman]

Thanks...
You say I am at the end now? I thought the process was:
Ammonia - Nitrites - Nitrates...

If I have this backwards please let me know. I have read two very good books and both have said that Nitrite levels should drop in the same amount of time it took the Ammonia to drop.
And that Nitrates can be controlled with regular water changes. I have done one 10% change per week during the whole process. Like I said, it is only the live rock in thereright now, so I shouldn't have anything else making ammonia to turn into these other things ( NO2 and NO3).

Is it possible to introduce bacteria out of someone elses tank to seed the growth of helpful bacteria in my sand bed? Like I said, it was 1 week and 5 days before my Ammonia was at barely detectable levels. My Nitrates have never been very high at all.So now it has been 3 weeks and 5 days since that. How long do you think I should wait before I get worried?

 

[cvarcher]

Hi, You have the cycle correct in sequence.When the ammonia comes down the nitrite should be rising and then peaks and starts dropping. That tells you the bacteria is converting Ammonia to nitrite.The time is variable on many factors.So you may be at the end of the cycle for nitrites.But it really shouldnt have taken this long and I wonder if you also have some stuff decaying slowly in the rocks.If 2 months goes by and you have nitrites you know something is wrong.Just to let you know my 2 tanks and a friends tank 3 differant sizes never had any cycles and the water quality was perfect from day 1.No Ammonia,no Nitrites.These were with Prem Aqautics fiji live rock.

 

[HARRISON]

Dewman,

My appologies, I had a dislexic moment. haha. I flip flopped the two.

 

[HARRISON]

Surprised no one has gotten in on this one.

I have been looking in my books for a better answer to your question. Most books give you the typical ammonia, then bacteria break it down to nitrite, then a different bacteria population has to break that down to nitrate. Generally this process takes from a couple weeks to upwards of a month. One book said that it can take an equal amount of time for the breakdown of ammonia and nitrite as long as everything remains consistant. I take this to mean, no major changes and nothing new (or big) dying. The book also says that at times the "cycle" can get hitched due to unknown factors, possibly something in the water you use that is prohibiting the nitrobactors from multiplying as fast. In any case time seems to be the biggest thing here. Can you bring in bacteria from another tank? Yes, bacteria can multiply very rapidly and if you bring in live sand and healthy live rock you will bring in large populations that will multiply.

I am curious to hear if you had light over the tank at the time too just for my own knowledge on this. IMO I would change more water more often. When I am starting a tank I change closer to 25 percent every two to three days, but that is just me.

I hope I didn't confuse you before I jumped on the soap box with a half loaded gun...

 

[AnotherGoldenTeapot]

You can't easily measure nitrate in a tank that has detectable nitrite. The reason for this is that most nitrate tests works by converting some of the nitrate to nitrite and then measuring the nitrite. The color charts are calibriated assuming you had no nitrite to start off with.

I'd not worry about the nitrite unless it's still there in another month. Needing six weeks or so to cycle a tank is not unheard of.

Nitrite is non-toxic to salt-water fish (the chloride ions in the water out-compete the nitrite at the gills and so prevent "brown" blood forming) so you could add a small fish right now if you wanted to.

 

[Dewman]

Is that true? I thought Nitrites were equally as toxic as ammonia? Well, is it OK for me to put those red legged crabs back in the tank to clean up. They did a really good job before and I would like having them in there again.
I will try a massive water change and then keep doing it regularly for a while.

 

[toptank]

Harrison, I was about too.

 

[Karm40]

I am going thru the same thing myself.

My Nitrite just went down to .25 but the water is really cloudy, it was clear for a while after the ammonia dropped and is now milky. Any clues? Is it true that ammonia and nitrite can cause the milkiness?
Thanks,
Mark

 

[Dewman]

Sorry Guys, I can't let this drop until I get an answer.
Can I put the crabs back in or not? I did a 25% change yesterday after work (where I am right now) and I still had plenty of NO2. I had asked if it was true Nitrite was not as toxic in Salt aquiariums? Someone had said that, but I wanted to be sure before I subjected my inverts to it. Yes they were all doing o.k. before, but crabs can't complain either, so I'd never know.