How long does it take ammonia-->nitrite-->Nitrate?

[Anonymous]

How long does it tank ammonia to go all the way to nitrate?

I test the water in my 300G and found no detectable readings of nitrate. I used two different test kits to confirm.

I have 240 pounds of new live rock that has been cycling for less than two weeks.

Is it that the ammonia has not been converted all the way to nitrites and on to nitrates, or do I really have zero nitrates and zero ammonia and nitrites?

I wouldn't normally test this early on on a new tank, but I saw some amphipods swimming around in there and thought, well maybe...

BTW, I never buy ammonia or nitrite test kits because they are only good for the first few weeks of a new tank. My original LFS told me to only test for nitrates because once they are within acceptable levels there couldn't possibly be any ammonia or nitrites.

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

Well, if you really want to know where it is, take a sample to your LFS and let them test for Ammonia and Nitrite :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

I would have to get off my arse and leave the house to do that now, wouldn't I?

I tried yet another test. I broke a piece of piccolapora damacornus off the mother colony in my 75G tank and placed it in the 300G. The polyp's are showing extension already. I'll use that to monitor my water quality parameter. Obviously if it's good enough for SPS, I can surely add some snails or whatever.

Louey

 

[EmilyB]

If you had no serious crud like dead sponges on the live rock I have seen a four day cycle even in a smaller water volume. Of course fishes need a much more mature tank.

 

[Anonymous]

With that much rock it's within the realm of possibilities that you have enough bacteria to quickly convert any ammonia.

If it were me I would start feeding the tank a small amount of fish food daily to feed bacteria and stabilize the populations. Feed the same amout of food that you're going to feed your fist fish.

Ammonia is a good test kit to have on hand. In a perfect world it wouldn't be needed but I've never seen a perfect reef tank.

I don't see a purpose in testing something as temporary and harmless as Nitrite though.

 

[Anonymous]

Guy wrote:

If it were me I would start feeding the tank a small amount of fish food daily to feed bacteria and stabilize the populations. Feed the same amout of food that you're going to feed your fist fish.

I'll start adding a little flake food every day. Not too much.

I'm not going to add any fish for awhile either way though.

I want this rock good and clean. There are diatoms all over everything right now, though they don't seem to be getting any thicker. I'll stir them up every few days and let the skimmer get them. I'll probably end up taking some of the rock out and scrubbing it since a few have some green stringy algea on them. Not hair algea, but something else. I tang might would eat it, but I'd rather get it out now before it becomes a problem.

Scrubbing 240 pounds of LR sound like fun anyone? :lol:

Louey

 

[ChrisRD]

Since you appear to be after a low nutrient setup, personally I wouldn't add any food unless you have fish to feed.

As for detectable levels of ammonia/nitrite/nitrate, IME if you start out with good clean rock you may never have detectable levels for any of them.

 

[Anonymous]

As for detectable levels of ammonia/nitrite/nitrate, IME if you start out with good clean rock you may never have detectable levels for any of them.

Yep.

 

[Mihai]

I wouldn't feed anything either. I had my tank with LR and corals for 6 months until I was sure it was all clean and had a huge population of pods. Only saw hair algae in pictures. I'm not sure that the previous two sentences are related, but they may well be.

M.