Nitrate Question from a Newbie

[Rizano01]

Hi Everyone,
Hopefully I'm posting this in the right place. I recently setup a new 120g tank with 160 lbs of live rock and a deep sand bed (not live sand). I added the live rock 29 days ago. Amonia has come down to 0 after spiking. Nitrites have come down to 0.1 after spiking but nitrates have not changed in 3 weeks, stuck at 100. I clean the filter socks twice a week and just turned on my protein skimmer 24 hours ago. I did one 30% water change two weeks ago but it made no difference with any of the measurements. Been keeping all the lights off to prevent an algae bloom. I've been using RO/DI from the start. Anything else I should be doing?

Thanks.

 

[motortrendz]

"did one 30% water change two weeks ago but it made no difference with any of the measurements"....
what test kit are u using?do you have any live stock in there at all..how did you get the cycle started??

 

[SevTT]

Hi Everyone,
Been keeping all the lights off to prevent an algae bloom. I've been using RO/DI from the start. Anything else I should be doing?

Thanks.

Turn on the lights, let the algae run free. Establishing algal successions in your LR and tank in general is an important (and rarely pretty) initial part of tank maturation. Just add the first wave of your CuC -- snails, lots of snails -- as soon as the algae starts blooming.

If you're really desperate to avoid that, then there is another answer. I'm guessing that your bacteria are probably carbon-limited, so try dosing some vinegar, sugar, or alcohol into the tank. That'll hopefully lead to a bloom of nitrate-reducing bacteria, since that's the only real available food source.

Did you start out with real, seasoned (or aquacultured or maricultured or just harvested from the ocean) live rock? Or did you start out with dead Marco Rocks or something similar? If you had live rocks with algae on them, including coralline, die-off of the algae from the extended dark period could be fuelling nitrate levels.

Oh, it's probably a good idea to start running a phosphate scavenger (like phosban,) even if it's just in a nylon sock in a high-flow area of your sump. It'll hopefully help deal with the cyano bloom you're most likely going to have eventually.

 

[Rizano01]

Hi,
Thanks for the response. I'm using the Salifert Nitrate Test kit. I'm using single Salifert test kits for each test. There is no live stock in the tank other than whatever may be living on/in the live rock. The curing live rock started the cycle.

 

[Rizano01]

Hello SevTT,
I purchased the Fuji live rock from a LFS. There was a small amount of green and coralline algae on the rocks at initial purchase. Some coralline died off but there is still some left. I am noticing green algae starting to grow on the rocks along with hair algae. There is also a good amount of brown algae on the surface of about 20% of the sand.
Thanks.

 

[motortrendz]

the brown is good.. itll go away on its own, part of the cycle.. but you wanna pick out as much hair algea as possible before it gets out of control... do u have any direct sun light hitting the tank from a window?? you might also want to get a good mix of a clean up crew.. some snails astrea and nassarious.. also get a good assortment of hermits.. and a few peppermint shrimp...they will assist with the algea,detrious and the peppermints will assit in removing aptasias..

 

[jadakiss]

u doing everything right just let it take its course , ;.)

 

[Aquatic Life Direct]

if nitrites were still detectable, you should not have done a water change. That will be prolonging the cycle. Ammonia spikes, then the nitrite, and then nitrites get converted to nitrates and then you can do a water change to remove the nitrates.

 

[Rizano01]

Motortrendz,
Thanks for the comment. No sunlight hitting the tank. Hopefully when I add the CUC they will take care of the hair algae for me. Everything I read says I need to wait until the nitrates come down to 20ppm before I add the CUC. Hopefully the skimmer will help to make that happen. Maybe I'll also try 30% water changes every week and clean the sump socks daily instead of twice a week. If that does not work SevTT had a few ideas too.

 

[motortrendz]

no water changes for a lil while.. let the bacteria build and do its job.. when you amonia reads 0 and the nitritre reads 0 if your nitrates arre still a lil high then do a water change.. if you do a water change too soo you will prolong the cycle time... after the parameters are where we said then add your cuc

 

[Rizano01]

Aquatic Express,
I didn't realize nitrites needed to be 0 before doing the water changes.
Thanks.