Cycling question

[MarkO1]

I've had my 75 set up for 2 1/2 months now. My first addition of 80# of live sand and 50# of live rock took approx. 7 days to cycle. The second addition of live rock took about 10 days to cycle. After about a month, I removed every piece of rock (to remove crabs, mantis, etc...). Each piece of rock was out of the water for about 2-4 minutes before it was reintroduced. However, that was almost 5 weeks ago and I am still reading 0.20 ppm nitrite! Ammonia has been at 0 for 4 weeks. Any thoughts as to why my nitrite is still high?
Thanks
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[Katspaw]

What exactly is your setup, do you use a skimmer, or do you have any bio filteration, sponge filters etc on the tank. If we could have a good description of the tank it would help, Also do you have anyfish in there to cycle with. I am not on for fish but if you haven't started feeding the tank than the bacteria has nothing to grow on. Let us know the whole system , so that we can help you better. It could be a coral or sponge that is on one of the rocks that is taking a long time to die. There are really many things that cam be the cause.

Tracey

 

[MarkO1]

75 gal, 20 gal sump
Berlin PS that I've had on / off
110# LR, about 3-4" sand (1/2 live)
2 175 W MH w/ 12,000 bulbs, 2 96 W 10K fluorescents at 13 hrs/day
Rio 2100 return pump and 2 smaller 125 gph powerheads for supplemental movement.
No other filtering/sponges,
No fish in tank now, but has lots of occupants that I feed a few flakes to daily:
5 pep. shrimp,
1 scarlet shrimp,
2 sea cucumbers,
2 serpent stars (although I can only find one now)
approx. 50 blue leg hermits,
approx. 50 turbo snails,
a few small crabs and probably 1 or 2 mantis
also have a few corals that came with the rock and a handfull of various xenia
the rock had more sponge life on it before and seems to be slowly disappearing.
If I am still experiencing die-off, I guess that could be it. But should I add / change anything? Light cycle, protein skimmer on/off? Add supplemental nitrobacter?

[ November 05, 2001: Message edited by: MarkO ]</p>
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[MarkO1]

^
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[kparton]

This may be a cop out answer, but I had the same problem but with my ammonia. I had an ammonia spike, then a nitrite spike, then some nitrates that are well within reason (1ppm). The problem was that while my nitrites went to 0, my ammonia stayed at 0.25. I was very frustrated and had supposedly done everything right with 75lbs of LR in a 50g tank. Finally, I took my water into the LFS so they could use their tests. they charged me $3 to tell me that my water parameters were all perfect, my ammonia couldn't be lower. Some of the cheaper home tests will not register 0 for some reason, apparently I wasn't the first customer to come in with this problem.

 

[AnotherGoldenTeapot]

That's interesting - I suspect you are getting a faulty reading from the test kit. What brand are you using?

I have to ask - it is Nitrite and not Nitrate you're testing? (both tests would give high reading while the tank was cycling).

Nitrite is effectively non-toxic to fish in salt water (or in fresh water if enough chloride ions are present) - you *should* be able to add a fish (assuming you want to). This comment might be too much for some people!

 

[MarkO1]

My test kit is "Aquarium Pharmaceuticals". I think it is somewhat accurate since it DOES test 0 for mu RO/DI water.
However, I did perform a test (NitrIte) where I dilluted it 50% and it registered around .05 ppm. So I think it is dropping... but slowly. I think it will approach 0 in a week (5 1/2 - 6 weeks total cycling time).

I appreciate your info!

[ November 07, 2001: Message edited by: MarkO ]</p>
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