Good morning. I just switched from a 40 gallon mixed reef to an 80 with a 30 gallon sump. Using a bit a existing sand to seed the tank plus about 80 pound of live rock from tank. But question is. My amonia is 0.25. Nitrites 0. Nitrates 40. Sal 1.025 temp 78. I'm new to reef keeping so not sure what to make of this, is tank cycled or am I on the verge of an explosion
Reef tankg
- Thread starter Tonyglover
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was the 40g tank cycled before? if it was, looks like you are going through a mini cycle since you are showing ammonia.
just a waiting game to have that ammonia drop to zero. any live stock in the tank right now?
just a waiting game to have that ammonia drop to zero. any live stock in the tank right now?
Yes the 40 was cycled
Your ammonia and nitrates should both read zero for the tank to be cycled. Your nitrates at 40 seems a bit high, how long has the tank been up and what did you use to cycle it with Besides the sand and rock from the other tank?
Other than sand and rocks. I told buy a friend who has reef tanks to use as much water from the 40 gallon
Existing sand might be the culprit. Old sand often traps nitrates underneath it. When you stir the sand, the organic materials in the sand are loosened. Placing it in your new tank could've added created some die off from the sand and added nitrate/ammonia.
Also never use old water during a change, always start with new water. The water doesn't host the beneficial bacteria that your new tank needs for seeding. That bacteria lives mostly in your live rock, and sand (don't include sand for reasons mentioned above).
Everything Tanster said is correct but I always use as much of the old tank's water as possible. I figure it contains some bacteria and I'm always concerned about changing parameters too much. This is for a direct upgrade from one active tank to another larger one. I've always kept corals and use the old water just so there's some consistency. The new and old water should be matched in terms of Ca & Alk but there's just a lot of other "stuff" that I don't measure. Plus I've had issues with corals going from a tank with appropriate nutrient levels (NO3@3, PO4@0.2) to a new system where there aren't any nitrates or phosphates.
Thanks for the info. All other parmanters are normal.
Now that you mention it, it looks like I never addresses you original question. It looks like you are going through a cycle but it should be fairly short because you have a lot of beneficial bacteria already in the system and you don't have to wait for it to grow from scratch. I would do a water change to bring the numbers down and you know the cycle is finished when you've got 0 for ammonia and nitrites.
Thank you. I will do that
