Too high nitrite during cycle?

[bcavalli]

Jenn is exactly right. I'm sure you can find the space somewhere for a small 10g tank. Just use the water from a water change to fill it and your good to go. Petco runs a $1 per gallon special every few months. A QT is a must, if not now it will be in the future.

 

[dball711]

Bcavalli;1095917 wrote: Jenn is exactly right. I'm sure you can find the space somewhere for a small 10g tank. Just use the water from a water change to fill it and your good to go. Petco runs a $1 per gallon special every few months. A QT is a must, if not now it will be in the future.

Water from a water change after the initial cycle.

 

[bcavalli]

Dave is right I should have clarified.

 

[xilez]

I will be risking it for my first 2 clownfish, after that, I may do a quarantine for future additions.

 

[xilez]

So whats the best way to set up a quarantine tank if my tank isn't cycled yet? Or should I just wait for that too?

 

[Adam]

Get the following.

10 gallon tank.
Hang on filter.
Heater.
Seachem ammonia badge.
Dr Tim's OaO or Bio Spira
A small amount of Matrix.
At least 1 PVC elbow 1-1/2 to 2"
A bottle of Prime. (In case of emergency only)

Optional
Cheap light.
A small powerhead.

To start use fresh mixed water for the QT. Once your DT is cycled you can use some water from it for the QT. After getting everything installed and running with water up to temp add the OaO or Bio Spira directly into the filter. Then introduce the fish. Keep an eye on the ammonia badge but don't rely on it solely in the beginning. You should still test for it every other day till you know everything is stable. Also keep another 10 gallons of mixed water ready. If you need to do a quick water change you won't have time to mix it.

I've QT'd 8 fish using this method in a 20 long since mid May. If you do some Googling about QTing you'll find a bunch of info out there.

 

[jennm]

I am using tapatalk so I cannot properly search the forums but if you can, look for my Best Practices article. It gives you all the info you will need including info on meds to keep on hand.

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[xilez]

Nitrites are still pretty high, are we sure no water change?

 

[dball711]

No water changes, this is part of the cycling process. Be patient, it will cycle and you will be good to go. Moving to quickly never leads to really great results...14 days into the cycle is is very early in the process.

 

[xilez]

DrTim's Aquatics states, "IMPORTANT &#8211; Do not let the ammonia OR nitrite concentration get above 5 ppm. If either ammonia or nitrite concentration get above 5 ppm, do water changes to lower the concentration." http://www.drtimsaqu...ishless-cycling">http://www.drtimsaqu...ishless-cycling</a>

That's my only concern. Typically I understand the cycle takes weeks, but this is my first time with the Dr Tims method, so just concerned the bacteria wont be doing their jobs.

 

[dball711]

Understood and I appreciate your concern. I have never used Dr Tims so I will let others chime in with some advice.

 

[Adam]

What are the Nitrites up to?

 

[xilez]

As of last night, they have not changed since the start of this post. (6 days ago) Still brighter purple, although I can tell my ammonia is down to less than .5 ppm

I have not dosed ammonia since.

 

[xilez]

After researching most of the day, I am going to a 30%ish water change and see if the nitrites come down. Dr Tim recommends this and I probably should have done it earlier.

 

[xilez]

Current readings before water change

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[xilez]

Per dr Tim I just did a 30% water change and will test again in a few hours to see if the levels go down at all


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[xilez]

This was my response from dr tims

"A little assumption on our part since you didn’t provide actual numbers but it seems you didn’t add enough ammonia to get ‘very high’ nitrite.
So where is the ammonia coming from that is producing the nitrite?
The answer is the live sand.
The live sand is full organics that are broken down and ammonia is produced.

We tell you all this because a single water change might not be enough to get the nitrite down low enough to where the bacteria start working. The bacteria will continue to breakdown the organics in the live sand. The One & Only bacteria are not dead but rather inhibited by the high nitrite. So you may have to change the water 3-4 times before the nitrite drops below 1 ppm and the bacteria kick-in.

Do not add any more ammonia until both the ammonia and nitrite are below 1 for 24 hours
"


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[axio]

I'm personally not a fan of the Dr. Tim's method.

I'm with Jenn on this one. Don't touch it and be patience. Cycles will always vary from tank to tank. Some take 2 weeks some take a month and half. A water change could slow the cycle down even more.

As Jenn has mentioned you can use something like Stability or Seed to help it along. But patience is the best practice when cycling tanks... nature will eventually always do it's thing. If you are about 17 days in now that is not long at all yet. I have cycled hundreds of tanks now for our clients and friends... Typically a saltwater/reef system cycles in a month or more in my experience.

 

[xilez]

I agree with everything you said Axio... I have no problem with it taking a month and a half.. My concern is per dr tims instructions and in the response email from them the mention of bacteria being severely inhibited due to the high nitrates.

My concern is that I don't want to wait, and realize nothing happened after a month.


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[axio]

xilez;1096333 wrote: I agree with everything you said Axio... I have no problem with it taking a month and a half.. My concern is per dr tims instructions and in the response email from them the mention of bacteria being severely inhibited due to the high nitrates.

My concern is that I don't want to wait, and realize nothing happened after a month.


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One the reason I'm not a fan of the Dr.Tim's method is because that is where I typically see these massive nitrate spikes. Just don't seem normal to me. I prefer a traditional cycle for that reason.