Jump to content
Pod Your Reef

stuck with nitrate level at end of cycling


Balix

Recommended Posts

I started my cycle on April 20th. I dosed with Dr. Tim's ammonia and a bottle of biospira. I saw the ammonia and nitrite spike in 3 days and it leveled off. I've been ghost feeding with a ammonia every 2-3 days. 5 drops for a 20 gallon of which about 15 gallon is water.

 

The nitrates are about 20ppm when I've checked daily the past few days. I've heard waiting for the bacteria that removed nitrates take much longer. Should I be doing weekly water changes while I wait? I haven't added purigen, gfo and carbon yet but plan to when I added a pair of clownfish.

 

Anyone familiar how much (percentage wise) of the mechanical filtration should be removing nitrates vs chemical/water changes is a good balance?

Link to comment

Generally, at the end of the cycle all that remains is nitrate. You usually would do a large water change to remove the majority of that nitrate, and then you are ready for live stock.

Link to comment

You are technically supposed to do a large water change after a cycle is complete to give your tank a baseline. High nitrates won't disappear on their own.

 

By large I also mean 30-50%.

Link to comment

I'll just say, it is almost impossible to get meaningful denitrification in a small tank. I would plan on limiting feeding, limiting stocking, and routine water changes to keep nitrates at a reasonable level, unless you want to use an active method that will reduce them. The common ones in reef tanks are biopellets, vodka or other carbon dosing, coil denitrators, and deep sand beds. Zeovit systems use zeolites to prevent ammonia from ever turning into nitrates.

Link to comment

You likely won't be able to get a lot of denitrification going on. Keep up with water changes when nitrates creep up, try active carbon dosing with a skimmer to remove them that way. And keep up with your mechanical and chemical filtration (anything that adsorbs organics before they break down, like carbon, purigen, etc.).

Link to comment

I started my cycle on April 20th. I dosed with Dr. Tim's ammonia and a bottle of biospira. I saw the ammonia and nitrite spike in 3 days and it leveled off. I've been ghost feeding with a ammonia every 2-3 days. 5 drops for a 20 gallon of which about 15 gallon is water.

 

The nitrates are about 20ppm when I've checked daily the past few days. I've heard waiting for the bacteria that removed nitrates take much longer. Should I be doing weekly water changes while I wait? I haven't added purigen, gfo and carbon yet but plan to when I added a pair of clownfish.

 

Anyone familiar how much (percentage wise) of the mechanical filtration should be removing nitrates vs chemical/water changes is a good balance?

Mechanical filtration? None really. It doesn't help remove nitrate in the water.

 

The only truly effective way of removing nitrate that I had found, is through denitrification by microbes. But that is dependent on whether they are able to even propagate materially in your aquarium.

 

Typical live rock in a nano or smaller can't really do it. You need more porous stuff - the best I found is Marine Pure. I use it for my 10gal, and it worked very effectively.

 

If you are not going to rely on something like that, then chemical filtration + water changes is your only option. Hard to say how much is necessary. Many softies and LPS won't care about a bit of nitrate for example, so for them you can get away with less water changes.

 

How much in particular you just need to find out by yourself, for your aquarium, to lower nitrates to the 'correct' level.

Link to comment

Thanks for the replies. Good to find out a nano can't do much denitrification on its own. I'll probably wait 2 more weeks before adding livestock just to be safe.

 

Currently, I have about 15 pounds of dry rock and a bag of seachem matrix rocks in there. Guess I'll do a decent water change this weekend and add my purigen in first and see how effective it is with my ghost feeding and reducing nitrates. Trying to get a ballpark but guess I'll just have to wait and test often when first adding livestock.

Link to comment
Azedenkae

Thanks for the replies. Good to find out a nano can't do much denitrification on its own. I'll probably wait 2 more weeks before adding livestock just to be safe.

 

Currently, I have about 15 pounds of dry rock and a bag of seachem matrix rocks in there. Guess I'll do a decent water change this weekend and add my purigen in first and see how effective it is with my ghost feeding and reducing nitrates. Trying to get a ballpark but guess I'll just have to wait and test often when first adding livestock.

 

Just to clarify, a nano can do heaps of denitrification on its own. You just need to set up the right environment for it.

Link to comment
Mariaface

Thanks for the replies. Good to find out a nano can't do much denitrification on its own. I'll probably wait 2 more weeks before adding livestock just to be safe.

 

Currently, I have about 15 pounds of dry rock and a bag of seachem matrix rocks in there. Guess I'll do a decent water change this weekend and add my purigen in first and see how effective it is with my ghost feeding and reducing nitrates. Trying to get a ballpark but guess I'll just have to wait and test often when first adding livestock.

 

You can set up denitrification (a canister filter going 30-50GPH with Seachem Matrix/Denitrate in it, for example), it just won't occur on its own if you don't provide the environment for the bacteria. Be careful with just keeping Matrix rocks in a bag, because if the bag or the pieces of rubble get clogged, you'll actually be creating more nitrate.

 

Purigen isn't going to get rid of existing nitrates, but it'll bind up organics before they decompose and produce ammonia (which will eventually become nitrates).

Link to comment

 

You can set up denitrification (a canister filter going 30-50GPH with Seachem Matrix/Denitrate in it, for example), it just won't occur on its own if you don't provide the environment for the bacteria. Be careful with just keeping Matrix rocks in a bag, because if the bag or the pieces of rubble get clogged, you'll actually be creating more nitrate.

 

Purigen isn't going to get rid of existing nitrates, but it'll bind up organics before they decompose and produce ammonia (which will eventually become nitrates).

 

I have it in a onion bag with good flow I think (in my second chamber). I don't know if the matrix will help much until the the bacteria colonize it. Even with the good flow using the bag, I'm gonna rinse it every 2-3 months in my old tank water during water changes to remove debris.

 

Setting up the right environment, does that also include part of the cycling process? I've read many topics on cycling and very few have mentioned to wait for the nitrates to go down as part of the completion of cycle. Majority have said to wait for ammonia and nitrite to go down to zero and do a large water change and the tank should be ready for livestock.

 

 

20150423_132721_zps3wrvlm95.jpg

Link to comment

IMO, you would be worlds better off not using the matrix rocks in the bag and using poly fill and changing it out every 3 days or so. Take the gunk out of the tank before it can contribute to Nitrate. If you leave those rocks in there for 3 months you will be shocked at how much crap you are going to rinse out.

Link to comment
Mariaface

What he said.

 

You don't want to put the matrix rocks in an onion bag if you don't have a guarantee that mechanical filtration is getting rid of all detritus first. In 2-3 months you'll be grimacing at how much gunk gets stuck there.

 

And no, denitrification isn't part of the average cycle. Not in the beginning. Bringing nitrates down is one of the reasons for water changes; you don't have the deep sand bed or crazy amounts of live rock and flow necessary for it, so you either do water changes to remove it (while vacuuming the sandbed to get rid of extra detritus) or you set up your filtration to include denitrification.

 

And just so you're aware, the cycle isn't just about ammonia and nitrite getting down to zero. It's about being able to bring the ammonia concentration up to 1-2ppm and have ammonia and nitrite read zero 24 hours later. Your bacteria have to keep up with a bioload, and you'll need to be adding ammonia consistently during the cycle to keep bringing ammonia to 2ppm. Once they're able to process that quickly enough, your tank's ready for livestock.

Link to comment
  • 2 weeks later...

Using filter floss to remove debris and going to change once weekly for now. I'm hoping the lack of using a nylon bag will void some of the extra detrius buildup. Time will tell I guess and will share what it looks like in 2 months.

 

I've tested the system by bringing the ammonia to around 2ppm every so often this past month while cycling. Zero ammonia and nitrites the next day.

Link to comment

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recommended Discussions

×
×
  • Create New...