Cycle spikes.

[Jayva]

My nitrites been 0 since setting up. I even checked them today they were 0.

 

But now their 0.50 or 1.0 PPM can't tell.

Nitrates are either 20 or 40 PPM.

Ammonia .25 or .50

 

Every room I go into it looks different from the lighting and it's annoying the hell out of me lol.

 

Is it good my nitrites spiked?

What should I expect next?

It's fishless. Don't worry. And CUC-less.

[fishfreak0114]

Well the nitrites are normal and to be expected during the cycle. Once the nitrifying bacteria begins to convert ammonia your nitrites spike. Pretty soon ammonia will drop to zero, as well as nitrites. How did you cycle? If you dosed ammonia, when your tank can process 2ppm in 24 hours your ready for a small CUC. If you used live rock, once the ammonia and nitrite drops to zero I'd say it's cycled. You can do a water change (50% or so) when the cycle finishes to reduce the nitrates. Then CUC goes in. A week or two later you can add a fish if everything remains stable

 

Also, always check tests against natural light. It's really the only way to get consistent (and I think more accurate) results.

 

And also again, in your other thread you said you have some stomatellas (lucky!). If you don't want to risk them harm from the ammonia, you can always dose seachem prime which detoxifies ammonia for 48 hours.

[Jayva]

Well the nitrites are normal and to be expected during the cycle. Once the nitrifying bacteria begins to convert ammonia your nitrites spike. Pretty soon ammonia will drop to zero, as well as nitrites. How did you cycle? If you dosed ammonia, when your tank can process 2ppm in 24 hours your ready for a small CUC. If you used live rock, once the ammonia and nitrite drops to zero I'd say it's cycled. You can do a water change (50% or so) when the cycle finishes to reduce the nitrates. Then CUC goes in. A week or two later you can add a fish if everything remains stable

 

Also, always check tests against natural light. It's really the only way to get consistent (and I think more accurate) results.

 

And also again, in your other thread you said you have some stomatellas (lucky!). If you don't want to risk them harm from the ammonia, you can always dose seachem prime which detoxifies ammonia for 48 hours.

I'm not doing anything. Not ghost feeding the ammonia is. Coming from LR/LS die off. I did add A whole Bottle of biospira earlier. and i dont have prime. But won't that bind the ammonia and slow the cycle down?

[ReefSafeSolutions]

If it were me, and I didn't have anything in the tank (I know you've got stomatellas and a bristle worm I think) I'd dose ammonia till it was 2ppm, and test the ammonia again in 24 hours. I'd also check for nitrites after say, 6-8 hours, just to see if they're spiking and dropping within 24 hours. If everything reads zero in 24 hours and you've seen evidence of nitrites spiking and then dropping in that time period, I'd say you're good to go.

[fishfreak0114]

Prime does bind the ammonia in a way that detoxifies it temporarily. The bacteria can still process it fine though. Since you used lr, I think you'll be ok to add a CUC when the ammonia/trites hit zero

[Jayva]

If it were me, and I didn't have anything in the tank (I know you've got stomatellas and a bristle worm I think) I'd dose ammonia till it was 2ppm, and test the ammonia again in 24 hours. I'd also check for nitrites after say, 6-8 hours, just to see if they're spiking and dropping within 24 hours. If everything reads zero in 24 hours and you've seen evidence of nitrites spiking and then dropping in that time period, I'd say you're good to go.

I don't have any liquid clear ammonia. I can't find it anywhere without any additives. Only fish food I have is frozen brine shrimp cubes. (They were on sale for $1 at petsmart usually $8) Which will make a huge mess in there. They'll get stuck in the rocks. The power heads. That's alot of bio-organic waste. Plus i want that bristle worm dead it's 6-7 inches. My wife is convinced it's gonna crawl out and climb on her in bed rofl

Hmm I could put the cube in a net and let all those juices in the water without adding the brine.

[ReefSafeSolutions]

I don't have any liquid clear ammonia. I can't find it anywhere without any additives. Only fish food I have is frozen brine shrimp cubes. (They were on sale for $1 at petsmart usually $8) Which will make a huge mess in there. They'll get stuck in the rocks. The power heads. That's alot of bio-organic waste. Plus i want that bristle worm dead it's 6-7 inches. My wife is convinced it's gonna crawl out and climb on her in bed rofl

Hmm I could put the cube in a net and let all those juices in the water without adding the brine.

 

If you have ace hardware near you, they have ammonia with no additives. I used in for my cycle with no issues.

 

BUT...I wouldn't want to kill off the snails, those little suckers are cool!

[brandon429]

Something you mentioned caught my eye

Sustained dieoff from live rock transfer occurs so rarely I can't recall another case of it happening can you post pics of your setup/rocks

To have living animals in the tank strongly confirms no sustained dieoff, could be test error pics will tell. its fun to trace out constant low level readings of any of the params, in any setting where bacteria are known to be in full complement day 1 as they will be 400 days later (using live rock that has animals inside it or coralline if applicable via pics)

 

live rock shows up fully ready, powerfully able to oxidize ammonia such that a few chunks run plenty of bare bottom setups with fish, decent feeding etc. To have them struggle to keep up with the death of just enough organism to be .25 is a key issue that repeats across the web, fun to trace it out pics would seal the deal. low level readings cause frustration and actions taken by the reefer which may not be needed, so they are a neat detail among web posts. verifying readings with other different name brand kits helps too for the hunt

[Jayva]

Something you mentioned caught my eye

 

Sustained dieoff from live rock transfer occurs so rarely I can't recall another case of it happening can you post pics of your setup/rocks

 

To have living animals in the tank strongly confirms no sustained dieoff, could be test error pics will tell. its fun to trace out constant low level readings of any of the params, in any setting where bacteria are known to be in full complement day 1 as they will be 400 days later (using live rock that has animals inside it or coralline if applicable via pics)

 

live rock shows up fully ready, powerfully able to oxidize ammonia such that a few chunks run plenty of bare bottom setups with fish, decent feeding etc. To have them struggle to keep up with the death of just enough organism to be .25 is a key issue that repeats across the web, fun to trace it out pics would seal the deal. low level readings cause frustration and actions taken by the reefer which may not be needed, so they are a neat detail among web posts. verifying readings with other different name brand kits helps too for the hunt

I have poor eye sight. And the lighting is confusing me. I might be wrong about the ammonia and trates. But the trites defiantly purple. Gonna take a sample to LFS have them check it later.

[Jayva]

Something you mentioned caught my eye

 

Sustained dieoff from live rock transfer occurs so rarely I can't recall another case of it happening can you post pics of your setup/rocks

 

To have living animals in the tank strongly confirms no sustained dieoff, could be test error pics will tell. its fun to trace out constant low level readings of any of the params, in any setting where bacteria are known to be in full complement day 1 as they will be 400 days later (using live rock that has animals inside it or coralline if applicable via pics)

 

live rock shows up fully ready, powerfully able to oxidize ammonia such that a few chunks run plenty of bare bottom setups with fish, decent feeding etc. To have them struggle to keep up with the death of just enough organism to be .25 is a key issue that repeats across the web, fun to trace it out pics would seal the deal. low level readings cause frustration and actions taken by the reefer which may not be needed, so they are a neat detail among web posts. verifying readings with other different name brand kits helps too for the hunt

I'm not home. Now. I'll get you a pic later.