Shadowrider Posted May 27, 2008 Share Posted May 27, 2008 72 Gal Bowfront. Two Koralia 3 powerheads and running a Cascade 800 cannister with some carbon and filter material to clean up the water. On Thursday May 22 I put in 69# of uncured live rock and ammonia shot up to +8, Nitrates 10, Nitrites 2. On Friday May 23 I took the rock out and cleaned it, put it back in and changed 15 gal of water. Ammonia stayed the same, Nitrates went up to 20 and Nitrites stayed at 2. On Monday morning May 26 ammonia was at 0, Nitrates back up to 20 and Nitrites down to .50. Monday afternoon I added 70 pounds of live sand. This morninng May 27 the water had cleared and ammonia was at zero but Nitrates shot up to 160 and Nitrites up to 1. I just did another water check (1 PM) and ammonia was at zero and Nitrates had dropped all the way to zero and Nitrites were still at 1. I know that the live sand, 30# Carib Sea Aragonite and 40# of Carib Sea Arag Alive have claims to reduce and control Nitrates, Ammonia, and Nitrites and to speed up cycling. Is it possible that my tank could have cycled that quickly? Link to comment
MrAnderson Posted May 27, 2008 Share Posted May 27, 2008 within 4 hours or so your nitrates went from 160ppm to zero? highly unlikely, but i suppose anything is possible. denitrification is the slowest portion of the nitrogen cycle, in terms of processing molar quantities of reactants. Link to comment
Shadowrider Posted May 27, 2008 Author Share Posted May 27, 2008 within 4 hours or so your nitrates went from 160ppm to zero? highly unlikely, but i suppose anything is possible. denitrification is the slowest portion of the nitrogen cycle, in terms of processing molar quantities of reactants. That's why I was so surprised. This morning the color was way up in the dark red on my API kit which, according to the card is 160. I just checked it again and sure enough it is a yellow color. Link to comment
Shadowrider Posted May 28, 2008 Author Share Posted May 28, 2008 I just remembered that I took a picture of the water test tubes this morning right after I was done (I liked the colors). The nitrate test is the second one from the right. Note that it's dark red indicating a nitrate level of at least 160. The test water was a yellowish color at 1 PM. Link to comment
Deleted User 6 Posted May 28, 2008 Share Posted May 28, 2008 Re-test. You may have just had a bum test (that API nitrate one bores me to death with all the shaking). Link to comment
Pship Posted May 28, 2008 Share Posted May 28, 2008 Retest, that seems very unplausible. Link to comment
Shadowrider Posted May 28, 2008 Author Share Posted May 28, 2008 Two different tests and both were the same. Test water came up a yellow color. It is now 8:10PM and another test comes up with nitrates at 40. No idea why the two earlier tests were so low and why the nitrates are rising again. Link to comment
MrAnderson Posted May 28, 2008 Share Posted May 28, 2008 Two different tests and both were the same. Test water came up a yellow color. It is now 8:10PM and another test comes up with nitrates at 40. No idea why the two earlier tests were so low and why the nitrates are rising again. i'm sorry, i don't trust or believe those results. it's very possible there is some error in technique or a random contaminant (tube cleaning water?). i don't know what's going on, but nitrate results in a system of your size can't fluctuate that much, i don't think it's possible. Link to comment
Shadowrider Posted May 28, 2008 Author Share Posted May 28, 2008 i'm sorry, i don't trust or believe those results. it's very possible there is some error in technique or a random contaminant (tube cleaning water?). i don't know what's going on, but nitrate results in a system of your size can't fluctuate that much, i don't think it's possible. I agree. One test and I might have figured I screwed up somewhere but two tests, one at 1300 and another at 1500 with both showing the same results sort of eliminates (or at least minimizes) chance of error. Besides, I never make mistrates Seriously though, I don't know what's going on. Link to comment
InTr4nceWeTrust Posted May 28, 2008 Share Posted May 28, 2008 Try retesting in a week : / How "uncured" was that live rock? Link to comment
Shadowrider Posted May 29, 2008 Author Share Posted May 29, 2008 Try retesting in a week : / How "uncured" was that live rock? It didn't look like it had been cured at all. It was pretty dirty and had some dead "meat" in it which I cleaned up as best I could with forceps and a putty knife. The rock was in my tank for 4 1/2 days before I put the sand in and at that time the ammonia had dropped from 8+ to 1. After adding the sand the nitrates went up some then dropped and suddenly went way back up. The nitrates are back up now and I reckon the tank is cycling normally. Whatever happened, and how it happened will forever remain a mystery. Link to comment
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