cooljackal Posted October 12, 2003 Share Posted October 12, 2003 Ive been cycling my tank for two weeks now and my readings have been ammonia 0.25, nitrite 0, nitrate 0. I'm wondering what the ammonia spike usually goes up to. Or is the .25 the ammonia spike. Link to comment
caja Posted October 12, 2003 Share Posted October 12, 2003 Here's a well written article by Chris Marks that details the cycling of a newly established SW tank. http://www.nano-reef.com/articles/?article=8 Link to comment
cooljackal Posted October 12, 2003 Author Share Posted October 12, 2003 yeah ive read that article but everyone gets slightly different results. The article is very informative but doesnt give any numbers. So i just wanted to know what people usually get as spikes and how long theres lasted. As a comparison. Link to comment
Crakeur Posted October 12, 2003 Share Posted October 12, 2003 ammonia went up a bit. what about nitrates and nitrites? when they go up and then return to near zero you should be fine. Link to comment
cooljackal Posted October 12, 2003 Author Share Posted October 12, 2003 yea, i have a bit of a patience problem sometimes. And these aquarium pharm test results are hard to deciper. I mean in the labs we generally do titrations for pinpointing results but these things are so cheap. I've heard about salifert test kits being similar to titrations, I might try those instead. Weird thing is though these results have been the same for the past week. No change at all. Nitrite hasnt risen, nitrates havent risen. Oh well, i guess since im seeing new life everyday (aiptasia, amp-pods, bristle starfish) it must be a good sign right Link to comment
caja Posted October 12, 2003 Share Posted October 12, 2003 When in doubt, wait it out. Let the tank sit for another week and test your water again. I use the Salifert test kits with good results. Good luck! Link to comment
beefjerky402 Posted October 12, 2003 Share Posted October 12, 2003 aq ammonia test kit is crap imho. i waited for like a week or so then i had an ammonia spike, then i had a small nitrite spike, but i still had a 0.25 ammonia reading. eventually i got my nitrate spike but the nitrate never disappeared after like two weeks of testing and i still get a 0.25 ammonia reading. i did a water change and waited a week. i still got the same results. at that point i figured it would be ok to add my cleanup crew. well its been like almost two months now and i still get nitrate and 0.25 ammonia readings with my crap aqua pharm test kits. i got no money to spend on salifert kits right now so aqua pharm will have to do for now. anyways, i say if you get your nitrate and nitrite spikes, i say you are ok, just ignore what the ammonia test says. it will always say 0.25. Link to comment
monsoon Posted October 27, 2003 Share Posted October 27, 2003 I second the Aqua Pharm Tests are absolute crap. After a week of reading... you guessed it 0.25 ammonia I did a test. First I tested the main tank water - 0.25, then some nasty smelling water I'm curing some LR in.. also 0.25 So I went and got a "Tetra" brand Ammonia from the LFS (no salifert and I was in impulse mode) and the tank is now reading 0 parts. Today I bought my Nitrate test kit, chose Tetra again. Seems like a decent brand... more of a PITA to test, but well worth it. Link to comment
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