only 10 days and confusing parameters

[b_artman]

im a little confused by the results i got today. first background on my setup:

- 10 gallon nano tank, with 20 watt 50/50 mini compact light bulb

- aquarclear300 used as sump, aquaclearMini for more movement

- 13 pounds of live fiji rock from established tank,

- 1 inch of aragonite sand also from established tank-however it was left on the deck to dry by my friend thus leading me to believe it is virtually dead. it was rained on, dried, frozen and then taken home by me. very bad i know.

- 1 hitchhiker crab(unidentifed-see my post in the Identification forum for a picture) and about 3-4 tiny snails, and at least one brittle worm sighted

- water consists of about 20% water from established tank, 75% new RO water with IO saltmix

 

The tank has been up and running for about 10 days, with daily RO topoffs. now for the parameters:

gravity: 1.024

Ph: 8.2/8.3

amonia: 0

nitrite: 0

nitrate: 10

 

granted this is my first time doing a test, the results seem to show that the tank is cycled(!?!). I only bought the test kit today and will monitor more closely over the next few days. However i am surprised at the results never the less. Could it be that because i used such fresh rock and partial water from the established tank, AND the sand which perhaps did save some bacteria, my tank did not cycle at all, but instead settled down right away? there appears to have been no dying in my tank as of yet(snails are fine, as is the crab). anyone care to comment?

[Isaka]

I would say watch it for another week, doing more tests to get consistant results. If your LR was not out of the water long between its old tank and yours then you probably didn't have much if any die off (which is what causes a cycle). HTH.

[ninhsavestheday]

what kind of brand did u get? pharm test kits are known to be faulty

[AnthonyNguyen]

gravity : 1.024 is ok, i kept my b/w 1.023 and 1.025. if u plan to keep coral, and nitrate : 10? hum, do you change water weekly? 1 galon at a time? if u do..than nitrate should come down!

[nalbar]

i would do a partial water change now. then check again in a couple days. but it looks like you are done. which is no surprise considering how you got your stuff.

 

nalbar

[b_artman]

thanks for the replies everyone.

i have not done any water changes after reading that i should not be doing them till the cycle is complete. i guess ill be doing one in the next couple days though after confirming the results againt tonight. the test kit is actually the pharm master test kit. i was told its not too bad although some people have had bad batches. the rock has been out of the water a total of 10mins when i took it out of a friends tank and then transported it in a bucket of tank water which i then used a portion off. so what i think is that the tank did not have large spikes and simply acted like a large water change and transport of tank. the water is perfectly clean, no algea growth or anything to suggest swinging levels.

[caja]

Go ahead and do a water change, wait another week and test the water again. If it's still up, another water change. It's really not a big deal, it just prolongs the length of the cycle.

 

Are you using any media in the HOBs? If so, the sponges will collect a ton of debris and harbor nitrates. Toss them and put new sponges in. I change the sponge on the prefilter to my sump once a week because it gets so gunky. HOB sponges get changed twice a month.

[b_artman]

i am not using any media in the filters. they are being used as sump and for water movement(though the acmini will be replaced with a powerhead at some point). i will do a 10% water change tomorrow and see how it goes from there. thanks everyone!

[koolyce]

If you can, add more LR, 13 pounds it's a bit low. If you have the jbj nano, use the back place yo put LR to make a little fuge there.

[Ike]

The readings that you have show that the tank is cycled. Do what Caja says.

 

The 10 reading of Nitrate shows that the cycle is complete because in order to have any Nitrate you must first have a source of Ammonia, ie. something decomposing or any source of biological waste. Then there are bacteria in your live rock that eat the Ammonia and produce Nitrite as a result. Then there is another bunch of bacteria that eats the Nitrite and produces Nitrate. There are other bacteria that will eat the Nitrate and produce harmless Nitrogen gas as a result. But they need an anaerobic environment like a DSB or a plennum. You don't need to worry about it because Nitrate isn't very toxic in low levels and you can export more of it by doing a water change than bothering with a DSB or plennum in your tank since the overall volume of water is so low.