High Nitrates and nitrites

[SarahJ]

Hey

I am a Marine noobie and have been cycling my 5 gallon nano for nearly three weeks now.

 

yesterday Ammonia was 0, so I added more to bring it back up.

Today I’ve checked and ammonia was back down to 0.

 

My problem is the nitrites and nitrates, they were both off the scale yesterday and again today. I have just done a huge 95% water change and both are still reading too high.

 

I have:

Salinity 1.025

Temp is 27 degrees

Gh 180

Kh 80

Ph 7.5

No2 10

No3 160

Ammonia 0

 

Dried live rock and crushed coral

Do I just wait longer or do I need to do something else?

My plan was once tank is stable, to add a few zoas, a couple of snails, a skank shrimp and a clown, not all at once obviously.

Can the zoas and snails be added at the same time or one first and then wait?

Thank you for any help, and for probably asking the same question asked a 1000 time, I did try and search for the answer 😳

sarah

 

 

[seabass]

Sarah, welcome to Nano-Reef.com.

 

I would do a large enough water change to bring the nitrite level down to 5 ppm.  So if nitrite is 10ppm, I'd do a 50% water change.  Then nitrite should start to lower more normally.  I'd let nitrite reach 0.25ppm and then dose one more round of ammonium chloride (to elevate ammonia to 2ppm).  Once ammonia drops to 0.25ppm, you can do another water change to lower nitrate to its target level.

 

10 minutes ago, SarahJ said:

Dried live rock and crushed coral

Crushed coral is alright to use, but detritus can be trapped in it more readily than sand.  If using a crushed coral substrate, you will need to aggressively vacuum it during maintenance (as you would a freshwater substrate).

 

14 minutes ago, SarahJ said:

Can the zoas and snails be added at the same time or one first and then wait?

They can be added at the same time.

[SarahJ]

Thank you!

I am normally an impatient person but I want to do this right.

Sarah

[rough eye]

3 weeks is a very short time. but sounds like the tank is well on its way to being ready.