Cycling for almost 2 months

[Choca]

Newbie here! Have 100 gallon tank +20 gallon sump. Been cycling almost 2 months. Ammonia has been zero for weeks. Have been stuck at 2.0 and two weeks ago nitrates went up to about 30.ppg. Is this normal? I also got two clowns about a month ago and they have been doing swimmingly… 

 

I have diatoms, and I was thinking of trying adding a snail?

[seabass]

3 hours ago, Choca said:

Have been stuck at 2.0 and two weeks ago nitrates went up to about 30.ppg. Is this normal?

So nitrate was holding at 2ppm, then went up to 30ppm?  That would mean that there is an ammonia source.  Yes, I realize that ammonia is undetectable; but in a tank with a working biofilter, ammonia will almost immediately oxidize into nitrite, and nitrite will almost immediately oxidize into nitrate.  So ammonia creates nitrate.  Another source of nitrate could be using water that contains nitrate.  You might test your source water to make sure that it's nitrate free.

 

So is this normal?  Well, that's a pretty large increase during a two week time span, so it's a little unusual (more than just from healthy livestock).  However, I wouldn't worry about it too much.  Organic material breaking down is usually the cause (could be dead organics from the rock or something else died), but it could even be something like overfeeding the tank.

 

30ppm of nitrate isn't dangerous (especially for a fish only tank), but it's higher than what most people usually recommend.  Water changes can dilute nitrate; however, changing 55 gallons would only lower nitrate to 15ppm.