Bacteria Food?

[Peoplepc3]

Ok, so my 150 gallon cycle is starting to kick in to high gear. I now have gone from 2.0ppm (stuck for 4 weeks) to .25 (in 3 days) and I suspect ammonia will fall to zero, sometime tomorrow.

My nitrite is at 2.0ppm and nitrate is about 30.

I assume the bacteria that turn nitrite in to nitrate will start to form here shorty, fingers crossed.

While I am waiting for the nitrite to convert in to nitrate, how are the bacteria that eat ammonia going to survive? The ammonia level will be at ZERO while I wait for the nitrites to disappear.

I have read somewhere the nitrites will tend to fall rather rapidly once they begin but with my luck, who knows how long that will be. I am already in my 7th week of cycling.

I surely dont want my bacteria colony responsible for eating ammonia, to die.


Incidently, my pH is 7.8. I assume this will go back to 8.4 when I perform a water change. I have no plants and less than 20lbs of live rock and 130 or so lbs of base rock.

Advice?

 

[little_fish]

Nitrites are not deadly to fish so once your ammonia is at zero i would say you are ready for your first fish! yay! That will provide plenty for your bacteria.

Make sure you wait at least 3 weeks between additions to allow for the bacteria load to catch up to the newest addition.

Also now that your tank is cycled, all of your rock is live.

Also, im not 100% sure about this but i would assume that nitrites are still toxic to corals so i would wait until those are at zero before adding any corals.

 

[Peoplepc3]

Thanks littlefish! Sooo, should I perform a water change before adding a fish? I was thinking 3 green chromis to start off with. An odd number because they like to school...and they are small.

If so, how much water should I change?

 

[little_fish]

Yep!

And i think those would be some good starter fish, but dont get chromis confused with damsel fish because damsels are horribly mean fish and are not good tank mates.

Also dont get in the habit of adding multiple fish, its too hard on the bioload and you can cause your tank to go through a mini cycle. I would wait a least a month after you add multiple fish instead of the normal 3 weeks.

 

[Wes888]

Thanks littlefish! Sooo, should I perform a water change before adding a fish? I was thinking 3 green chromis to start off with. An odd number because they like to school...and they are small.

If so, how much water should I change?

I've heard 7 is the magic number to get them to school. Of course, YMMV.

When I started mine with 4, 1 of them got chased away until it died. Then the 3rd one got chased away unit it died.

I recently sold everything in my tank and re-stock it. I now have 7 chromis in there and they finally schooled whenever something startle them.

 

[Peoplepc3]

OK, so if I should perform a water change, what would be the reason behind this change? And how much should I change?

 

[Wes888]

In your case, water change is for diluting the nitrate, which is the final product of the nitrogen cycle. It won't go anywhere. So water change is the only way to lower the concentration of it.

If you have no fish in there, you can do big water change like 30-50%. If you have fish in there, which I think you do? I would probably do small water change like 10-20% every few days to get the nitrate lower.

 

[little_fish]

I only have 3 chromis and they school, but that might be because my tank is much smaller. But i wouldnt add 7 fish at once, that is asking for trouble.

 

[Peoplepc3]

Hmm, Wes....

Thats not good news about the chromis. I have heard that as well. I DO NOT want damels in my tank because they are not very nice and dont play well with others. Guess its back to the research pages again to find a good first fish. Maybe I can find something within the archives here....What did you go with?

No wes...no fish yet....just a TON of rock

Also, my NITRITE's are 2.0 now
NITRATES are at 30....fyi

 

[Wes888]

You don't have to do any water change until the nitrite are close to zero. Let more beneficial bacteria to grow and do their work.

 

[Wes888]

I surely dont want my bacteria colony responsible for eating ammonia, to die.

Yes, they do die. That's the reason why people recommend you to add fish one at a time, then wait a little then add more fish, etc. The reason to wait for the cycle to complete is that the Nitrite is even more deadly then the Ammonia. So, you really need to have the Nitrite converting bacteria to set foot first, then re-develop the ammonia eating bacteria again by adding fish slowly.

You can trick the system a bit. When the nitrite is getting to 5 or 10 or so, do a big water change to lower the nitrate. At the same time, re-introduce small amount of ammonia back to the water. You should be able to see both ammonia and nitrite going down at a similar rate. So, when the nitrite goes to zero AND ammonia are also getting close to zero, your system should be able to handle a good amount of fishes at once. (I'm sure lot of people here won't agree with me. :D)

 

[marcah]

I dont even test for nitrites in my system , for everything I have read over the years nitrites do no damage to the fish, I checked ammonia and nitrates and nitrite when first starting the tank, I did just to make sure the cycle was going then after it finished all the articles I have read said it was not a test that needed to be done.... :D

 

[Wes888]

If you have a fish only system with no coral, Nitrate could be a bit higher, but it will kill Coral for sure.

 

[marcah]

most definately.. nitrate and ammonia are something you always want to keep at 0, unless like wes said you have a fish only, then nitrate can go up a bit.. but nitrite I havent tested in years in my tanks once cycled.

 

[little_fish]

Nitrite is not deadly to saltwater fish, but i would bet its deadly to corals so i wouldnt add any corals until your nitrites are at zero and your nitrates are around 10