Help Nitrate 160 off the scale

zookeeper20

Reefing newb
I am on day 14 new 55 gallon tank with 50lbs of live cured rock from LFS wet/dry coral life super skimmer 65 and a 404 fluval also 25lbs of live sand Did 14 day test and the ammonia is .25 and closer to zero Phosphate .25 and closer to zero but the nitrate is off the chart is this normal in a new cycle? Test kit API reef master Any advice would be helpfully Some I heard is just wait Should I add fish or do a water change?
 
High nitrates mean your nitrifying cycle is coming to an end an the denitrification cycle is about to begin. LARGE water changes will keep them down to manageable levels. Are you using RO/DI water? How long was that rock cured? New rock is has a plethora of things that will die and contribute to sky high nitrates. My rock cooking tank has been over 200 a few times because the water from the system gets dumped in there, then that water goes outside for evaporation. I use the end product as ice melt in the winter
 
Should I do a water change while the tank is cycling? There are no fish in the tank just rock Local fish store advised to put in a few fish
But I have not done that If I wait will the nitrates come down naturally I am thinking of adding more live sand
 
do not put fish in the tank until you get the nitrates down to under 20 ppm at that point you can add no more 2 fish every other week as this will well help the biofilter grow as you add fish if you add to many at once you could throw your tank into a mini cycle and could kill your fish so do about a 30% water change the wait 2 days then do another and then check nitrates if they r still high do another and keep repeating until they r under 20 ppm
 
Salt was not to be found this winter so I decided to improvise. When I did water changes I started to cook off the water on the woodstove and make a slurry to pre treat the driveway when they were calling for snow, worked like a charm. Just make sure you use glass if you do this and that your stove isn't hot enough to boil it off. Salt and steel aren't a good mix.
 
When you have 2 pups with bad hips and there's no salt to be found you get very inventive. Wood ash wasn't cutting it with the temps hovering in the teens for a MONTH.
 
We spent 20 years in Florida and then moved to the Seattle area. I loved Florida. It is so nice and warm. But I came up here and found out there are no poisonous critters lurking. Think I'll stay put. There's something about being able to enjoy the mountains without worrying about getting eaten or killed. So you can't go into the water. I can't swim anyway.;)

Funny, Aquarian! We have a comedian in our midst I see.
 
Emmet, I just want to let you know, Nitrates don't really affect fish. Not unless they are like, obscenely out of control. I had a buddy who kept tangs/clowns/angels in a tank that was close to 300ppm of nitrates religiously. It couldn't sustain any inverts or corals, but the fish survived it. Not that I'm recommending to do that lol.
 
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