Patience is a virtue but.......

mplocar

mplocar

Reefing newb
Ok so the tanks been up and running for 3 weeks or so now the ammonia spike has come and gone in fact it was over in the first week +/- a day or two and the nitrites:death: are still out there. :frustrat: I have one Chromis 5 dwarf hermits and 3 turbo snails doing just fine I see them moving and eating and everyone seems to be happy as clams...

All other parameters are good to go I have the bio wheel algae is growing the skimmer is working well three powerheads I can see the flow when I feed the fish so all is great.

We really want to add the maroon clown and leave the tank alone after that. We would be happy to just have the clown. if the crabs are making it and the chromis is doing well even if my water tests positive for nitrites:death: are clowns hardy enough to do well? I know slow and steady and all that but I want it now!! LoL:^:

What can I do to make the nitrites go away :grumble:

thanks in advance for your input:bowdown:
 
i am having the same problem and i have been doing five gallon water changes everyday and the rites have come down quite a bit in jsut two days
 
I would not add any more fish right now. Adding more would create a bigger problem. As in probably another ammonia spike and definantly more nitrites. Time and patience are really the only thing that will make the nitrites go down. The bacterial population needs to catch up with the load. How much live rock do you have? It is suggested to have between 1 and 2 pounds per gallon. Hope everything does well.

Brian
 
I think part of my problem is the LR issue I have about 12lbs of actual live rock and another 40lbs of other rock( coral skeleton) that I wanted to seed (I posted a pic in the "Tank" gallery to give an idea of what I am working with.)I agree that I dont want to go broke restocking fish. We were at the LFS and they have 3 Maroons and we spent like 20 mins just looking and one of them was so lively and had such a great personality:bounce: but they dont have a "hold" policy (well 24-48 hours but thats not what we need) so we left with sad hearts knowing that it might not be there when our tank is ready. Patience sucks!!! So I guess we will have to take our chances and believe if he is the fish for us he will still be there when the tank is ready. Its just so hard he was beautiful...
 
your problem is that you didn't do your water change after your cycle, the nitrites won't "go away" you have to change the water to do that. I would change your water and wait for 2 weeks or so before adding any more fish, don't worry about the fish, they will get fish in like that all the time, maroons can be very aggressive too fyi
 
I have a high nitrate problems.I think it might be because i have a canester filter, I resintly add new carbon(Quite a bit, is that bad?) and some "PURA nitratelock". I've been using it for like 3 days and it has not gone down.

nitrites should convert to nitrate(which it slightly less toxic) so you can wait it out or just do a couple water changes or maybe run some thing to lower ur nitrites. but once you lower them you can proably add ur clown fish
 
Patience,maroon clowns are a time a dozen.They will get more clowns in when you're ready.Ammonia and nitrite really needs to be at zero.
 
Freak said it all, it's not like maroon clowns are rare or uncommon. When your tank is ready for more fish (nitrites at zero), it won't be hard to find one to put in.
 
Reef abd Biffs right.Wait untill the nitrites are zero,then do a water change to lower the nitrates.
You dont want to bring home the perfect fish,only to have it stress in a tank thats not ready.
 
OK, now I'm confused. I thought you waited till the nitrites dropped to zero, and the nitrates started to rise, then you started water changes. Am I missing something here?
 
Reefrookie said:
OK, now I'm confused. I thought you waited till the nitrites dropped to zero, and the nitrates started to rise, then you started water changes. Am I missing something here?
Click to expand...


That's right,wait for ammonia and nitrite to return to zero then do a water change to reduce nitrates.
 
The confusion is that nitrites and nitrates sound so similar that people sometimes get them confused. But the cycle goes Ammoinia (NH4) to Nitrites (NO2) to nitrates (NO3). Now if there is plenty of live rock and also a deep sand bed where there is plenty of anerobic bacteria living (without oxygen) the nitrates (NO3) will be converted to nitrogen gas (N2). Then it will disipate out of the water. Water changes not only remove dangerous chemicals in the water they also replenish beneficial chemicals.

Brian
 
Ok Well I did about a 20 gallon water change and have another 10 gallons already airing. I can say that trying to make salt water is not as easy as it sounds. I figured out that taking FW adding the dechlorination then the ph buffer BEFORE the salt is best that way if you mess up with to the ph your not pouring salt down the drain,unless you have alot of buckets and split the water. it was alot of trial and error but i think I have it down to almost a science. After reading these posts though I am a bit concerned My main reason for doing the water change was in hopes of diluting the nitrites. Will it work or did I just flush out the nitrates and set my tanks cycle back?
 
You may prolong the cycle doing a water change before the cycle is complete.No big deal,some people do water changes during a cycle to keep nitrates from raising to high.
 
:frustrat:
What I am using is a ph additive The ph of my water is low so I am using Kent DKH to raise the PH. So the water change wont help dilute the nitrites? and may lenghten the cycle? That really blows. I am using instant ocean brand salt.BTW. Yeah I was really hoping that the woter change would help speed up the process. :frustrat:
 

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