Yay! Nitrite!

Wes888

Reef enthusiast
I think only newbie would be excited to see Nitrite showing up! :D

I was going for the fishless method and put some Clear Ammonia into the tank 3 days ago. Right after that night, I came across some review/comments about Nitrifying Bacteria by Dr. Tim. So I got some and put into the tank last night. 12 hours later:

OneAndOnlyWorks.jpg


(the light blue one with 0 ppm was right before I put in the bacteria 12 hours ago)
 
I've ordered some LR, but they haven't arrived yet. Hope it'll be here later today. Right now, I only have a few pieces of base rock.

When I put in the ammonia 3 days ago, I put in too much. It was off the chart (more than 4ppm). I've already keep doing water changes everyday but my RO can only pump out so much when I'm home watching it. I keep seeing the ammonia keep going down, but I'm pretty sure it was mostly due to water changes.
 
so your going to have to do this cycleing process all over again, and your house is going to smell worse then a garbage dump while the rock cures. do you have any sand in your tank?
 
ouch. didn't know that it would stink. I guess I should bring the LR to the basement and do the curing process then.

Yes, I have about 3-4 inches of sand.
 
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I haven't read about that at all. I guess I should really start preping my 25 gal in the basement and move all the LR down there now...
 
Sniff the rock before you decide to cure it in the basement.If it smells fairly fresh,you probably wont that bad a smell from curing.But if it smells like :pooh: then yeah,you'll want to cure it somewhere else.
 
They don't have much smell on it. May be I can take a chance. It's gonna take me a couple of days to collect enough RO water for another tank anyway.
 
After putting in the LR for a few hours, I went to check on how my brand new protein skimmer that can handle 300 gal doing. Once I opened the door for my sump area, my wife in the next room asked what that smell was. Oops. I think I'll move the LR down to the garage tomorrow.
 
hehe, yea.

Just trying to learn more. Why is it too late now? Because if I move them, the bacteria may die off and I'll have to wait for it to start again? or something else?
 
I see.

Another question. When I change the water, I suppose to change 100% of it, according to some article. Won't they expose to air as well? Or should I just change the water only upto where they still submerge in the water?
 
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