Please read!

[Rin]

BTL,

That's not weird at all. It's just a matter of which bateria has established itself the most at this point.

When I cycled my tank, my inital spikes were NH3, NO2, NO3. After a week, my ammonia and nitrates were zero, but my nitrites (NO2) were around 0.25. It stayed that way for another 3 weeks. Then my nitrites went to zero and my nitrates started to rise just slightly.

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-Todd
'There're only 3 types of people in the world: Those who can count and those who can't'

[reefhead]

Members, if he has high Nitrite isnt it safe to assume he doesnt have adequate biological filtration or, has it just not been broken down yet?

[SPasse]

BTL,

It sounds like your tank hasn’t finished cycling.

How long has it been since you started the tank.

Regards,

Scott

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The definition of an expert is a washed-up drip under pressure.
You can see my reeftank at http://www.homestead.com/spasse/

[Bughead]

I get a high nitrite reading on occasion when ammonia is 0. It has usually happens when there has been a disturbance like over feeding, removing too many bioballs, or the tank filtering sluggishly because of overfilling. (I no longer have that problem because I no longer have bioballs, so the tank runs just fine when it's overfilled). Anyway, at those times when the nitrites were up, all the livestock was perfectly fine. And the nitrites have stayed up for several days, with no ill effects. Then the cycle seems to get caught up and all the tests are fine again. The only time I really freak is with an ammonia spike. Then it's emergency water change time.

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If it's broke, don't fix it---hide it.

[BTL]

My tank has been set up for two weeks. It has biological filtration on it, and established biowheel that i had running on our quarentine tank but switchted out when i started my microtank. (dont worry about the quarentine tank, it has not been used for over 2 months as we are done getting fish for our big tank [img]/ubb/smile.gif[/img]) My ammonia is 0 and the other two have dropped down from being off the chart just 3 days ago to being either zero or the reading right above zero (the accurate numbers are further up this thread)

Andy

Andy

[SPasse]

BTL,

Your tank has not finished cycling.

The nitrite to nitrate part of nitrogen cycle can take awhile to settle down.

It is not unusual for this to take a month or more.

Don’t add any of your detrivore kit until after there is no trace of nitrite.

Regards,

Scott

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The definition of an expert is a washed-up drip under pressure.
You can see my reeftank at http://www.homestead.com/spasse/

[reefland]

I agree with Scott. Until the ammonia and nitrite have reached zero and the nitrates drop considerably, the cycle is not completed.

I like to test the parameters while cycling, but not too often. I even like to wait a week or two after the cycle is complete (per the test kits) before I begin to add livestock other than sand bed critters.

If you ran copper in your Q tank with the biowheel, I would not use it on the reef.

Regards,
Scott

[BTL]

No, we didnt run copper in that tank, we only used non copper based ick, like kick ich. I know all about how copper affects inverts.

Thanks for the advice guys! I am really excited about my first reef (i know it isnt hard to tell) and i want everything to be perfect and i am really glad you guys have the paitence to deal with the multitude of questions that i am throwing at you. I do have another one though, just about a LR critter, i noticed this little tube built out of sand on my rock and it has these little tenticles that come out of it and wave in the current and then retract. Well last night it grew by about 300 percent and branched out horizontally across. What kind of critter is it? it is really cool.

Andy

[Mikeman]

could it be a feather duster? check the duster thread going around right now

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Mikeman

Heros are like muffins when things get hot, they rise to the top.

[BTL]

Ok, how does the tank cycle go. Ammonia->NO3->NO2 or Ammonia->NO2->NO3. I thought it was the first but i have become very confused about this. My water tests have been showing a trend that tells me the first is right.

and what kind of critters would you suggest as a clean up crew for a 3 gallon reef and how many?

Thanks

Andy

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"Khazad ai-menu!"

[Bughead]

ammonia, NO2(nitrite), NO3(nitrate).

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If it's broke, don't fix it---hide it.

[BTL]

OK, thanks for clearing that up. Is it weird that my NO3 is at 0 and my NO2 is at .25?

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"Khazad ai-menu!"

[Baywatch Babe]

Ammonia -> Nitrite -> Nitrate

Check this out: Nitrogen cycling process in SW tanks

The Nitrogen Cycle

hth

Gia [img]/ubb/wink.gif[/img]

[This message has been edited by Baywatch Babe (edited 05-27-2001).]