Crazy Cycle.... Is everything ok?

[old salt]

I have a 29 gal tank, started 3 weeks ago with damsels. Cycle was coming along slowly, but I decided I wanted live rock. So I bought 30 lbs of uncured LR, took the damsels back (for full credit), and placed the LR in the tank. It's been in the tank since Friday afternoon.
The ammonia and nitrites quickly rose, as I suspected, and the ammonia has started going back down... the part that has me worried is today, both my nitrites AND nitrates are high, with the nitrates off the scale.
I it normal/ok for the nitrates to go way up? No fish in my tank, but I'm worried everything on my LR is going to die... I've been running lights about 8-10 hours a day, and do have brown algae in the tank...
Any advice????? am I ok???
Thanks!!

 

[mr . salty]

With the nitrates that high,and running the lights that long you are heading for a massive algae bloom.When curing live rock you should have the lights off. I would think a water change is in order once the nitrites are down,and cut the lights for a couple weeks.

 

[old salt]

lfs guy told me to keep running the lights.... seems like I get nothing but bad advice from him... I guess I need to start looking around for a new lfs... Thanks for the advice!!

 

[jimi]

It is a good idea to keep the lights on to save some of the light loving animals or what have you. Salty is right about the water changes at this point your cycle is well under way and almost done if you are producing high nitrates. Do partial water changes a few times a week.

 

[old salt]

ok, so I should leave the lights on... Should I start the partial water changes now?? Should I wait until Nitrites drop? I'm so confused.... LOL! Thanks again for your input!!

 

[turtle]

The reason your Nitrites and Nitrates are so high is because the Ammonia has transformed from ammonia to nitrites to nitrates. Once your nitrites come down and transform into nitrates then you can do a water change to eliminate the nitrates and you should have zero for all of the above.
Turtle

 

[old salt]

So your saying I should wait until the nitrites are down before doing any water changes?? It sounded like Jimi was suggesting doing them now... confused again.. LOL