Day 7 New Parameters

leeleeah

leeleeah

Member
I have a 50 gal. tank with an Emperor 400 Filtration System. My tank is set up for FOWLR. I made a post a few days ago about my live rock. (I restarted the tank after it sat for a year with the live rock still in it) The LR has coraline but no other signs of life. I added new substrate (Live Sand) and I am looking into adding a few pieces of LR to help it out. Here is my question......
Today is Day 7 and it seems my parameters haven't changed much......
Day 5 after set up readings are: Nitrate (NO3): 20
Ammonia (NH3/NH4): .25
Nitrate (NO2): 0
High Range PH: 8.2
Today Day 7 readings: Nitrate (NO3): 10
Ammonia (NH3/NH4): .25
Nitrate (NO2): 0
High Range PH: 8.7
Salinity is 34 ppt and Gravity is 1.025. Temp is set to 80 degrees
Is my tank cycling? The PH is now up on day 7 but the Nitrate (NO3) had dropped. No difference in ammonia levels. Should I be doing something that I'm not doing? Should I add a piece of shrimp? and should it be raw shrimp or precooked or does it matter?
Thanks in advance you guys!
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
That particular test kit give a false 0.25ppm more often than not.
I would bet that your Ammonia is actually zero.
 
lecithin

lecithin

Member
Throw the raw shrimp in there to see how your tank responds. It is very likely that it will spike at 1 in a few days and you'll be on your way.
 
lovetofly31

lovetofly31

Member
Why would the ammonia be higher than the nitrite levels? I thought that as ammonia reduces, it converts to nitrite, and then nitrite into nitrate?
Am I thoroughly confused?
My tank has been cycling for a few weeks now. My ammonia is Zero. Nitrite is at 1 and Nitrates at 20.
 
leeleeah

leeleeah

Member
I've used this same brand of test kit for years and I have never heard of the ammonia test being "off". My tank was established for 5 years before I set it up this time. It is a brand new kit I just bought last week and I checked the date on it. My test kit says "In a new aquarium the nitrate level will gradually climb as the biological filter becomes established" Most aquarists prefer to keep nitrate levels as low as possible especially when keeping inverts". So.....the nitrate levels will spike during the cycling process but then will go back down.......
that's the way I understand it anyway, because the biological filter "creates" nitrate, then the "good" bacteria in the filter converts this nitrate into nitrate.
After your tank cycles your ammonia levels should drop to zero and your nitrate NO2 should also go to zero. Then you do a partial water change after that....
Am I understanding this right?
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
Originally Posted by leeleeah
I've used this same brand of test kit for years and I have never heard of the ammonia test being "off". My tank was established for 5 years before I set it up this time. It is a brand new kit I just bought last week and I checked the date on it. My test kit says "In a new aquarium the nitrate level will gradually climb as the biological filter becomes established" Most aquarists prefer to keep nitrate levels as low as possible especially when keeping inverts". So.....the nitrate levels will spike during the cycling process but then will go back down.......
that's the way I understand it anyway, because the biological filter "creates" nitrate, then the "good" bacteria in the filter converts this nitrate into nitrate.
After your tank cycles your ammonia levels should drop to zero and your nitrate NO2 should also go to zero. Then you do a partial water change after that....
Am I understanding this right?
Can you reread your post and fix all the typos? It's confusing to read so I can't tell if you have it right or not.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
Originally Posted by lovetofly31
Why would the ammonia be higher than the nitrite levels? I thought that as ammonia reduces, it converts to nitrite, and then nitrite into nitrate?
Am I thoroughly confused?
My tank has been cycling for a few weeks now. My ammonia is Zero. Nitrite is at 1 and Nitrates at 20.
You have it right.
It is possible for Nitrite to be higher than ammonia though. The bacteria that convert Ammonia to Nitrite are different than the bacteria that convert Nitrite to Nitrate. If there are fewer bacteria to convert Nitrite than there are to convert Ammonia then Nitrite levels can be higher than Ammonia levels.
This can happen if you let the Ammonia level climb above 1.0ppm. Ammonia is very toxic to the bacteria that consume Nitrite so if it's too high it kills them off. They will grow back quickly once ammonia drops.
 
leeleeah

leeleeah

Member
I've just read through my last post. I was quoting what my book says about nitrates. Sorry for the confusion.
My main question in the beginning of this post was "Is my tank cycling?" I gave the parameters for Day 7. Today is day 8 and everything is the same except for my ammonia level went to .50
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
How much waterflow do you have?
Looks to me like things are just going normally for a new tank.
If your book says this:
the biological filter "creates" nitrate, then the "good" bacteria in the filter converts this nitrate into nitrate
Then you need a different book because this makes no sense at all.
 
leeleeah

leeleeah

Member
Bang....my emperor 400 says the flow is 400 gal/hr
Here are todays readings (this is day 9)
Nitrate (NO2) : 0
Ammonia: .50
PH: 8.4
Nitrate (NO3): 5.0
These readings have pretty much stayed the same for the past 3 days. Do you think anything is happening? I'm just not sure it has even started to cycle. The ammonia has not gone over .50, the PH has gone up a bit, but the nitrate has dropped from 20 on day 2 to 5.0 on day 9. What do you make of this?
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
There are a few things that can drop the Nitrate like that. The most likely is algae. It could also be the sand bed or the rock.
Your tank is maturing, that is what's happening. Have you been feeding the tank?
 
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