Help! Nitrites and Nitrates will not come down

[jla9508]

I added 45 lbs of live rock a couple weeks ago. It was cured but was mail order lr so I knew it needed to be cured again. I did not have a way to cure it so I just placed it in my tank that only had one 3 lb piece of lr and some snails. The ammonia has already shot up and come back down to zero. The pH is 8.2, nitrites 3, and nitrates 80. The snails and the tube worm on my first piece of live rock are fine. I have changed a total of 25 gallons of water over the past 3 days and the nitrites and nitrates have not changed. I am using stress zyme, and I have Bio Chem stars in my filter. What can I do to lower these??

 

[jla9508]

I was told it contained bacteria that would help with the nitrites and nitrates.
What should I use to get rid of the trites and trates?

 

[puff(er) daddy]

It seems to me your at the end of a mini cycle. Just give it some time and don't add any more chemicals/treatments to your water.

 

[pjsfish]

I had a similar problem when cycling, I am new at this so I asked my lfs and we finally figured out that I should not have been running my protien skimmer. I shut it off an within 24 hrs nitrites at 0 nitrates at 12.5. Good luck.

 

[susiepan]

I agree....Kill the skimmer...You dont need it yet..
Just let it cycle...and try not to add anything else to it...It rally isnt necessary..
~Susie

 

[ruaround]

dont do anymore water changes...just let it cycle though...

 

[jla9508]

Thanks for all of the help. I just unplugged the skimmer. I test my water tomorrow and see if this helped. I hope it does.

 

[jla9508]

Since unplugging my skimmer about 24 hours ago the nitrites are the same but the nitrates have dropped to 40. Should I just leave everything alone and hope the nitrites will drop.
The sandbed I have now is just Quickrete Playsand and I want to add a few pounds of live sand. One LFS has a big salt "pond" full of live sand, I noticed some purple and some green stuff growing in there one day. Should I wait until the trites and trates goes down or will the live sand help it go down?

 

[jla9508]

The trates have now dropped to 20 but trites still have not changed. Will they eventually start to come down?

 

[kuja321]

I agree unplug the skimmer. Levels will come down
let it cycle but nitrite is mor important than nitrate.

 

[jla9508]

I have no idea why they suggested unpluging the skimmer but I'm glad they did. Since unpluging my nitrates are down to 10 from 80. That was in three days.
Thanks guys!

 

[karvis]

no no no no no!!!!! never use stress zyme!!!!!! it is not ment for sw(even though it says it is!). it screwed up my tank! look at my signature and you will see!

 

[jla9508]

I tested my water yesterday and it was great, pH 8.2, Ammo 0, Trities 0, Trates 5. I'll be going to the LFS tomorrow and getting the first fish, a six-line wrasse. Can't wait!
Thanks for everyone's help!!

 

[lrswls]

So what up with the scimmer thoughts? I have been cycling since 4-22 w/scimmer uncured rock and lights off. Have roughly same water now as original post.....do i let it run or shut off for best water quality, time is not a factor...I now from the posts am going to keep it on....also does the wet dry create overly high trates?

 

[jla9508]

My trates and trites did not come down until I unpluged the skimmer. Once I unpluged the skimmer 4 days later my water was almost perfect. I say nplug it but anthem dosen't agree.

 

[jla9508]

I don't know exactly what caused my numbers to drop. Maybe it was just a coincidence that my numbers just happened to drop when I truned off the skimmer. All I'm telling everyone is what my situation was, what I tried to correct it,and what my outcome was. Which would be high trites and trates, turned off skimmer, trites drop to 0 and trates drop to 5. Whether there is any correlation with the numbers dropping and me turning off the skimmer, I don't know but that is what I did.

 

[lrswls]

I understand what you did, but I also understand that there is NO corelation between the two. Not just from the posts on this site but from the fact gathering done in last 24 hours. So to say that all you know is that this happened when you did this, you are actually propogating the fact that information is given without explanation. The fact reamains that this did happen in your tank, and that it was a coincedence and to reccomend to anyone to turn the scimmer off to lower trates and trites would be foolish because there is no correlation between the two.

 

[pjsfish]

I was told that running the skimmer durring the initial cycle you are pulling off waste and bacteria that is necessary in converting nitrite to nitrate, slowing the initial cycle time, the cycle would have completed just taking much longer. My source has been around salt water tanks for along time and came very recomended. When he told me this it made sense and when I shut off the skimmer it fixed my problem. I am new at this and seem very lucky to have found a lfs with such knowledge. I am glad it worked for you to.

 

[jla9508]

Once again, Thanks for everyone's help. Anthem, thanks for all the infromation, I learn something new everyday. My tank water is finally right, I added my first fih yesterday, a six-line wrasse. It's the coolest fish I have ever seen. I just swims i and out of the rocks all day. I do have one more question. For anyone that has a six-line, what do you feed it? I have Omega One flake, freeze dried brine, freeze died blood worms, and Kent Platinum herbivore(sp?). The fish has only been eating off the live rock and the glass, it hasn't touched the brine or flake.