briansreeftank19660426
Member
AFTER A CYCLE WHEN AMONIA SPIKES THEN NITRITES.. WILL THE NITRATES SPIKE THEN COME DOWN OR JUST STAY LEVEL? OR WILL THEY FOLLOW SUIT WITH A BIG UP N DOWN ..
NITRATE QUESTION
- Thread starter briansreeftank19660426
- Start date
stacy
Member
Nitrates will go up but should stay at a low level. They shouldn't really spike just increase to a level then stay about that level. Doing minor water changes should bring these levels down. At least thats what I've found in my tank. Part of it from what I've been reasing is because of my CC which I will be changing to LS this weekend. There have been a lot of posts saying that if you create a DSB then this will help keep the levels low to none.
briansreeftank19660426
Member
YES I ASK THIS CUZ IM CYCLING A NEW 20 GALLON REEF TANK AT MY OFFICE. I FORGOT HOW MUHC I SPIKE . I GOT LIVE SAND AT HOME AND MY NITRATES ARE LIKE .05 WITH FISH IN THE TANK ONLY CHANCE WATER 1 TIME PER 3 WEEKS.. THE dsb TOTALLY HELPED ME FISHUBBBY PUSHED ME TO DO IT.. HE WAS THE MAN ON THAT
S
sandy
Guest
I have a 50gal long FOWLR w/ some inverts (hermits, shrimp, star, snails) with over 60lbs of LR and a 65lb dsb. The ammonia and nitrite part of my cycle is over, but I've been battling very high nitrates since. 80 last week. 60 before my last water change. I'm afraid to check today (going to). I do a 10 gal h20 change per week. I'll let ya know what the nitrates are now. dawg-gone-it.
patrick
Member
I see a few of you are switching over to sand from cc. I'm also going to do this soon. Might I ask you how your going to go about this with a tank full of fish and critters? I have been kind of holding off as I'm just not sure how I'm going to go about it. Also are you going to use live sand or the aragonite sand? Thanks!
kris walker
Active Member
Interesting question.
Just another observation: I have a 29 gal w/ LR and some corals. No fish. I use an empereror 330 filter with filter pads. I feed corals every day, at least some brine shrimp. I have 45 lbs of LR (about 1.5 lbs/gal) and 2 in CC substrate. I also have several caulerpa strands, and get some algae buildup on glass every other day. Nitrates are 0. Why? Possibilities?:
1. the caulerpa strands take them up (and I eventually prune them, removing nitrate)
2. CC does not trap detritus which then decays slowly, rather the "trapped" stuff is eaten by pods, worms, etc.--CC can also be home to lots of critters as it is in my tank
3. filter pads, which I rarely change, do not get clogged with detritus that decays slowly, rather the detritus is eaten by pods with proliferate in my pads, the gunk you see may be aerobic bacteria
4. LR has oxygen-poor areas in the deeper parts of it, which allow for growth of nitrate-consuming bacteria
5. CC has some oxygen-poor areas, perhaps beneath LR, which allow for the nitrate-consuming bacteria to grow.
So take you pick.
*In theory*, if you have a DSB, which many say eliminates most nitrate problems, then you should get a nitrate spike during the cycle, not a slow buildup of nitrate.
kris
Just another observation: I have a 29 gal w/ LR and some corals. No fish. I use an empereror 330 filter with filter pads. I feed corals every day, at least some brine shrimp. I have 45 lbs of LR (about 1.5 lbs/gal) and 2 in CC substrate. I also have several caulerpa strands, and get some algae buildup on glass every other day. Nitrates are 0. Why? Possibilities?:
1. the caulerpa strands take them up (and I eventually prune them, removing nitrate)
2. CC does not trap detritus which then decays slowly, rather the "trapped" stuff is eaten by pods, worms, etc.--CC can also be home to lots of critters as it is in my tank
3. filter pads, which I rarely change, do not get clogged with detritus that decays slowly, rather the detritus is eaten by pods with proliferate in my pads, the gunk you see may be aerobic bacteria
4. LR has oxygen-poor areas in the deeper parts of it, which allow for growth of nitrate-consuming bacteria
5. CC has some oxygen-poor areas, perhaps beneath LR, which allow for the nitrate-consuming bacteria to grow.
So take you pick.
*In theory*, if you have a DSB, which many say eliminates most nitrate problems, then you should get a nitrate spike during the cycle, not a slow buildup of nitrate.
kris