Nitrate Spike....

[sirk]

I am new at this and not sure what I am doing wrong....please help. All of my tank water parameters have been perfect except I noticed an increase of amonia and it was time for a water change and I was adding a new piece of LR and some turbo snails and hermit crabs at the same time of the water change. I changed out 7gallons of water. (premixed it and let is sit overnight) Brought it up to matching temp. etc. and then added to tank. I tested the tank the next day and my nitrates were 5.0ppm. I had used tap water w/prime and not had this problem before so I thought maybe that was it. So I did another water change with water bought at the store and its still the same reading. :help:

 

[fish-man-t]

did you cure you neew lr??? if not you are getting dieoff and thats the problem

 

[sirk]

No. I bought it at the LFS and I already had 20lbs in there from them that I had done nothing to when I did the initial tank set up and this didnt happen so I didnt think anything of it. So now what do I do?

 

[sirk]

So do I need to do like I was reading in the other thread post and take my lr out?? Its been in the tank since Thursday and I have done two water changes. Should I continue water changes at this point??

 

[hatessushi]

Has the tank cycled yet? If not, let it cycle before you put any inverts or fish in it. If you didn't have nitrates before the water change and then you did after the water change the nitrates might be coming from the water you mix with. Are you using tap water or RO water. If you are using tap then switch to RO.
You said you had ammonia then the tank is probably in a cycle. Once you get ammonia you will see a spike in nitrites and then nitrates. Sometimes in a cycle you won't see the nitrites unless you are monitoring the tank closely. Once the ammonia goes away and all you have are nitrates then do a 20 to 30% water change and you should be good to go with adding inverts. I believe there is a post on cycling in the archive section.

 

[hatessushi]

Oh and to answer your question about performing water changes now, you don't need to do any water changes during the cycle, only at the end of the cycle.

 

[sirk]

Thank you!! This helps. I do have damsels in the tank and its been set up since December 5th. I have not seen any nitrite spike at all, but there has been an increase in amonia over the past week and now the nitrates. Does this mean I am getting towards the point where my tank is cycled or do you think it has to do with the lr I just put in? I had been using tap water but on the second water change I used RO water from the store and it still came up .25 amonia and 5.0ppm Nitrates.

 

[hatessushi]

Continue using RO water when doing water changes.
It sounds to me like you are getting a cycle. It will be finished when the ammonia and nitrites test at 0. At that time you will probably have high nitrates. that's when you perform a water change.

 

[deric203]

I still have an empty 135 tank. Waiting for equipment. thanks for the education I get through these threads. A bunch of you are great for us scared beginners.

 

[sirk]

Thank you!!! You have no idea how much this helps. No matter how much reading I do and how ready I think I am for all of this I keep learning so much more and yes I agree with Deric203. Thanks to all!! This is quite eduacational and I know I am not doing everything perfect so I appreciate everyones patience and advise that they are willing to give and help me with. I am willing to learn and to what I can to do things the right way whether or not I started off quite right I am not so certain but I cannot thank everyone enough. And reading through the threads on this site has been a great help. Thanks HatesSushi...you have been helpful!