Plz help...is this right?

[mary787]

I need some help ....again.....I tested my tank today and it tested the following: 80 degrees, SG 1.024, 0.0 ammonia, 4.0 nitrites, 2.0 nitrates, 8.6 PH.......isn't ammonia supposed to get high first then nitrites followed by nitrates......why would my nitrites be high? I have 16 lbs live rock, 29 gal setup..bio-wheel wet/dry filter.....help!

 

[maeistero]

everything seems high, starting with temperature. how long has the tank been up? is the rock from another tank, ocean, clean? no fish or anything i hope?

 

[mary787]

It's been setup for 8 days, live rock if Fiji cured, right from the lfs, also have pure aragonite sand, 15 lbs. Do you think my tank hasn't even started to cycle yet?

 

[maeistero]

oh definitely not. it's starting, mine (55g) took about 3 weeks. even then i waited another until all levels evened for a week. also, after looking at some of the other recent posts, i guess a lot of people are running higher temps. my tanks a cold 74. it's hard as heck to wait for a tank to cycle, i don't think i'll ever take mine down again. that way i can fast-cycle through water changes on new tanks.

 

[bigarn]

You either missed the ammonia spike or your test kit may be faulty. The nitrite reading is showing that the tank is cycleing.
By the way... 80 isn't a bad temperature.

 

[mary787]

Good! I just thought the nitrites would go down before the nitrates did, 2 days ago I had 80 nitrates, so I was surprised today when I saw 20.