Water quality evaluation please!!

dfelton

dfelton

Member
:help:
I am just finishing (i hope!) cycling my 120g tank. I added approx. 140 lbs. of live rock about 1 mo. ago and saw my nitrite/nitrate and amonia (slightly) levels spike aout two weeks ago, but I can't seem to get my nitrites, nitrates and amonia down to zero. I am using the Red sea Marine lab test kits. I have been changing 10 - 15% of water every week and I use Ro/DI water and reef crystals. Wierd thing too, my PH had consistantly been 8.2, but just this last reading (been on vaca for 1 week), it spiked to 8.5. also, my Nitrite had been .05 for a couple weeks, but spkied this week to .10
Temp - 75'f
SG - 1.023
PH - 8.5 (was 8.2)
Alk - 2.0
Nitrite - .10 (was .05)
Nitrate: low - 10 high - 50 (also if anyone can tell me how to properly read the Nitrate test kit for Red Sea, I'd appreciate, doesn't make sense to me that they give you a rnage like that.
Amonia - .25
I ordered my cleaning crew and a couple of starter fish for delivery later this week, do you think my water is ready?
Thanks!
 
lion_crazz

lion_crazz

Active Member
I would say your water is definitely not ready for anything yet. It sounds like you are still in the cycling process. The cycle will be over when you have zero ammonia and nitrites. Until then, I would not touch your tank, and not add anything to your tank whatsoever.
 
dfelton

dfelton

Member
I don't know what to do... I've been cycling for over 1 month now. By the way I have 80 lbs of live sand in there, my readings really spike diring the first 10 days and have been steady since.
One potential issue... I put a small chunk of mahi mahi in the tank to get the nitites going in the begining and unfortunately lost it when I moved around the live rock and added the sand. Is it possible that it is still decomposing and that is why my levels wont drop to zero???
 
kreckner

kreckner

Member
Was the 140 lbs. of live rock fully cured when you added it? If not, it could be that your lr is still curing I suppose. I put 65 lbs. of live rock in my 46 gal. when I started it and it wasn't fully cured. It took my tank 7+ weeks to finally finish cycling. Just a thought.
 
lion_crazz

lion_crazz

Active Member
That may still be decomposing, but please keep in mind, the average cycle takes 3-6 weeks. Cycling your tank over a month is not uncommon whatsoever.
Like I said, don't add anything to your tank, and do not do anything to it. Just let the cycle finish on its own.
 
glowplug

glowplug

Member
Water changes right now is only making your cycle take longer, its ok if you cant find the dead meat! Yes it is decomposing, at the same time building up your bactieria, if you take the food out of the tank, that bactieria will die off and when you do add a fish it will recycle the tank
 
dfelton

dfelton

Member
ok, no more water changes for a week and I'll have my order put on hold. Just seemed wierd that the readings really spiked, than came down and leveled at near zero levels.
I used cured live rock.
 
mark_d

mark_d

Member
to properly read the NO2 test results, take the top off the test tube, and look INTO the tube from the top ^__^. Also, keep the tube some 10 cm or so from a white background
 
hardcrab67

hardcrab67

Member
Check your phosphates, When I had green water(algae blooms), phosphates were the problem. Check your freshwater also, my r/o wasn't pulling the phosphates out, so everytime I topped off or did a water change I was adding phosphates to my tank.
 
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