Ok here they are:
Amonia is about 0- .25
nitrite is 20 - 40
nitrite is 1.0 about
it has been set up for about a week. Any ideas on lowering it? I just did a 40% water change and added TLC bacteria. I also started the tank with bira-spira.
2007-07-22 16:12:12 · 5 answers · asked by lyd285 2 in Pets ➔ Fish
yea i have about 125 pounds of live rock. And a shrimp in pantyhose????
2007-07-22 18:02:37 · update #1
sounds pretty normal to me. its a wek old tank that is still cycleing you will see a few stages of the nitrogen cycle.
first your amonia wil rise. then you will see your nitrite begin to rise and amonia continue to rise. after that the nitrite will continue to go up as the amonia depletes. then the nitrate will rise and the nitrite will begin to deplete. once that finishes your tank has cycled. you may even notice an algae bloom which is a good indication you are almost through the cycle. thats when a lot of people will want to do massive water changes but just do 20-30% for now. assuming you dont have delicate species that will be too sensitive to certain fluxuations in these parameters. if you do then a water change should be done sooner. for now you want to just leave the tank and let it do its thing because beneficial bacteria is now building up in your tank which is why you will see these parameters start to deplete without adding anything to the water. by changing out the water in these stages in a mass quantities you are removing this bacteria and in a sense prolonging this process that a tank must go through to mature. hope this helps and thier are many websites on the nitrogen cycle if you do an internet search.
2007-07-22 19:02:53 · answer #1 · answered by craig 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It does sound like you're still in the cycling process. With live rock, you shouldn't have needed to add any bacteria - there should be plenty on the rock itself.
What's probably happened is if you put all the live rock in at once, the organisms on the rock that are at the bottom of the pile are dying off from lack of light/water circulation and this is adding to the ammonia. Make sure the rock is stacked with plenty of space so water can circulate between the pieces - you want this like a network of caves, not like a solid brick wall.
2007-07-22 19:48:11 · answer #2 · answered by copperhead 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
it just sounds like the tank isn't cycled.
is there live rock/sand in the tank?
make sure the bio-spira that you added is for marine tanks as there is a difference and adding FW bio-spira to a SW tank is useless.
don't do any more water changes and add a small shrimp in a pantyhose to speed the cycle a little. in about 1-2 weeks it should be cycled but test daily to track it's progress.
EDIT: then it sounds pretty normal to me. make sure to shake the bottles before testing as not doing so can skew the results.
2007-07-22 17:26:29 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Get a turtle.
2007-07-22 16:14:32 · answer #4 · answered by aristocrat1.0@sbcglobal.net 1 · 0⤊ 4⤋
your avatar is weird
I'm just freakin' bored
2007-07-22 16:20:24 · answer #5 · answered by jdenimel101 3 · 0⤊ 4⤋