Cycling Salt water tank?

Question

Hi,

I have been cycling my tank for about a week and abit and the only thing that is not normal is my Nitrate. My ph is 8.2, Ammonia is 0, Nitrite is 0, but my Nitrate is at 20 when it is suppose to be at near 0. Can anyone tell me what is going on and how do I fix the Nitrate level?

Answer 1

Nitrate is the end product of your cycle. To cycle out in a week is extremely rare. Cycled out means 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and only reading nitrate. Nitrate is not considered to be dangerous until reaching levels over 40 ppm. It sounds like you have an unbelievable stroke of luck to cleared your cycle that fast. Just keep doing your regular changes and watch for another week just to make sure you are clear of ammonia and nitrite. Don't stress nitrates until going over 40 ppm. You wont see these reading 0.

JV

Answer 2

Nitrates of 20 is not bad,nitrates are something you will fight the entire time you have saltwater.Adding some macro algae will help bring the numbers down also doing water changes will bring them down anything over 40 is high anything under then you are doing good.It is almost impossible to keep them at 0.
As far a your tank cycling,,your cycle is done.The ammonia and nitrites are what will spike and go back to 0 not the nitrates..My 135 gallon tank cycled in a week.My nitrates stay at 5 to10.I do have macro algae in my over flow.

Answer 3

Are you using live rock in your tank? In this case, the cycling process can go quickly, because the rock is already colonized with the bacteria for the cycling process, so you're starting with a large number of bacteria rather than just a few as is the case in freshwater. If you didn't have much die-off, that would explain the lack of ammonia and nitrite.

Nitrate is an end product in aquaria. Even though cycling involves the nitrogen "cycle", it's rarely a full cycle in an aquarium - usually this is a linear process instead: ammonia > nitrite > nitrate. There are only a few ways to remove the nitrate, and in an aquarium, this usually involves water changes by you. Small frequent changes are best, so look at 25% once a week, or 10-15% changes twice a week. Even though zero is an ideal level, this won't happen in a small enclosed environment. In nature (or a larger enclosure) plants and/or algae would remove the nitrate by incorporating it into new growth. In a tank, there's only so much room, so plants/parts farther from the light will eventually be shaded out and die, and as the dead parts decomposed, they would release ammonia back into the water, making this a true "cycle" but you don't want the ammonia to poison your fish and inverts.

What are you planning to keep in the tank? If you're looking at a fish-only tank, or fish only with live rock (and don't care about any inverts that came with the rock) 20-25 ppm is about the upper limit you'll want to have in the tank. If you want a reef tank, it would be better to keep the nitrate below 10 ppm. Just do water changes as necessary, and you shouldn't go over 25% for a partial change (or less, depending on the height of any live rock you may have - you don't want it exposed to air, which would kill the bacteria you're trying to establish).

You may also want to check your water source for nitrates if you're using anything other than reverse osmosis water - nitrate can be present in tapwater, which may be your source if you aren't using live rock in the tank. If this is your situation, you will need to consider buying reverse osmosis water (available at Super Walmarts if you're in the US for about $0.33/gallon) or investing in a reverse osmosis unit for home water filtration. If you continue to have nitrate from tapwater (and phosphorous may be present as well) these will lead to eventual algae problems for your tank.

NOTE - This is saltwater tank, and while the cycling process is similar, you'll also find a lot of differences between cycling a satwater tank and a freshwater one - including the use of live rock and live sand which CAN allow your tank to cycle in a much shorter time. The fish and inverts are also more sensitive to nitrogen compounds, so the same water quality limits don't apply - you never want to allow the nitriates as high as 40ppm.

Answer 4

A week is only the beginning of cycling Its a 6 to 8 week process.Your Nitrite will spike your ammonia will spike then your nitrate will spike. Once all three have spiked then your cycle is over it takes time and patients.

Answer 5

a 20 % water change. nitrates are safe until about 40 or so from what ive been told.
my 10 gallon salt tank had 10 ppm nitrates and i will do about a 2-3 gallon water change next week.

you should bring your ph up just a tad bit. use reef buffer from sea chem. you will want it between 8.3-8.4

i think at around 20 though you should do a small water change.20% or so

hope this helps

Answer 6

Perfect,
Nitrate will start comming down shortly.
You can start adding crabs and snails and a hardy fish.
Add animals SLOWLY not all at once.

Answer 7

have you done a water change yet? 25%?