Stephane Cote
Active Member
I turned on the skimmer again but something isnt right.. i did a 45% water change and my nitrate levels still report 30ppm! WTH!
I'm glad to see a high nitrate level - that means you have a complete cycle. Running your skimmer is very important during cycling. Nitrates in the 30's isn't terrible. To reduce nitrates by water changes takes big changes. Here's how it works: Say you have 60 gallons and nitrates are 30, a 30 gallon water change will reduce the nitrates to 15. A 10 gallon water change out of 60 gallons will net you a drop of 5, or 1/6th of 30.
I would not do WC's more than 50% at a time. What happened is that your high levels of nitrite were still being converted to nitrates. My suggested course of action is 25% WC's every week until you get nitrates to around 10. Running your skimmer a little wet will help also.
Yes, I believe it is time for you to add a CUC.
you're not running any ammonia remover in your media are you?
Update. Checked the nitrates with a 2nd kit and they are at 20ppms. so the 2 kits are not to far off. I checked ammonia and nitrites and both are at 0ppms. so i think i just caught it at the last part of the cycling. ill wait another week and do another small (20%) water change and see if they drop.
Also, the LFS didn't have any cleaning crew except for snails so i picked 8 up and put them in my 30 gal. looks like ill have to wait until Jan before i can setup a proper crew in the 75 gal. which is no buggy because it will allow me to drop the nitrates level a little more.
i put my 8 snails in the 75 gal. 6 of them didnt move in 48 hours. 2 are moving around. i also put 3 crabs in the tank, they arnt really active.
I checked ammonia levels and they increased a little. so i think ill be reverting the CUC back to the 30gal and do another water change on the 75. even though im starting to see life (pods, hitch hiker crabs, worms) something doesn't smell right...
Measuring any ammonia level is not good.
Good idead to get the CUC into the 30 gallon
Your 75 appears to not have completed it's cycle which it needs to finish.
I would plan on somehow letting the ammonia peak, then letting the nitrite peak, then letting the nitrates peak
It just needs to complete it's cycle so the good bacteria can multiply