High Nitrates

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tigerhorse

New Member
Hello. I have a new SW tank that I set up about 8 weeks ago. It is 29g biocube. I have 42lbs of LR, 19# of LS. It completely cycled several weeks ago. I have in the tank:
Brittle star, few snails, sea cucumber, one damsel, few polyps and a mushroom. I have been doing weekly water changes (10-15%). I am using RO water. My ammonia and nitrites are consistently .2 and 0 respectively. However, I am struggling to keep the nitrates down. They drop immediately after the w/c but are back to 5.0 the next day. I added an airstone and just added a protein skimmer two days ago. I have small LR and macro algae in the refugium. I had a cleaner shrimp in the tank but he disappeared without a trace a week ago. Does anyone have any advise? I am not sure what else to do. :smack:
 
mettjl03

mettjl03

Member
In my opinion you didn't cycle your tank long enough. It takes more than 8 weeks to cycle a tank. Also your live rock might not be fully cured. Just keep up on your water changes and make them more frequent. This should help get your nitrites to 0. Good luck!
 
BigAl07

BigAl07

Administrator
RS STAFF
I'm with Jess. Since you're registering NH4 (Ammonia) you're tank isn't established yet.

I'd do some heavier water changes, evaluate your feeding and slow down. At 8 weeks your tank is stocked like 6 months. The ONLY thing that happens fast in a REEF tank is a CRASH!!
 
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tigerhorse

New Member
Ok. But, in reading the article on this website, it said that your tank is cycled when ammonia is 0, nitrate is 0 and nitrates start to rise. Do your first water change and start adding cuc. Ammonia just climbed slightly this week. So, I guess I am confused about when is it cycled, cycled. How big of a wc should I do on a weekly basis? some say keep it to <15% and some say do a major wc.
 
D

dankent

Member
The small spike of the ammonia could be that missing shrimp rotting somewhere. This exchange of amm to nitrite to nitrate is not immediate .... it happens over time .... tests from morning to night can differ in results .. so your tank could very well have cycled .. and your possible dead shrimp started a mini cycle. You have small a small tank and any change is going to be very noticable very quickly. What are your test results today? Also consider the fact that your test kit may be faulty.


Good luck.
 
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