Hi everyone,
My first ever marine tank has just completed it's fishless cycle on Saturday evening using dry rock. I have been dosing ammonia at 1ppm every day since the cycle began and now I beginning to think that may have been overkill.
As expected when I tested the water on Sunday morning ammonia was 0ppm, nitrite was 0ppm but nitrate was off the charts at 160ppm, the test sample looked like red wine! I assumed one 90% water change would be enough to bring the nitrate down but oh no.
I spent all of yesterday doing multiple 90% water changes (around 4 in total) on the tank and have only just managed to get the nitrate levels below 80ppm. I am using RO water from my LFS.
The tank is not ready for livestock yet (planning to add a clean up crew first as I have a lot of brown algae) as I still have to get the nitrate down further and I won't have an opportunity to do this for a good few days.
How do I keep the bacteria alive in the tank over the next week or so without dosing so much ammonia that I end up in the same position as I was before with sky-high nitrates? Should I just add a pinch of fishfood here and there - would that be enough to avoid the cycle crashing? I'm just paranoid that it's taken me 8 weeks to get to this point and I don't want to end up killing off all of the bacteria by not providing enough food for the bacteria.
Cheers in advance
My first ever marine tank has just completed it's fishless cycle on Saturday evening using dry rock. I have been dosing ammonia at 1ppm every day since the cycle began and now I beginning to think that may have been overkill.
As expected when I tested the water on Sunday morning ammonia was 0ppm, nitrite was 0ppm but nitrate was off the charts at 160ppm, the test sample looked like red wine! I assumed one 90% water change would be enough to bring the nitrate down but oh no.
I spent all of yesterday doing multiple 90% water changes (around 4 in total) on the tank and have only just managed to get the nitrate levels below 80ppm. I am using RO water from my LFS.
The tank is not ready for livestock yet (planning to add a clean up crew first as I have a lot of brown algae) as I still have to get the nitrate down further and I won't have an opportunity to do this for a good few days.
How do I keep the bacteria alive in the tank over the next week or so without dosing so much ammonia that I end up in the same position as I was before with sky-high nitrates? Should I just add a pinch of fishfood here and there - would that be enough to avoid the cycle crashing? I'm just paranoid that it's taken me 8 weeks to get to this point and I don't want to end up killing off all of the bacteria by not providing enough food for the bacteria.
Cheers in advance