So I have been curing my 40 lbs of dry rock for a little over a month now in a brute can with heater, powerhead, good bacteria etc and I saw the initial nitrogen cycle spikes and drops but now my ammonia and nitrites are both steady at .25ppm no matter what and I recently got a Hanna checker and my phosphate is through the roof at 1.43 a day after I did a water change on the rock. Is there anything I can do to get my levels where they need to be? Any help is appreciated as I'm new to this hobby lol
Haven't checked nitrate in a while. And I wasnt adding anything else as a food source to the tub I thought the die off from the rocks was a food source for the good bacteria while curing? Correct me if I'm misunderstanding
I'm not sure what would be causing such high numbers? If you used dry rock then you should have any nitrates.... Dry rock is rock that has nothing living on them to die, now live rock on the other hand is a little different. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Yeah I understand dry rock is dead and nothing living but any dead organic stuff inside the rock will decay and produce ammonia and then the nitrogen cycle. I'm just wondering if it's normal that my ammonia and nitrite are sitting there flat at .25ppm for a while and if there's anything I can do to get my phosphates from being so high. I've seen some people say their dry rock had leached PO4 for up to 6 months.
If you have nitrate forming then you will know if it is cycled. Test kits for ammonia and nitrite can be unreliable in the lower scale. Organics in the rock will feed the bacteria but adding a little food is still usually necessary.Phosphate and nitrates in the rock will not help cycle.
