One and Only ?'s

Dr. Tim,

I will wait another day or 2 and test then.

I have 20G of water ready to go just in case.

I happened to test the nitrIte again to see if anything changed, and it seems even darker in color now. Should I be concerned? or just wait it out and see if it drops tomorrow.

Thanks

 

Don't be concerned. The nitrite oxidizing bacteria are slow compared to the ammonia oxidizing bacteria so give it some time.

 

Just a 15hr update:

No change in ammonia..still seems <0.25ppm

Nitrite is somewhere in the range of 2-4ppm

 

24 hour update:

NitrIte - looks to be top of the scale at 4ppm

Ammonia - <0.25ppm

 

After 48 hours

Nitrite is dark purple - 4ppm or higher

Ammonia - no change still <.25ppm

Am I doing something wrong?

 

Nitrite - 4ppm or higher

Ammonia - no change still <.25ppm

Guess its time to start over..???

 

Steno1911

Something just does not make sense here:

1) You did nearly a 100% water change
2) After that nitrite was between 1 -2 ppm
3) You did not add any ammonia or anything else to the tank - correct, nothing after the water change?
4) Now your nitrite is off the scale. Nitrite can only be produced by oxidizing ammonia (or reducing nitrate). So you must have an ammonia source in the tank. You said you were using only dry rock and dry sand - what are these exactly, what brand?

There is no need to start over but you need to change the water again and we need to determine what the ammonia source is in your tank. Can you give us more details of what you used, how about a picture?

DrTim

 

Dr. Tim,

1) Correct.
2) Correct.
3) Correct. Just did the water change. Added Red Sea Coral Pro Reef Salt. Mixed to 1.025 salinity. Water temp was about 78-80 degrees.
4) The rock is all dry rock from Bulk Reef Supply. It is the "Reef Saver" rock. Here is a link. BRS

The sand I used is 90lbs of Tropic Eden Reef Flakes. Link

Equipment List:

Sump:30G. Siliconed 3 baffles with RTV Momentive - clear (reef safe)
Lights: 6x54 ATI Powermodule
Skimmer: Reef Octopus NWB 110. The skimmer was not on during.
Return: Ehiem 1260
Powerheads: 2x Koralia 750 evo

That should be all of it.

What would you like a picture of? the tank?

 

lol ;d

 

thatgrimguy - way to hit a guy when he's down!

Steno1911 - if you have not done so already turn your skimmer on. The source of your organics is the Red Sea Salt, I believe. They use 'harvested' sodium chloride from the Red Sea rather than mined sodium chloride that is in many cases much purer. This is not a knock on the Red Sea Salt just the reality. The harvested salt more than likely have some organics in it and this is causing the ammonia that is being converted to nitrite but I will grant it still seems high.

Anyways, there is no use starting over. Let's see what the water quality is tonite.