NO3

[vagabond]

I have a couple of questions to ask and hope someone could help me out:

1) I have a tank filled with just sand and water and have the system running with bio balls and bio home for few days. I carried out the water parameter test and found out that NO2 is 0 but NO3 is above 12.5?? Can anyone explain why is it so?

2) I have tested the same water with SERA, TETRA and SALIFERT. They gave me reading like 20, 12.5 and 25 respectively. So which is more accurate?

Cheers.

[Cookiemunster]

Bro read this. Its about the nitrogen cycle. I assume you are cycling your tank now. If there is no NH3 (ammonia) then your cycling is almost done.

Actually cycling never completes except in a balanced established tank of at least half a yr. The results of a test kit simply means it is able to balance but doesn't mean its done.

Anyway read through the article for more info. The article is true to its words but I do not agree with the using of fish during the initial cycling period. Its not necessary. Using some live rocks will be enough to start the process and contribute enough ammonia to the tank due to dying material in the rocks.

Using the bioball method, your nitrite/ammonia breakdown is much faster than a system that uses purely live rocks only. Which explains the speed of your high nitrate levels. But because of this same advantage, a bioball/ceramic tower will become a nitrate factory in future especially when it gets filled with trapped ditritus.

I would trust the higher results than the lower ones. Salitfert is usually the most reliable.

Nitrogen Cycle

[vagabond]

But in my case, I have only the water running through the system without any live rocks or stock leh. However, I did added a bottle of Fritz bacteria a day after I added the water to the tank. Does that contribute to my high spike in nitrate in an empty tank?? Wat will happen in a few weeks time when I add live rocks and stock? Exceed the scale for NO3?

[Matt06]

What kind of sand? Live or those dried sand?