Nitrite and Ammonia Test Question During Cycling

[joachimsim]

Dear All,

I am cycling my first 2FT marine tank with an external overflow filter, and 1 Packet of Coral Sand. MY Protein Skimmer is OFF at the moment...As I read that initially, you should not Turn on the air pump for the protein skimmer during the initial cycling.

I have the NO2, NO3 Test kIts...

BUt I have a question for you exp. Reefers. I just put in some flake food to start the cycling a few days ago. Todayis my fourth. I just tested the NO2 in my water and its sky high at 0.5mg/L, and I added more Ocean Free Bacteria to rectify the situation.

I understand the NO2 spike is due to the immatured cycling of the tank yet. Hence I did bother to test for NO3.

As I do not have an AMmonia Test Kit, BUT I am just wondering if I Can do away with ammonia Testing...as if NO2 is present, it means the bacteria for convering ammonia to NO2 is establishing.

When I NEXT test for NO2 again and its dropped to an acceptable level, I Can Safely Assume AMMONIA is MOSTLY GOne? and The cycling has matured enough for me to put in LIfe Stock.???

IF I am right, I can save some bucks on Ammonia Test KIT< OH yes I forgot to add that I tested 02 levels as well and they were good...hence the NO2 spike was not due to a 02 difficiency.

Give me your opinions guys.

[jas_soh]

hi hi....

i started my tank set up not too long ago either... but need to check what kind of water you are using for your tank? are you using salt-mix or are you using sea water? i have heard that if you are using sea water den it would do no harm if you are turning the skimmer on as it would also help to remove any amnonia that is present in the water. it applies to those who are cycling using LR.

[Kalib]

jas_soh:

I want to clarify something.

The protein skimmer should be turned off during the cycling stage. Only when cycling is done then should you on it. There's no need to remove ammonia during cycling as ammonia is necessary in order to start off the Nitrogen cycle.

joachimsim:

You needn't add any bacteria solution to rectify the nitrite problem during cycling period. Naturally bacteria would form on its own to reduce nitrites. So you can just leave it as it is.

The only acceptable level of nitrite is 0. If nitrite drops to 0 and continues to remain as 0 for at least the next 3 days then its quite safe to say that ammonia is currently 0. Once ammonia is 0, nitrite is 0, you might want to do a partial water change at the end of the cycle to reduce nitrates. When adding livestock ,remember not to add too much at a time. Like adding 1 small fish every 2wks is fine. If you add all at one go or too many fishes in a short period of time(Like 3 fishes weekly), you'll cause another ammonia,nitrite spike which would cause livestock to suffer.

IMO, in the long run its still good to have an ammonia testkit in the event you require it to test if there's any ammonia in the water.

[jas_soh]

danks kalib....

[Achilles Tang]

jas_soh:

I want to clarify something.

The protein skimmer should be turned off during the cycling stage. Only when cycling is done then should you on it. There's no need to remove ammonia during cycling as ammonia is necessary in order to start off the Nitrogen cycle.

If the skimmer is turned off during this stage, please provide sufficient water circulation so that enough oxygen is provided during the cycling stage or a tank crash may happen if too much ammonia combined with a lack of oxygen overwhelms and kills too much living creatures in the LR.

Too many people forget common sense and wonder why everything dies during the cycling stage.

[jas_soh]

If the skimmer is turned off during this stage, please provide sufficient water circulation so that enough oxygen is provided during the cycling stage or a tank crash may happen if too much ammonia combined with a lack of oxygen overwhelms and kills too much living creatures in the LR.

Too many people forget common sense and wonder why everything dies during the cycling stage.

out of curiosity sake....wat does it mean by "crash"? does it mean many LS dies off at one go???