3 week Aquarium

rah140 · 10/09/2012, 05:38 PM

I started an 75 gallon aquuarium, with 20 gallon refugium and 80# live rock, about 3 weeks ago and I think the aquarium has cycled.

The PH is 8.2, Ammonia 0, nitrite 0 and nitrate is around 5 ppm. Is it now safe to add fish to the aquarium, or do I have to wait until the nitrate goes to 0?

sporto0 · 10/09/2012, 05:43 PM

Nitrates will never be zero again unless you never add livestock or food, they are not harmful to fish, as for your assumption that the tank has cycled already, I would be very cautious adding fish so soon & if I did, I would add 1 fish only for at least another month before I felt safe stocking the tank.

rah140 · 10/09/2012, 06:28 PM

i read that tanks can cycle in as little as two weeks when live rock is used.

horwitzs · 10/09/2012, 09:04 PM

Did your numbers spike up before coming back down to those readings?
If so then I'd say go ahead, but start stocking sloooooowly and keep checking numbers regularly for a while.

simpp88 · 10/09/2012, 09:55 PM

When you do add something, a cheap blue/green chromis is a good choice. A damsel will be tempting, but can be aggressive and difficult to catch if you want to remove them.

ajcanale · 10/09/2012, 10:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sporto0

Nitrates will never be zero again

False. Nitrates can be reduced, especially in a new system with establishment of a DSB, or the addition of a bio pelets/carbon dosing, or at worst a sulphur reactor.

sporto0 · 10/10/2012, 04:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ajcanale

False. Nitrates can be reduced, especially in a new system with establishment of a DSB, or the addition of a bio pelets/carbon dosing, or at worst a sulphur reactor.

I said they will never be ZERO again unless there is nothing in the tank producing ammonia & that's a fact, all your fancy pellets in the world will never bring Nitrates to zero, so you are wrong.

tracyclifton · 10/10/2012, 04:10 PM

Not to hijack the thread. Although new to the hobby, I have done a lot of reading on this. I have my nitrates down to 5ppm. All the research I have gathered tells me that is a safe number. The owner of my LFS told me that this was a low number for nitrates. However, I see a lot of people listing 0ppm. As far as the cycle on your tank goes. I used live rock and fed my tank for a week then put in green chromis. My tank cycled in about 3 weeks and I have had no problems with ammonia, nitrites, or nitrates.

sponger0 · 10/10/2012, 04:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sporto0

Nitrates will never be zero again unless you never add livestock or food, they are not harmful to fish, as for your assumption that the tank has cycled already, I would be very cautious adding fish so soon & if I did, I would add 1 fish only for at least another month before I felt safe stocking the tank.

So are you saying a running tank cant have 0 nitrates?

sporto0 · 10/10/2012, 04:36 PM

That's the thing, nitrates, even in higher ppm's are not harmful to fish, corals can be affected by high nitrates, but 5ppm-20ppm is golden forever in any tank, yes nitrates can be reduced, especially if you have a high concentration but within that problem lies the real cause, which is overstocking & overfeeding, in a normal tank situation, nitrates should never be a problem, they are the end result of the nitrogen cycle with the exception of some nitrates being converted to nitrogen gas in small increments.

sporto0 · 10/10/2012, 04:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sponger0

So are you saying a running tank cant have 0 nitrates?

Sponger, you are an experienced aquarist & no dummy, what I'm saying, you already understand, the nitrogen cycle is constantly in motion if you have living breathing creatures producing ammonia, there are always some nitrates present, maybe close to undetectable for our test kits, but they are there. I am not advocating that nitrates are never a problem, but that is rare & usually related to overcrowding & overfeeding.

MrTuskfish · 10/10/2012, 04:48 PM

There's a lot of mis-information concerning nitrate. Before LR, hobbyists didn't even know what nitrate was. True, nitrate doesn't hurt fish and nitrate of, say <60ppm is fine for a FOWLR tank. Higher nitrates indicate a housekeeping problem, IMO. Nitrate can be kept near zero, great for reef tanks. There are many owners of FOWLR tanks that spend a fortune in time and money trying to keep nitrate at zero and go nuts with nitrate at any level. Not necessary.

tracyclifton · 10/10/2012, 05:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrTuskfish

There's a lot of mis-information concerning nitrate. Before LR, hobbyists didn't even know what nitrate was. True, nitrate doesn't hurt fish and nitrate of, say <60ppm is fine for a FOWLR tank. Higher nitrates indicate a housekeeping problem, IMO. Nitrate can be kept near zero, great for reef tanks. There are many owners of FOWLR tanks that spend a fortune in time and money trying to keep nitrate at zero and go nuts with nitrate at any level. Not necessary.

That is what happened to me in the first few weeks. I set up a 14g tank for the 3 fish I got with my 180. I decided to leave them there. After the first week the nitrates were about 40ppm. I have done lots of water changes and got it to about 10ppm. But, no matter what , 3 fish in a 14g and I will have nitrates. So, its been almost 2 months and they are doing great. I will be happy to see less than 20ppm in that tank. The mushrooms that were established on the live rock also seem to be fine with it.

SushiGirl · 10/10/2012, 09:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrTuskfish

There's a lot of mis-information concerning nitrate. Before LR, hobbyists didn't even know what nitrate was. True, nitrate doesn't hurt fish and nitrate of, say <60ppm is fine for a FOWLR tank. Higher nitrates indicate a housekeeping problem, IMO. Nitrate can be kept near zero, great for reef tanks. There are many owners of FOWLR tanks that spend a fortune in time and money trying to keep nitrate at zero and go nuts with nitrate at any level. Not necessary.

I don't really agree with the 2nd sentence, as anyone who has kept a freshwater aquarium before live rock was used in saltwater tanks knows what nitrates are, however for the rest a big, giant...

That said, horwitzs asked a very important question: Did your ammonia spike before you got the readings you're posting now? Important because if it didn't, you don't really know if your tank is processing ammonia properly or not.

10/09/2012, 05:38 PM	#1
rah140 Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2012 Posts: 66	3 week Aquarium I started an 75 gallon aquuarium, with 20 gallon refugium and 80# live rock, about 3 weeks ago and I think the aquarium has cycled. The PH is 8.2, Ammonia 0, nitrite 0 and nitrate is around 5 ppm. Is it now safe to add fish to the aquarium, or do I have to wait until the nitrate goes to 0?

10/09/2012, 09:04 PM	#4
horwitzs Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Kitsap Penninsula Posts: 470	Did your numbers spike up before coming back down to those readings? If so then I'd say go ahead, but start stocking sloooooowly and keep checking numbers regularly for a while. __________________ -Seth Current Tank Info: 120g fresh, 150g salt.

10/10/2012, 04:10 PM	#8
tracyclifton Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2012 Posts: 200	Not to hijack the thread. Although new to the hobby, I have done a lot of reading on this. I have my nitrates down to 5ppm. All the research I have gathered tells me that is a safe number. The owner of my LFS told me that this was a low number for nitrates. However, I see a lot of people listing 0ppm. As far as the cycle on your tank goes. I used live rock and fed my tank for a week then put in green chromis. My tank cycled in about 3 weeks and I have had no problems with ammonia, nitrites, or nitrates. __________________ Set up on August 20,2012. 180 gallon All Glass 72"x24"x24", drilled from the bottom with dual mega overflows, Current USA Orbit Marine LED, 3 T5HO, Bubble-Magus Curve 7, 35 gallon sump. Current Tank Info: 180 gallon

10/10/2012, 04:48 PM	#12
MrTuskfish Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: The Wild Blue Yonder Posts: 8,887	There's a lot of mis-information concerning nitrate. Before LR, hobbyists didn't even know what nitrate was. True, nitrate doesn't hurt fish and nitrate of, say <60ppm is fine for a FOWLR tank. Higher nitrates indicate a housekeeping problem, IMO. Nitrate can be kept near zero, great for reef tanks. There are many owners of FOWLR tanks that spend a fortune in time and money trying to keep nitrate at zero and go nuts with nitrate at any level. Not necessary. __________________ If God didn't want us to eat animals, he wouldn't have made them out of meat. Steve Current Tank Info: 180, 2-240 FOWLRs, 240 reef

10/09/2012, 05:43 PM	#2
sporto0 Moved On Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Pittsburgh, Pa. Posts: 2,924	Nitrates will never be zero again unless you never add livestock or food, they are not harmful to fish, as for your assumption that the tank has cycled already, I would be very cautious adding fish so soon & if I did, I would add 1 fish only for at least another month before I felt safe stocking the tank.

10/09/2012, 06:28 PM	#3
rah140 Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2012 Posts: 66	i read that tanks can cycle in as little as two weeks when live rock is used.

10/09/2012, 09:55 PM	#5
simpp88 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2012 Posts: 184	When you do add something, a cheap blue/green chromis is a good choice. A damsel will be tempting, but can be aggressive and difficult to catch if you want to remove them.

10/10/2012, 04:36 PM	#10
sporto0 Moved On Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Pittsburgh, Pa. Posts: 2,924	That's the thing, nitrates, even in higher ppm's are not harmful to fish, corals can be affected by high nitrates, but 5ppm-20ppm is golden forever in any tank, yes nitrates can be reduced, especially if you have a high concentration but within that problem lies the real cause, which is overstocking & overfeeding, in a normal tank situation, nitrates should never be a problem, they are the end result of the nitrogen cycle with the exception of some nitrates being converted to nitrogen gas in small increments.