help needed! water testing

[rubykinz]

Hi so I just started my new tank a few days ago, I am in the process of cycling it right now . It is a 55 gallon tank and I have about 75 pounds of live rock. So today I used a test kit to test the water of my tank the ammonia, and ph came out to normal levels but my nitrates were super high, it was actually the highest level on the chart. Any particular reason this might be? Also I got a bunch of what looks like bristle worms that were hitchhikers in the recently bought rocks. Are the dangerous to the tank? Thanks for any help in advanced!

[m0nkie]

high nitrate is ok during cycle. keep an eye on parameter and once your cycle finishes, do a big water change to lower those nitrate.

bristle worms are beneficial critters. they clean your sand bed. you can leave them inside

[Azedenkae]

Originally Posted by rubykinz

Hi so I just started my new tank a few days ago, I am in the process of cycling it right now . It is a 55 gallon tank and I have about 75 pounds of live rock. So today I used a test kit to test the water of my tank the ammonia, and ph came out to normal levels but my nitrates were super high, it was actually the highest level on the chart. Any particular reason this might be? Also I got a bunch of what looks like bristle worms that were hitchhikers in the recently bought rocks. Are the dangerous to the tank? Thanks for any help in advanced!

Simple really, assuming there wasn't much nitrates initially, what is happening is that you have plenty of nitrite-reducing microbes, but not nitrate-reducing ones. They basically require anaerobic conditions, which not all biological filter media allows for.

You can either go for something that does, or rely on an alternative method of nitrate-reduction.

[CStrickland]

The bacteria that change ammonia to nitrate come faster in our tanks than the ones that get rid of nitrate. You can wait till all of the nitrite is gone and change the water to get rid of some nitrate since a little bit doesn't hurt fish like ammonia does, or you can do regular water changes every week during the cycle to keep it low.

If your cycle hasn't gotten rid of all the nitrite yet, the nitrate test is not accurate because a little nitrite shows up as a ton of nitrate. I would guess that's your issue since you don't report a nitrite level.

[rubykinz]

Originally Posted by m0nkie

high nitrate is ok during cycle. keep an eye on parameter and once your cycle finishes, do a big water change to lower those nitrate.

bristle worms are beneficial critters. they clean your sand bed. you can leave them inside

Ok sounds good and I'm glad the bristle worms are not bad ,thank you

[rubykinz]

Originally Posted by Azedenkae

Simple really, assuming there wasn't much nitrates initially, what is happening is that you have plenty of nitrite-reducing microbes, but not nitrate-reducing ones. They basically require anaerobic conditions, which not all biological filter media allows for.

You can either go for something that does, or rely on an alternative method of nitrate-reduction.

Ok I see, so what are the alternatives to lowering the levels?

[rubykinz]

Originally Posted by CStrickland

The bacteria that change ammonia to nitrate come faster in our tanks than the ones that get rid of nitrate. You can wait till all of the nitrite is gone and change the water to get rid of some nitrate since a little bit doesn't hurt fish like ammonia does, or you can do regular water changes every week during the cycle to keep it low.

If your cycle hasn't gotten rid of all the nitrite yet, the nitrate test is not accurate because a little nitrite shows up as a ton of nitrate. I would guess that's your issue since you don't report a nitrite level.

Thanks for the reply, your right I didn't test for nitrite levels, it was my first time testing but lesson learned

[Mcgeezer]

Ammonia will peak and then fall to zero.

Nitrite will peak when ammonia hits zero, and then it will fall to zero.

Then your nitrate should climb. A large water change at the end of the cycle will help lower nitrate drastically.

Make sure you introduce a solid ammonia source like Dr Tim's ammonium chloride to really kick start the cycle.

And yes, bristle worms are fine. Just don't touch them.....unless you wanna remove razor sharp filament like daggers from your fingers

[Azedenkae]

Originally Posted by rubykinz

Ok I see, so what are the alternatives to lowering the levels?

Regular water changes, a number of different types of chemical filter media. Macroalgae also works.