New Tank Cycle Confusion

[niteowl03]

On Friday @ 11pm
Ammonia - 4.0
Nitrite - 1.0
Nitrate - 0

On Saturday @ 12pm
Ammonia - 4.0
Nitrite - 2.0
Nitrate - 5

***I added 20lbs of CaribSea "live" sand***

On Saturday @ 8pm
Ammonia - 4.0
Nitrite - 2.0
Nitrate - 10

On Sunday @ 12pm
Ammonia - 3.0
Nitrite - 5.0
Nitrate - 20

On Sunday @ 6pm
Ammonia - 2.0
Nitrite - 2.0
Nitrate - 80+

On Sunday @ 11pm
Ammonia - 2.0
Nitrite - 2.0
Nitrate - 40

Is this normal??? I thought that the Ammonia was supposed to hit 0 before the Nitrite spiked, and then the Nitrite would hit 0 before the Nitrate spiked. It appears that everything has spiked and is falling but the ammonia and nitrite seem to be stable @ 2. Is the fact that I added the sand causing another "mini" spike? I will be adding another 20-40lbs of sand by the end of the week. I would have done it all at once and maybe should have but didnt have the money at the time and didnt realize that it may cause a problem.

Please ease my stress over this amazing new tank!

[j_rizzo]

Looks ok to me- your ammonia is going down and your nitrates are going up- mine never got down to 0 before the others started rising-

ammonia should start high and dissapear, nitrites and nitrates shold start low, peak, and start to dissapear (one after the other) and then the nitrogen gas that is the end product will dissipate from the tank via gas exchange.

Any time you introduce dead organic material to the tank beyond what the current bacteria can handle effectively ( in this case the sand ) you will see ammonia spike a bit and then the whole process starts over again.


So, broken down daily:

Ammonia:
4>4>4>3>2>2>

Nitrite:
1>2>2>5>2>2>

Nitrate:
0>5>10>20>80>40

That is a cycle for sure!

HTH!

[Ron Reefman]

You're looking good. There is no way you can expect ammonia to go to zero before nitrites start to spike, and the same for the nitrites to nitrates. This is a from now, on going process that will vary up and down as long as you have your tank. Once your tank stabilizes you'll have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and whatever left over as nitrates until you do a water change or add some kind of de-nitrator. And then when you add a fish and start to feed it, both left over food and food processed by the fish will add new ammonia to the system and your existing bacteria will start to process it and even multiply due to the new and regular food source. This will happen every time you add something new. Even corals add to the bio-load on your bacteria colony. You are off to a good start and asking questions is the smartest thing you can do.
Good luck.

BTW, how big a tank are you starting up here?

[niteowl03]

It is an Oceanic 70g Tech tank. Its not really my first tank I have a 14g biocube that was basically a transplant so I didnt have nearly the cycle that this one is going through