My Tank Cycle, Any Thoughts

[danthefishman]

Ive set up my first marine tank and its been runiing for 11 days now, it has coral gravel, live rock and two filters running in it. I decided in my wisdom last week to put in a mushed up frozen piece of fish food to start the cycle.
Now my ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are through the roof.
PH and salt levels are perfect.

Is this ok and should i now just wait for it to drop?
Is this ok for my live rock?

Any thoughts would be good as i am a complete novice with marine tanks!

[jeffs99dime]

Ive set up my first marine tank and its been runiing for 11 days now, it has coral gravel, live rock and two filters running in it. I decided in my wisdom last week to put in a mushed up frozen piece of fish food to start the cycle.
Now my ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are through the roof.
PH and salt levels are perfect.

Is this ok and should i now just wait for it to drop?
Is this ok for my live rock?

Any thoughts would be good as i am a complete novice with marine tanks!

i'm not a "marine tank" guy but i will move this thread to the saltwater section. maybe that will help out more.

[cocoa_pleco]

Your live rock will die off, but you will get 80% of it back after the cycle.

The ammonia goes up, then it goes down and nitrates go up, then do water changes

[unleashed]

in regards to ammonia, nitrate and nitrite, they are all doing fine. You need to test the water everyday - when everything is at 0, you have to add a fish with 24 hours, otherwise you will need to start the cycle all over again.

BTW, some more info would be nice

[gm72]

unleashed, during a cycle nitrATe will not be at zero unless you change the water at the end of the cycle. Ammonia and nitrITe should however, be at zero.

[danthefishman]

thanks, i was concerned that my live rock mite die off but if it comes back then all is good. im testing the water every other day and hopfully i should start to see a drop in the ammoinia soon. All the little bugs and stuff seem to be ok and moving around still so i presume that it doesent affect them?

[unleashed]

unleashed, during a cycle nitrATe will not be at zero unless you change the water at the end of the cycle. Ammonia and nitrITe should however, be at zero.
well, every single tank which I have cycled (marine tanks) and have helped others cycle, the nitrates are always 0ppm at the end.

[artoledo]

There is a product called "cycle" which speeds up the cycling process. buy it and use it once a week.

[gm72]

Unleashed, not sure how you get 0 nitrATes, since ammonia is processed into nitrITe and the nitrITe is subsequently processed into nitrATes, but whatever. Maybe its a saltwater thing.

[unleashed]

Maybe its a saltwater thing.

it is a saltwater thing. many invertebrates and many species of marine fish are sensitive to nitrate. Some people I know keep a small level of nitrate to help with coral colours - but this is not necessary.

You should wait for ammonia, nitrate and nitrite to equal 0 before you add any livestock. As i have always been told "Nothing good ever happens fast in marine aquariums"

[gm72]

So in a marine aquarium, where does the nitrATe go, or do you just do water changes before it spikes up?

[unleashed]

most of us just do water changes to keep nitrate down. Some use macro algae filtritation to bring ammonia, nitrite and nitrate down

[gm72]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing!

[unleashed]

using zeovit (zeolite rock) has also been known to remove nitrate and po4

[Chrona]

using zeovit (zeolite rock) has also been known to remove nitrate and po4

Zeolite by itself only removes ammonia/ammonium. Specially treated zeolite will be able to bind phosphates, and will be marketed as a phosphate remover, not as zeolite. I have not seen anything about zeolite removing nitrates though.

[unleashed]

Zeolite by itself only removes ammonia/ammonium. Specially treated zeolite will be able to bind phosphates, and will be marketed as a phosphate remover, not as zeolite. I have not seen anything about zeolite removing nitrates though.
I have used zeovit/zeolite since I first started. zeovit/zeolite are high in iron which the bacteria love - they work on the basis that you add bacteria and then feed it. The skimmer then removes the bacteria which attaches to nitrate/po4.

[gm72]

This is really interesting, thanks a lot for bearing with me. I don't know anything about marine tanks, and this is very enlightening!

[Chrona]

I have used zeovit/zeolite since I first started. zeovit/zeolite are high in iron which the bacteria love - they work on the basis that you add bacteria and then feed it. The skimmer then removes the bacteria which attaches to nitrate/po4.

http://www.captiveoceans.com/pdfs/ZEOguide1.02.pdf

Says right there that zeolite/zeovit does not remove nitrates or phosphates. The special bacteria you add (Zeobac or whatever) does so (though I don't understand this), not the actual zeolite rock that was your original point.

And I'm already skeptical about the whole system because they say zeolite permanently binds ammonia, which is simply not true. The ammonia locked in zeolite is still available to the nitrifying bacteria, hence why you still get a nitrite spike after adding zeolite to a tank with an ammonia spike.

http://www.marineland.com/science/articles/11Clinoptilolite.asp

Bunch of other websites say this as well.

[unleashed]

thats fine.

However, website don't provide the true facts.... experience does. I know that myself, and many others have experinced ammonia and nitrate drops after the addition of zeovit/zeolite.

You can be skeptical and believe what you wan't, there is always more than one way to do things in this hobby

[Chrona]

thats fine.

However, website don't provide the true facts.... experience does. I know that myself, and many others have experinced ammonia and nitrate drops after the addition of zeovit/zeolite.

You can be skeptical and believe what you wan't, there is always more than one way to do things in this hobby

I said I'm skeptical, that's all. I'm always skeptical when the website contains more catchy trademarked names than factual evidence. Sometimes I'm proven wrong, sometimes my skepticism is well-founded (ie Eco Aqualizer) No need to get angry trying to defend your methods, I wasn't attacking them.

I would certainly hope that this website has the true facts, considering it's the company that makes zeovit? They say right there that it doesn't remove phosphates or nitrates or nitrites. And that was my original argument against you. And I agreed that it removes ammonia.

[unleashed]

i wasn't gettin angry :). Trust me, I'm a member on about a dozen aquarium boards including my own, and debates about what removes what get very heated very fast.

Anyways, maybe I should have rephrased my original point. Zeovit/zeolite provides iron which is highly beneficial to bacteria. These bacteria "bond" so to speak to nitrate and in turn, this bacteria is removed by the skimmer effectively removing the nitrate