How Much Cycle Time To Lower Nitrate

[jtyce]

Hello. I have a two month old 55 gallon reef tank with a Jaubert plenum system, live rock, and live sand on the top layer, and a refugium. Using live rock, live sand, and a rather expensive pouch of bacteria from Kent Marine, ammonia and nitrite levels were negligible from the beginning and dropped to 0 within a week. However, over the past two months the nitrate has slowly climbed up to 20 ppm where it has been holding steady for the past few weeks. Since there is still not any really delicate life in the tank yet, I decided to do a 10% water change with natural sea water (as I have always used) daily until the nitrate level fell below 10ppm. After 7 days of water changes, the tank is still holding steady at 20ppm and will not drop. The nsw that I am adding is nitrate free and I top off almost daily with a gallon of RO/DI water do to evaporation from the open top. Is this part of the natural cycle process? How long does it take for the plenum and/or deep sand bed to begin consuming nitrate. I have been raising and breeding African cichlids for many years and have never had to concern myself with nitrate until I finally took the plunge into the exciting world of salt.

Thanks,

 

[Old Man Of The Sea]

John T, many have different ways in doing things as well as tank stocking and feeding for the one thing I always do after my tanks are ready to start their cycle is that I wait 7 to 10 days before I add any bio load at all. For as well, I go very light with it for you not want to feed too much food.
If you are doing everything correctly from the start, you should soon see this nitrate begin to lower itself to complete the cycle.

 

[jtyce]

Thanks. I was figuring that the cycle process may not be completed, but the nitrate always remained at this level with my cichlids and it was of no concern.

 

[Old Man Of The Sea]

John T, when I answered you I was with some kids and one thing where I had the thought is, your tank should had already completed its cycle before now. That is if it has been setup and running for two months it should had already been less or even better that your nitrate levels should already be at untraceable levels so it has to be that either one or two things could be holding you back.

One is that your bio load is larger then what your tank could normally handle and the second be that your over feeding. Some other issues can be your problem in this, like if your a canister filter you should shut it down before feedings and be sure to turn it back on after the fish feedings. Also I hope your a skimmer :wink:

 

[jtyce]

I definitely was not skimming enough. I followed the instructions for the Red Sea skimmer that I have, but i think that i misunderstood them. I was only 1/2 filling my very large collection container every week. I have cranked it up in the last few days and it is now filling up completely with some nasty stuff every two days. Hopefully this will bring my nitrate down. With the exception of a 4" Purple Tang, My fish are really small and I am practically starving them to death. I did have a bunch of yellow algea (Tang Heaven Yellow from Indo Pacific Sea Farms) turn to mush in my refugium. I removed it the best that I could, but a lot of little particles went everywhere. This may have been the original spike in ammonia that lead to the currently elevated nitrate level.

Thanks,

 

[Old Man Of The Sea]

Hi John, If your skimmer cup is getting full so fast and the water appears to clear, your skimmer isn't doing all as well as it should and a matter a fact, it is to powered up which is why its filling to quickly. Yes, by all means do clean your skimmer cup once a week.

You can still feed well enough what your fish needs for you not have to starve them as you say to maintain your tank as you like for this too will lead to fish health problems before long. Just feed little at a time and once they feed on that patch, you offer a little more.

If your skimmer cup is watery and not as clear, you need to lower your skimmer air intake just a little at a time until you get it to where it will take out gummy junk only, that is of course is my opinion.

Your a sump and good working skimmer from the sounds of it You might still try to shut down the main filtration and only leave on your water current pumps and after feeding make sure that you turn the main return pump back on for all I know, I might have to do this as well once my reef tanks will be made ready for as of right now, I'm learning that I need better equipment then what this other lfs had put in for me for I paid him HUGE BUCKS and I feel he giving me nothing for my money in what I had asked him for.