Fishless cycle, nitrate drop, cabomba?

[_Maq_]

and 160ppm+ of nitrate.

That seems too much. Mind you, nitrate should be in some relation to ammonium and nitrite you had measured earlier. Nitrate is a bit heavier than nitrite, but if your nitrite spiked at, say 10 ppm, you cannot have as much nitrate.
Like I said, all these nitrate tests are very unreliable. Among other things, some of them must be read at exact time - definitely not a day later.

 

[GraemeVW]

That seems too much. Mind you, nitrate should be in some relation to ammonium and nitrite you had measured earlier. Nitrate is a bit heavier than nitrite, but if your nitrite spiked at, say 10 ppm, you cannot have as much nitrate.
Like I said, all these nitrate tests are very unreliable. Among other things, some of them must be read at exact time - definitely not a day later.

Last night's delayed test result was very odd. This morning's took a few mins like normal.
I'm not really bothered what the nitrate shows at the moment anyway, but I'm sure I read somewhere if it goes too high it can effect the tanks bacteria growth. Don't know how true that is though.

I'm just patiently waiting for 0 nitrite.

 

[GraemeVW]

Woohoo, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 80ppm nitrate.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

That seems too much. Mind you, nitrate should be in some relation to ammonium and nitrite you had measured earlier. Nitrate is a bit heavier than nitrite, but if your nitrite spiked at, say 10 ppm, you cannot have as much nitrate.
Like I said, all these nitrate tests are very unreliable. Among other things, some of them must be read at exact time - definitely not a day later.

I agree with both @_Maq_ 's points. <"One molecule of TAN (NH3 / NH4+)"> is oxidised to one molecule of nitrite (NO2-) and then one molecule of nitrate (NO3-).

The nitrate will <"accumulate without any plants to utilise it"> or water changes to dilute it (I'm going to ignore any <"potential denitrification">), but the total amount of biological NO3- is still dependent on the starting ammoniua loading.

This is the without plants scenario.

Woohoo, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 80ppm nitrate

You can <"carry on testing">, but I'd recommend that don't make descisions based upon the test results, it is just that there are <"better (and safer) ways">. Have a look a this video from the Aquarium Co-Op, it talks about <"seasoned tank time">, which is just a snazzy title for what we have always recommended, <"plants, oxygen and time">.



cheers Darrel

 

[GraemeVW]

Hi all,

I agree with both @_Maq_ 's points. <"One molecule of TAN (NH3 / NH4+)"> is oxidised to one molecule of nitrite (NO2-) and then one molecule of nitrate (NO3-).

The nitrate will <"accumulate without any plants to utilise it"> or water changes to dilute it (I'm going to ignore any <"potential denitrification">), but the total amount of biological NO3- is still dependent on the starting ammoniua loading.

This is the without plants scenario.


You can <"carry on testing">, but I'd recommend that don't make descisions based upon the test results, it is just that there are <"better (and safer) ways">. Have a look a this video from the Aquarium Co-Op, it talks about <"seasoned tank time">, which is just a snazzy title for what we have always recommended, <"plants, oxygen and time">.



cheers Darrel

I completely agree with everything.
The seasoned tank video is also how I've seen it over the years, but for some reason, when i set up a new tank, I just can't help myself with testing.
I don't normally bother the rest of the time.
Even my reef tanks I never tested (apart from salinity).

I don't really have a way of knowing how much ammonia went in at first, I dosed it to 4 or 5ppm twice, but there is also aquatic compost in there (didn't seem to leach, but probably is), also some decaying plant matter from some low quality micro sword 🙄.

But as I mentioned before, I only really looked at the nitrate results as an indicator of a trend, not as a deffinate measure of how much there was.

This tank is very new. It will take me months to stock it.
Everything I do from now on will be governed by what the algae and plants tell me.
It will probably be a year before I start to think of it as settled.

I guess as I do more tanks with plants I'll get used to trusting those to tell me how the initial stages are going rather than tests.

 

[GraemeVW]

As an added bonus, last night I also realised there are copepods and limpets in the tank! The joys of random eBay plants.
I'm happy about that though, hopefully they will establish a little, at least untill the fish wipe out most of the pods. (Only seen 4 or 5 pods and 2 limpets so far)