freakin' slow cycle!

I setup a 55 near the end of July. I jump started it with a shrimp from the deli. the ammonia dropped out to zero about a week to a week and a half ago but my nitrites and Nitrates are still really high. i am starting to get impatient and just want this tank to be ready. I moved some of my live rock from my current 30G to the new tank over the weekend. I still need to move a few more rocks, and my fish and skimmer.

I got an ATO installed over the weekend. I am loving not having to top the tank off every day. My jebao WP-25 pumps arrived yesterday and I got them installed. I placed an order for one of the reefbreeders fixtures, so that will be here in a few more weeks. tonight i picked up a 6500k bulb from menards for my fuge. everything is coming together, I am just ready to tear the old tank down and get everything in the new one.

damn waiting!!!

 

If you transferred your liverock from an established tank there is no reason to cycle it in the first place. Just put all the lr in it and be done.

 

I moved some of it, but I needed to add quite a bit more. So I was a bit hesitant to just move everything. Like i said he ammonia has dropped off and I am just waiting for the Nitrites and Nitrates to drop off. Hopefully when I added the live rock from the current tank it will help with dropping the levels down. I was hoping to have it moved by this weekend but it looks like it is going to be a little while longer...

 

I agree, why not just move it all over? Do you need it in the other tank for your livestock?

 

Exactly what is your Nitrite reading? You may have a "stalled" cycle. The same bacteria that metabolizes Nitrite into Nitrate is also sensitive to high levels and cannot function properly.

Also, with an elevated Nitrite level, you may be getting a false reading on your Nitrate.

 

Water changed. 30%

 

I am not comfortable with moving the 2 clowns over to the new tank with the nitrite and nitrate levels where they are. I have moved most of the rock over with the exception of about 4 pieces. I am leaving that in the old tank so the clowns can hide if they need to. I am using the Salifert testing kits. My Nitrites are at 2 with 4 being max and my Nitrates are at 100. I did a 5 gallon water change last week and will probably do another 5 gallon water change this week. I think the Nitrites have started to drop, I did a test again today and they went from 4 down to 2 over the last few days. I have been testing just those 2 parameters every other day. Ideas?

 

Be patient. Keep monitoring both. They should both go down now that you have the live rock in there.

 

when I said move it all over, I meant the rock not the fish......I understand by your response why you are keeping the rock in the old tank. I might still put all of the rock except for one piece if you just have clowns.....they don't seem to need hiding space like many other fish.

 

Yeah I figured that's what you meant. I left the extra rock in there because the old tank had a power head blow up in the tank. The clowns have been very skittish when anyone gets close to the tank. The power head killed every snail in the tank, and I am assuming every one of the tiny star fish that were in there. Luckily the clowns survived and seem to be doing great. The just this week started trusting me getting close to the tank. The skimmer pulled a lot of black mess out of the tank over the last 2 weeks or so. But it's been green crap lately. I took another Nitrite reading tonight and it seems they are dropping some hopefully a few more days and I can start moving the fish to the new tank.