Added two new fish and my Nitrites are starting to rise?

Well you have a skimmer thats good. I would try to get at least 1 lb/per gallon of rock. Look at bulk reef supply.com for base rock as its much cheaper and won't cause your tank to recycle. And I would look into posibly turning your bio-ball section of the sump int a fuge.

 

When people first started telling me to get rid of bio-balls I did countless hours of research and there are people that say they are fine and some that totally hate them. I have not really formed an opinion yet but I know the LFS runs all there FO tank with bio-balls. I figure if its good enough for them to keep thousands of dollars worth of fish on they are good for me? That being said, I do appreciate all the suggestions on trying to help me with the problem. I'm not going to switch over yet but if the problems persist I will.... Jeff

 

I just tested the Nitrites again and they are still at .25. I'm not sure if that considered high just yet but I am trying to stay on top of it. Im gonna take a run and see about the Sea Chem stability and Hagen Cycle that steve wright mentioned... Jeff

 

ok cool. guess i was the one confused

good luck with it!

 

It's not that the bio-balls are that bad. They are expensive and do the same thing as the live rock, and occasionally they need to be cleaned. If you have enough rock, you don't need them, and you save money to spend on some other reef related item. :

 

I'm not really sure I understand what is going on here? You removed your LR to treat the tank with Copper. But this Copper treatment also killed the bio filtration in your bio-balls and your sand bed.

It is going to be challenging to ensure all the copper is out of the tank. so that you can restore your LR and begin to seed your system again with denitrifying bacteria.
I might have it all wrong, excuse me if I do

J

 

Its probably my fault for only giving tid bits of info. Here is the 41 day time line of my tank.

Purchased:
90 Gallon Aqueon with the megaflow overflow system
Coralife RO/DI 50 gallon per day
Coralife 48" with lunar lights
AquaPro wet dry sump with bio-balls with rio pump
coralife heater
40lbs of aggregate
50lbs of rock

I filled my tank with RO/DI water, added salt and ran filter for couple days to let it clear up.

Day 1 - Added the Undulated trigger after everything tested ok and water was clear. The undulated trigger was used to only cycle the tank and was going to be brought back to the LFS for a credit due to its aggressive nature.

Day 9 - I got my test kit and started testing the water. See spreadsheet below for water chemistry. Nothing too alarming except for I am reading ammonia but I was told thats OK for new tank.

Day 14 - Got my Vertex IN-100 skimmer and installed. Nitrites are starting to get high but I guess that is normal for a cycling tank. With the undulated Trigger being a hearty fish I was told he could handle it. I was told also to remove the filter pad and let the bio-balls do there job so I did.

Day 20 - The nitrites are coming down. I guess its the cycle or the removing the filter pad did the trick.

Day 21 - Nitrites are still at 1ppm, I was told to test my RO/DI water for nitrites, It came back 0ppm.

Day 23 - My trigger got stuck underneath a rock. I removed the rock and he swam around and everything seemed fine. I did notice he had a dark spot on his side.

Day 24 - Got my ReefKeeper Elite and installed.

Day 29 - I came home from work and trigger was dead. I took him out and did a water test. Nitrites where spiked but I was told thats because the fish was laying dead in the tank. The LFS suggested that I pick up some live rock because adding a fish to a tank with Nitrates at 5ppm would not be good. So I picked up 26lbs of Live Rock. Before adding the live rock I had to take some water out to compensate for volume of the rock. When I took the water out I vacuumed the gravel. It ended up being about 4.5 gallon of water.

Day 30 - Nitrites came back down. Either the live rock is doing the job or the Nitrites where really spiked due to dead fish laying there all day?

Day 33 - The levels all seem good, sweet!

Day 35 - Pulled out the 26lbs of live rock and put it into a tub filled with water, left the remaining 50lbs of base rock in tank. Drained the tank and put it on the new stand. Stands where the same height so it was a smooth slide over. Took about 25 minutes from the time the tank was drained until it was moved and filled back up. Hopefully this did cause much trouble. After it was filled back up I placed the live rock back into the tank.

Day 38 - Water chemistry is still perfect. I put the filter pad back into the sump to catch all the crap coming off the live rock, removed and returned back to the fish store for credit. It was returned back to the LFS because I was going to start treating the tank with Copper and it would kill the live rock. I was told to run the tank for a day without the live rock to let things settle and clear up.

Day 39 - Water chemistry is still good. I picked up the coral beauty and the flame angel. Brought them home, did a drip acclamation and put them into the tank. Later on that night I put in 2oz of Coppersafe. Coppersafe was recommended by the LFS to help keep fish from getting diseases and dying, I guess a preventative measure.

Day 40 - Noticed nitrites are starting to rise but fish are looking happy. I put up a post to ask for suggestions. 2 ounces more of copper safe was added.

Day 41 - Took the water sample back into the LFS and told them about the problem. I was told to remove the filter pad again and let the bio-balls work on the Nitrites. I was told that the copper can stunt the beneficial bacteria temporarily but to keep a close eye on it.

Well hopefully I didn't forget anything and it cleared some things up? In the meantime I'm gonna keep a close eye on it, stay tuned... Jeff

 

It was planned to be a FO tank. However the Nitrites got so High that I had to use the live rock to finish cycling the tank. See day 29... Jeff

 

Well, you had a lot of things going on, there. Day 1, not so cool, not even counting the fact that he was killed by rocks. A piece of shrimp will do the same thing as a live fish to start the cycle, but whatever.

It looks like you have a tank with base rock, which would be a FOWLR. The base rock will grow beneficial bacteria, and house other helpful critters. Copper kills everything, it's just at certain doses, it kills the pests and not the fish. You don't want to constantly run copper.

The small nitrite spike that you see is because the cycle is interrupted and not complete. I was questioning how the nitrates were lowered without any means to do so. A skimmer does not remove nitrates, and you don't have a fuge, unless you mixed new water when the tank was moved, I don't see why the nitrates would go down.

You have some good equipment and you are off to a good start. Don't believe everything they tell you at the lfs. Bio-balls are getting to be old school. Running a low level of copper is not necessary and probably more harmful than good in the long run.

 

I thought FOWLR stood for Fish Only With Live Rock. Did the Live rock that I put in for couple days make the base rock live rock? Good lord I am confused now...:-/