Help with water Chemistry

I have recently started a 90 gallon FOWLR, I have the rock in and live sand.

I started the tank on the 25th of March and I have been testing my water everyday, the tests are as follows

ammonia has been about .5 then to 1.0 holding steady
Nitrites have been 0
Nitrates have been 0
pH 8

those were the numbers until today roughly

I tested my ammonia and it is now .5
nitrite is through the roof and nitrate is through the roof

Since my tank has been setup for such a short period of time should I have seen this type of drastic change so quickly?

 

If you used live cured rock seems normal to me.


Welcome to 3reef.

 

By the way the nitrates are not through the roof, I had this happen when I cycled. As my nitrites were high the nitrates always tested at 160ppm+ but once the cycle was done and nitrites were 0 the nitrate dropped to 5. This wasnt due to denitrification but the fact that the presence of nitrite radically alters your nitrate test result. Save your expensive test and just worry about ammonia and nitrite for the time being.

 

Yea I used cured live rock. It was just weird to see the numbers spike off the chart in like a day or two.

My 30 gallon tank did not do this, it just sort of raised a bit then leveled off and finished, it was a very short cycle for that tank.

 

Thanks pghSteeler