Nitrate cycle

Very excited I think after 4 months I think the whole cycle is complete. There have not been any nitrITES or ammonia since mid march but nitrates always steadily rose until the WC. As of today without a skimmer, sump, fuge, or any type of macro algae there is almost no detection of nitrate after my WC! I did not test beforehand and only did a 5gal WC on the 46gal aquarium and afterwards measured with the API kit where it read somewhere between 0-5ppm so I took out the red-sea kit where it measured somewhere between 0-2.5ppm. I doubt they are totally 0 so recorded it at 2.5 which is still the lowest it has ever been, not to mention I fed pretty heavily this past week with the NLS pellets, Nori, and phytofeast.

On a side note I am pretty sure I need to start adding Calcium. Just started testing last week and once again today the result was 350 with a Mag of 1440 and alk of 12.9 (post WC).

 

Sounds like your cycle ended 2 months ago. Water changes and plant/algae are really the only things that remove them from our systems. Your calculating is only about 30 ppms off from the low range.

 

What do you mean it ended 2 months ago? I haven't had any ammonia or nitrite since mid March. I was thinking the drop in nitrates is do to the sandbed and liverock continuing to mature.

 

The nitrogen cycle in aquariums is the build up of bacteria that convert ammonia to nitrites and nitrites to nitrates. The former two are much more poisonous to our system than the latter. Nitrates SLOWLY can be converted to nitrogen gas, but this takes an inordinate amount of time. The only effective way to remove nitrate build up is through a fuge and/or water changes. You said you stopped registering nitrites and ammonia 2 months ago. That is likely when your nitrogen cycle ended.

However, in my opinion, it's good that you waited until you registered 0 nitrates as well.

Get your fuge running to keep them at 0 and add your CUC. I would say you're ready to start stocking, slowly.

 

He means your cycle ended 2 months ago From the moment you tested .0 no2 and ammonia.
But I'm confused a little. You state after 4 months your cycle is finally done. Then the past week you've been feeding NLSP/Nori and Phytofeast. Who are you feeding?

Also...What salt are you using? What is your salinity at? Your ALK is a little on the higher end. I wouldn't start dosing calcium just yet. What all do you have in your tank that may be using it up? LPS/SPS, lots of coralline growth? A 5g water change is kind of small for a tank your size.

 

I set up the tank March 1st and by March 17th or so I had no ammonia or nitrite and added my first fish, this was 3.5months ago not 2months. What is no2??
I am using corallife salt to get a SG of 1.025. I just did a WC today so thats why the alk is up it will drop a few points over the next couple days. I have xenia, jasmine polyp, ricordea, and 2 acan colonies. I also have a decent amount of coralline growth over the past few weeks. Stock is 2 clowns, a small blue hippo tang, many hermits and different kinds of snails, some sponge on liverock, and a few different fanworms.
How is 5 gallons too small for a 46gallon tank? That is about 11% weekly and doesnt account for displacement of water by 40lbs of sand and 45lbs of rock.

 

NO2 i the nitrite molecule. Once you registered 0 ammonia and 0 nitrate (which you said was 2 months ago) , your cycle ended.

 

Oh, you didn't mention you were doing 5gs a week. From your original post you made it sound like this was your first water change, in 4 months.
Very confusing posting-lol