nitrate question

after ammonia reading drop to 0, nitrites drop to 0, nitrate will build up and drop to 0 as well without water change?

 

Nitrates are the hard ones to get rid of. Fish waste, unconsomed food etc. all continue to add nitrates to your system. You have to constantly run a skimmer and do weekly partial water changes to try to control it. If it is not kept under control undesired algae will grow. If you see algae growing and your test kits show no nitrates it is because the algae is cycling the nitrates that are in your tank giving you a false reading.

It takes newer tanks a while to cycle all through the process of growing various kinds of unwanted algae. Just maintain the above suggestions and watch all of your water parameters and it should all be ok.

Good Luck.

 

so when should the first water change take place?

 

ammonia 0; nitrite 0, nitrate 20 going into 4th week

 

The nitrates will drop. Not necessarily to 0, but you will see a drop. Once the drop stops, and the nitrates start to pick back up again, then the cycle is complete.

 

65 gal tank, 30 lbs live sand, 10 lbs LR, 2 chromis, 2 clowns, 5 hermits

 

when u say the nitrates drop then go back up, that's considering ammonia and nitrites remaining 0, right?

 

yes, they will drop and ammonia and nitrites will stay at zero.

btw, I would add more live rock to your system. 10lb on a 65gaquarium system is almost nothing.

 

ok to add more LR while cycling?

 

Best time as any to do it though you probably shouldn't have had fish in that early. You seem to be keeping an eye on your parameters, so I'd say go ahead and add the LR a bit at a time.