Nitrites Climbing

This is the 5th week my tanks been set up, 2 weeks ago parameters had reduced to 0 lvls apart from nitrates at 10ppm, I have a small chromis and a friends small clown in there, been feeding quarter cube every other day,
I did add my reactor and 150ml of pellets for 36hrs, in which time I had the onset of a bacterial bloom and frothy water surface so I removed it until the tank is more mature, abnd these symptoms disappeared.
Since then parameters have been fine apart from Nitrite, it hovers at 0.1/0.3 just on the end of the yellow chart before red warning, I have not done a water change yet, could this be why, I thought because the params went to 0 that the cycle had finished?

Fish seem fine and don't gasp at the surface.,

Thanks for any info

 

Im following along with you, but maybe it could have something to do with the two fish and feedings. Sounds like your tank is adjusting to having more livestock in it.

I could very well be wrong; I've been out of the loop for a couple years and am trying to get back into it. So this will be a learning experience for both of us.

 

Me too, just setup 2ft cube with sump, had canister a few years back, I missed the hobby hence the return, sump is the way to go I believe

 

Yup, you're tank is still trying to cycle. If it can't hold a small chromis and clown, then it really wasn't cycled in the first place. What kind of rock did you use? What did you add to start and to maintain the cycle before you added the fish?

 

What test kit are you using to read your nitrates?

 

I added 20 kilo of dead rock it was live but I bought of ebay and it had been sitting in buckets for a week, I cleaned it up and scrubbed it before putting in tank, at the same time I added 8 kilo of live rock covered with small tubeworms and bristle worms etc, ro/di marine sand non live, chromis was added from day 1 and fed as above, the test kits I use are JBL, nothing else was added, I run a skimner and use filter socks

 

Ah. That's not actually surprising then, as there could be anything dying/dead within the rock and depending on how big or many there are, it could take awhile for it to decay all the way. I would just hang where you are and don't add anything else for awhile. The nitrite will come down in time, but it may go higher yet and ammonia could even reappear.

 

Ok, thanks,
Will put off a water change too untill nitrite reads 0, is it still advisable to run my skimmer and sock or remove?

 

The skimmer and sock are not necessary and won't remove the nitrites. But you don't want to actually remove the nitrites, you want the nitrite converting bacteria to catch up with it. Keep measuring in case it goes too high for the current residents. Watch for ammonia as well. Fish can withstand some nitrite, but ammonia can cause permanent damage quickly.

 

I was just thinking the skimmer may remove the nutrients that ate neccessary for the tank to complete its cycle