Cycling Tank and Nitrite Spikes

[Ray Martini]

Hi All:

I have a 72 gallon bow FOWLR tank. I added 90 lbs of live Fiji rock on Dec
21. Since it is a new setup I did not cure the rock figuring I'd cycle the
tank with the rock. Lights out since the rock was added. (Well ocassionally
a peek in!) Skimmer is running. It produced tons of crap in the beginning
and now it's down to producing normal levels of waste.

Well as expected the NH3 shot through the roof within a couple of days. Now
I see NO2 (nitrites) way up there around 3.5ppm. But the NO2 doesn't seem to
be going anywhere. It's been way high for about 5 days now. NO3 (Nitrates)
are at about 20ppm. NH3 (ammonia) is at 0.

Am I just being impatient? Or doing something wrong? I've been changing 20%
weekly with RO/DI water. I did remove the bio media from the filter figuring
the Berlin method of bio filtering should work fine. Should I consider
adding the bio media back into the mix?

Any suggestions are always appreciated!


--
Happy Fishin' ...
Ray Martini
http://www.groove-alliance.com

[CapFusion]

"Ray Martini" > wrote in message
...
> Hi All:
>
> I have a 72 gallon bow FOWLR tank. I added 90 lbs of live Fiji rock on Dec
> 21. Since it is a new setup I did not cure the rock figuring I'd cycle the
> tank with the rock. Lights out since the rock was added. (Well
> ocassionally a peek in!) Skimmer is running. It produced tons of crap in
> the beginning and now it's down to producing normal levels of waste.
>
> Well as expected the NH3 shot through the roof within a couple of days.
> Now I see NO2 (nitrites) way up there around 3.5ppm. But the NO2 doesn't
> seem to be going anywhere. It's been way high for about 5 days now. NO3
> (Nitrates) are at about 20ppm. NH3 (ammonia) is at 0.
>
> Am I just being impatient? Or doing something wrong? I've been changing
> 20% weekly with RO/DI water. I did remove the bio media from the filter
> figuring the Berlin method of bio filtering should work fine. Should I
> consider adding the bio media back into the mix?
>
> Any suggestions are always appreciated!
>

Seem like no one have reply your question since 01/08/05.
How your tank cycle now? ANN should take some time and patience. Every ROCK
are different, it depend on the condition when you receive the LR. The
badder the smell, the longer it get.

CapFusion,...