Cycling questions!
 

I have been cycling my new 122 Gallon FOWLR with a 60 Gallon sump for a month now. The ammonia is 0, the nitrates are in the 110 range and the nitrites are 1.0-1.6 range. My question is how long should it take to finish this last bit of nitrites into nitrates? Also is there anything I should be doing to help my cycle? The tank has 95lbs of live sand 80lbs of dryrock and 20lbs of liverock, as well I have been dosing the tank each day with stability. So far the cycle has been going good, ammonia went up then down, same with the nitrites but the seem to be stuck. I also will be adding a bubble king mag 5 skimmer to the sump, but don't know if I should add it while the tank is cycling or not.

Holy mackerel! Is that a typo? Is the nitrate really at 110 ppm? If that is not a typo, this is your biggest concern right now, and needs to be reduced significantly before you start to stock the tank. The target for a reef aquarium is "0" with 2 ppm being acceptable. Most corals and other invertebrates will not tolerate high nitrate unless they are slowly acclimatized to it over several weeks, like in situations where aquariums are neglected. If the aquarium is going to be used for fish only, the fish will tolerate up to 200 ppm nitrate, but they will not thrive and will be prone to disease. Fish only aquariums should be kept under 40 ppm.

I would have had the skimmer running on the system from day one of the cycle. There is no reason to not use a skimmer during the cycling stage.

So to reduce the nitrates even during the cycle I should just do a water change or is there something else I should do?

I would definitely do a large water change to start. Where did you get your live rock and sand from? Is it possible they are leaching stuff into your water?

Why are they so high with no stock?

I was using a shrimp to cycle the tank out and there probily is still some in the tank is what I am thinking.

I cycle with Vittoria tires, 700x23 but I have a set of 25's I use occasionally. My carbon wheels like the 23's but my aluminum wheels can use either. Obviously a road bike with race geometry but I'm thinking of a long distance frame some day.

Oh.... wrong cycling....

First, I would suggest you take a sample of your water to your LFS for them to double check your readings. It doesn't make sense to me that it would be so high. Did you buy used rock from another tank or new rock from the LFS?

When you use live rock you do not need to use a shrimp to cycle it. The live rock cycles the tank itself. How big was this shrimp?

I used a big shrimp when I only had the base rock in the tank to start the cycle and only added the liverock on sunday. Should I chuck the filterfloss in my sump and add some carbon?

Ah, I see. Is the live rock cured? You might see another ammonia spike since adding the new live rock. Where did the base rock come from? Is it dried live rock from someone's tank? Or did you buy it at the LFS?

I would still suggest getting someone to double check the nitrate for you to make sure your kit isn't faulty or maybe you mis-read or something. That is unbelievably high for a new tank.

I suggest changing filter floss out once to twice per week. I like to use carbon at a rate of about 1-3 mL carbon per gallon of water. Carbon won't get rid of the nitrate though. Get it double checked before you worry too much about anything else at this point.

I bought a new nitrate and nitrite kit. The local pet store here doe sent offer water tests and only deals in freshwater. The base rock is tulfa.

Well I think I figuredout my nitrate source, which looks like the tulfa I used for base rock. I pulled all 78lbs and did a 60% water change and my nitrates have droped to 20. Now all I have for bio filtration in my tank is 95lbs of live sand, 10lbs of actual base rock and 20lbs of live rock, as well as 2gallons of bio balls and 1-2 gallons of coral rubble like what you would find in a calcium reactor. Well I guess I get to learn these lessions the hard way, now I need more and/or live/baserock.

let me guess, you bought it from the store that doen't deal in salt water, tuffa is not good for salt tanks as it has all kinds of nasty things it will leach into the water. but its good you found the issue and removed it.

Steve

Yep, saw it mentioned in a saltwater book and though sounds good. Add more water to tank and sump and got nitrates down to 5.

That's great you found the source - I knew something was up! Check out www.fijireefrock.com he is a vendor on CanReef and offers free shipping on the dry rock he sells. It is real rock that was formerly live.