high nitrites

fast eddie

New member
Hello friends! I had a question about my water chemistry. I recently set up a 800 gallon system. I have a 640 gallon salt water tank with a 200 gallon sump.. I had a 300 tank with a 100 gallon sump before.. and sold that. My question is that I used all new ro water in my new set up and non from the old tank.. I did use all the bio balls from the old tank.. the bioballs are well established for 10 years plus. I also added new bio balls to the new sump.because of the larger set up. I have angels and tangs around 25,fish. The tank has been running for 2 weeks with fish only.. and tested my water chemistry yesterday and found my nitrites high around 0.25..,everything else is fine including my nitrates. Which are around 0.I appreciate if I could get some info. Thanks
 
Tanks not fully cycled yet. Not enough free floating bacteria. Also, stirring that old of bio balls will release a lot of stuff into the water column that its not yet ready for.
 
Ok.i see. I heard that before too your right. I have live sand in the tank. I thought that would help.should more bacteria into the system? Thanks
 
Is the live sand also from your old tank. Stirring up old live sand also releases all kinds of trapped detritus. Your bio filter just needs time to catch up. Are your fishes super stressed? Have Prime handy to keep your fishes alive.
 
Is the live sand also from your old tank. Stirring up old live sand also releases all kinds of trapped detritus. Your bio filter just needs time to catch up. Are your fishes super stressed? Have Prime handy to keep your fishes alive.

no. its all new sand. there is no detritus in the tank or sump..fish are eating well with no signs of stress.. I am also feeding lightly also..thank you.
 
Prime is a well known product, usually :) , it neutralizes ammonia, which neutralizes nitrites, which in turn keeps your fishes from suffering the advers effects of ammonia and nitrites. Seachem makes it.
 
Where did the new sand come from & how is it "live"? If it's in a bag, it can't be live.

i got the live sand from a friend that owns a saltwater store called aquascapes.. he said it contain live bacteria,and also the bag it self said that contained live bacteria,the bags of sand had water in them..i never delt with live sand before.i always used crush coral or dolomite. and even just a sand base .
 
The live sand from a bag is debatable at best, but generally, its not live, because there's no detritus for the bacteria to live on after packing/shipping/storing. This sand wouldn't cause any problems though.

It's definitely stirring the old bio balls and new tank syndrome. Run carbon and run prime for a while and it will eventually work itself out.
 
i used the wet live sand never had issues but u still gonna have cycles . bio balls are a nitrate factory so stiring em up definitly could cause it prime is great to help keep fish safe in mean time
 
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