dpotash

I have been cycling a 125 gallon tank for 3 weeks now. I have continued topping off. My levels are great except for the Nitrites. I am at about 1.2
I am waiting for it to come down to add fish. How long should this take and is there anything I can do at this point to help it along

sgould

Short of adding Bio-Spira, there is not much you can do but wait. If you are completely through the ammonia phase and are just waiting on nitrite, it should not be much longer to finish. Are you cycling with live rock or something else?

dpotash

I have about 80lbs of rock
I have also put in a bottle of some kind of bacteria. I already threw away the bottle so I am not sure what it was.

kra-z-fishmumm

how are you 'feeding' the tank to help the bacteria grow? Fish food, live rocks?

Rbacchiega

80 lbs of rock isn't all that much in a 125 (I have 105 in a 90 and adding more), I'd look at eventually adding more, but your cycle sounds as though it is almost done. Did you use cured or uncured LR for your tank?

dpotash

The rock is cured. Its basically just a bunch of rock with nothing on it at this point. As for feeding the tank, at this point I am running the filter 24/7 and waiting patiently. Is there something more I need to do

sgould

Hurry up and wait, unfortunately. Live rock, even pre-cured, experiences die off when transported to a new tank. That die off is handling your cycle for you. When nitrite hits 0, you'll be ready for fish...just don't add too many at once. 1-2 at a time is all.

Rbacchiega

Agreed.

Unfortunately, due to longer than expected shipping, I had more die off than expected and will now have to recycle the tank LOL baaaaaaaaaah!

sgould

Ouch.