TreyGiles

My 75 gallon FOWLR tank has been in a cycle since 01-15-10. My ammonia is at 0 and my nitrite is at 0. However my nitrate has spiked from 20 to 40. Is this normal? Will they drop? Tommarro I'm going to fan off some of the debris on the live rock and then vaccume the gravel to see if that will lower them. What do your guys think?

aquarist48

Hello Trey,
I've moved your thread to the More Salt Water Aquarium Topics/Water Parameters section of the forum to help you to get more responses from our salt tank members.
Thanks!
Ken

Nate41590

im not sure either... i would say that your cycle is over, but im not that experienced at all yet. i've tried to vacuum my sand to get rid of some of the live rock debris but the hose never seems to be strong enough to suck it up, and im afraid im going to suck all my sand out. i just have no idea how to do it lol

sgould

Sounds like you are cycled. In most setups, the nitrate will not come down on its own, and you help control it through your water changes. You will want to make water changes part of your regular maintenance routine. If you read around, you will see lots of different intervals for water changes...some, like me, do a partial change weekly. Some do every other week. Still others do once a month or so. Over time you will establish what schedule works best for you and your tank. To begin with, I would suggest every other week, then you can adjust to either more or less frequent as you gain experience and see how your setup does.

locoyo386

Also if you have gravel and not and or crushed coral, you might have to keep an eye on your pH level.