New tank / Controlling Nitrite

J

jbwhip

Good evening everyone. Just wanted to introduce myself and ask a question.

I just got into the hobby (addiction?) a few months ago. I've been doing a lot of reading, buying, and setting up and finally set up the tank about a week and a half ago. It's a 72gallon bowfront with a fluval 405 underneath and a Remora HOB skimmer. I'm probably sounding like a real novice here. About 80lbs sand, 75lbs marco dry rock. And I put 4 little pieces of purple rock in there to start the Coralline process. No fish or anything yet.

The problem I'm having is that I have no idea where I'm at in the cycling process, or if my cycle has even begun.

Ammonia has always read at 0.
Nitrates are "okay" at 2 ppm
Nitrites are at "stress," 3 ppm.
Ph is at 7.8

I've done two 20% water changes since starting the tank, and everyday I throw a capful of purple up in there. Other than that, I'm completely lost. Nitrites won't budge and I'm not sure what to do next.

Thoughts?

Thanks again for a great community.
 
Since you only seem to have a few small pieces of actual live rock in the tank you really need to add a piece of raw shrimp in the tank for a day or so to get the cycle really going. If you had a bunch of pre exisiting live rock that cycle would have moved much faster because it already would have had a lot of the bacteria needed to cycle a tank. I would not worry about adding the purple in there because it does not do anything to help the cycle, the coraline algae will come in time once the tank cycles. Just keep checking your nitrites and ammonia every couple of days until they are both zero.
 
I would also not change any water since this might slow down your cycle. Once fully cycled then start a water change routine. Good luck!!
 
Also I would take out the carbon and any other chemical filtration in your fluval as it when get spent really fast if you leave it In
 
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