nitites going up and down on tank cycle

[olemos]

my tank is now in the 7th week of cycle

ammonia has been - zero for 6 weeks
nitrates - 0/10 mg/l this Reading has been the same from the beginning of cycle no change
but nitrites keep going up and down jumping form 0.6 to 1.0 for the 3rd time.
today they are at 1.0 mg/l up again from last Reading
cold there be something wrong or this is normal ?
from what I hear nitrites should be going down by now not up

[speccialj922]

we need more info.
any inhabitants in your tank?
how did you cycle?
are you doing water changes?
etc

[olemos]

tank-350gl
11- damsels
( yes I know using live fish is not a nice thing to do but when I found out it ws to late they were already in there)
+/- 200lb cured rock
no water changes

[sfsuphysics]

11 damsels? Yikes! You're starting your own little gang in there from the get go.

[olemos]

That's what my LFS recommended
I started with 12 but one died

[olemos]

come on experience people tell my what is going on

[tvrsir]

first off i would start with 10 percent water change. that what i did when i cycled mine 10 percent every week until everything was at 0 and nitrate at 2.5

[olemos]

Originally posted by tvrsir
first off i would start with 10 percent water change. that what i did when i cycled mine 10 percent every week until everything was at 0 and nitrate at 2.5
but I still have alot of nitries that means my tank didn't finish cycling and they say not to do any water gange till tank cycles

[olemos]

Originally posted by olemos
but I still have alot of nitries that means my tank didn't finish cycling and they say not to do any water gange till tank cycles
I have no nitrates

[bertoni]

You can do water changes during the cycle. At this point, I wouldn't bother, though.

The nitrites could be moving up and down as animals in the rock die. I wouldn't worry; I'd just wait. There's a great thread at the top of the coral forum on tank maturation, if you're interested.

Good luck with the damsels.

[olemos]

but don't you guys think 7 weeks with these readings using fish isn't normal ?

[bertoni]

I don't know for sure, but it doesn't seem all that out of line to me. A lot depends on the live rock, for example, and how it was cured, etc.

Have they ever dropped to zero?

[olemos]

No the lowest the nitites ever got after the first spike was 0.6 mg/l

[bertoni]

Your tank might be taking a little longer to cycle than average, but I don't see any reason to worry yet. If you want more input, you could post all the tank parameters, SG, temp, etc, and the equipment and the live rock source and type, but I'm not sure it's worth the effort.

[olemos]

thank's bertoni
will wait another week and see if any thing changes

[fossil]

Are u going to leave the damsels in there after the tanks cycled?

[reefitup]

I cycled a 150 gallon FO tank with about 20 lbs of live rock and it took 9 weeks :) I don't think there is any normal. You're tank is 350 Gallons... RIGHT?

[reefitup]

oh yeah, and that included about 20 or 30 bio balls from a friends 2 year old mature FO tank :)

[olemos]

Originally posted by fossil
Are u going to leave the damsels in there after the tanks cycled?

yes if they do not attack or bother any other fish
the only problem I see is with a three spoted one he seams to be the boss all the rest don't act aggressive at all

[olemos]

Originally posted by reefitup
I cycled a 150 gallon FO tank with about 20 lbs of live rock and it took 9 weeks :) I don't think there is any normal. You're tank is 350 Gallons... RIGHT?

9 weeks ok that makes me feel better I was staring to think that something was wrong with the bio filter