- Your tank has zero nitrates and zero phosphates
and nuisance algae galore.
But as a beginner you learned,
at least you thought you learned that low nitrates
and low phosphates should mean no nuisance algae.
So what's wrong with your tank?
(upbeat music)
Howdy, howdy, howdy to all of my fellow
and future hobbyists out there.
My name is Matthew, I am your BRS beginner guru.
And welcome to part one of four.
You heard me right, four parts
all about advanced water testing.
Hey, I know it's a lot but at the end of these four videos,
you are gonna have such a more comprehensive
understanding of what to test for, how often to test
and what those results tell you about your tank.
Let's just be real for a second, because as a beginner,
you learn the basics of how to test
but you are not taught at all how to interpret those results
and what they mean.
I mean, yeah, we all know that high ammonia can kill fish
and high phosphate levels can cause nuisance algae growth.
But what can we learn about our tanks
by tracking those things in the long term?
So put on your safety harness,
because I'm about to take you on a nerding adventure
through advanced water testing.
The first thing we're gonna jump into
are those three tests that are absolutely crucial
for telling you when the nitrogen cycle is done.
And of course we're talking about ammonia,
nitrite or nitrate.
Scenario number one is the nitrogen cycle.
First, I think it's important to understand the toxicity
of those three, ammonia is super toxic to your fish.
Nitrite is still toxic, although less so
and nitrate really is just not toxic for your fish,
unless in crazy high quantities.
We primarily use these three in conjunction with each other
to let us know when the nitrogen cycle is complete
and when it's safe to add fish.
But really that's not totally correct,
at least not in the way you think.
For the nitrogen cycle to run a full course,
you start with N2 or nitrogen gas.
Atmospheric nitrogen, which is then converted to ammonia,
NH3 or NH4 plus, which then goes to nitrite NO2-
then to Nitrate NO3-.
And in this hobby, we typically stop there,
but that's not the end of the nitrogen cycle
because you need that nitrate that NO3-
to return back to N2 or atmosphere of nitrogen gas.
So in this hobby, when you hear people say
the nitrogen cycle is complete,
we're actually not saying it's complete.
We're saying it's safe to add fish,
which means it's almost complete,
but you probably still have a lot of nitrates in your tank.
If you want a refresher or to understand
a lot more about the science behind the nitrogen cycle,
check out episode 18 in this series,
because we spent the entire episode
talking about the nitrogen cycle.
Scenario umber two is what we call the secondary cycle.
Your cycle is complete, you add a small number of fish
after quarantining, of course,
and then you need to test every single day
for ammonia and nitrate.
But why you may ask because the nitrogen cycle
is already done?
Well, because there is something called a secondary cycle.
So while your tank is technically cycled,
anytime you increase the bio load,
you have to give your beneficial bacteria
time to ramp up their production and to multiply.
Basically you need to give them a chance to play catch up.
So what I do is I test my tank for ammonia and nitrate
every other day.
And I watched that ammonia level
as it starts to creep close to 0.5,
certainly anything more than 0.5,
you may need to actually step in
and perform a relatively large water change.
Let's say 25 to 50% just to bring those numbers back down
as long as there's enough surface area,
whether that is sand or rock work or ceramic media,
eventually that beneficial bacteria will catch up
and bring those levels down, that's of course,
as long as you don't overstock the tank.
Nitride on the other hand is nowhere near as concerning
or toxic to your fish.
So I find it really hard to pinpoint a level
at which it's gonna be dangerous.
I personally found that when I'm able to keep ammonia
in check, then I'm able to keep nitrite in check
because nitrite is the key factor that will tell me
when the nitrogen cycle is complete in my tank.
Scenario number three is high ammonia.
So let's say you are testing your ammonia
and it creeps up slowly approaching 0.5
so you do a large water change.
In a few more days, maybe a week later,
it starts creeping back up and you repeat this cycle
over and over again.
But no matter what you do, your ammonia levels
continue to rise.
So what's going on in your tank?
Well, it's either one of two things.
One, either your biofiltration just isn't robust enough
or you've overstocked your tank
and your biofilter will just never be able to catch up.
In that case, there are four solutions
to your high ammonia problem.
Solution number one is just to keep performing
water changes.
This is a really common solution
when you're doing a quarantine tank without a biofilter
and it's in fact the only way
to keep your ammonia levels down.
So anytime your ammonia gets high from 0.25 to 0.5,
you perform a large water change
and those levels come back down.
The second solution is to reduce your bio load.
You can do this by removing fish in livestock,
or by decreasing the amount of feeding.
The third solution is to remove organics more quickly
so that they don't have a chance to break down into ammonia.
You can really do this by changing out your filter sock
or sponge filter more frequently,
or by performing larger gravel vacuums more frequently
to remove that ditritus that settles on the sand bed.
And the fourth and final solution to a high ammonia problem
is to add more biofiltration, you could do this
by adding more sand, by adding more reef rock,
or by adding some sort of ceramic media
in a rear filtration chamber or in the sump.
Here are two testing tips for ammonia nitrite, and nitrate.
The first tip is to test for ammonia and nitrite frequently
when starting to cycle your tank.
And by frequently, I mean every day to every other day
and continue testing until your ammonia goes up
and comes back down and your nitrite goes up
and comes back down to zero
and stays at zero for a few days.
And remember that anytime you're gonna add new livestock,
especially fish, you're going to need
to start testing for ammonia and nitrate again.
Every day or every other day,
just to make sure the secondary mini cycle, if it happens,
doesn't get out of control and you can stop it
before the ammonia gets too high.
Testing tip number two is just to use
the salt water master test kit from API.
It's not the most accurate, but it is so inexpensive.
And I have found it good enough,
and I can interpret the results to let me know
when the cycle is complete.
Okay that wraps up part A, the shortest part mind you.
Coming up next episode in part B,
we are gonna move on to the complicated relationship
between NO3 and PO4.
We'll put links to all of our favorite test kits down below,
and as always everybody thank you for watching.
Happy reefing, be well, we'll see you next time.
(upbeat music)