[Evil McToast]

My tank is three months old. The rock is 2 months in. My nitrates have been over 20 every week. I have done weekly 5 gallon water changes with siphon. I have a few critters, but no fish. I think it may be because I have quite a bit of rock, an the 29G tank is taking a long time to fully cycle the rock. Stuff still falls from the rocks, but small amounts. I just tested my ammonia which was 0.20. The temp is from 80-82. My skimmer isn't pulling much out, so I just adjusted it to wetter. There is fine brown detritus on the bottom of my sump, and some in the tank. I have lots of flow, but the sand restricts where I can aim it. I thought that the nitrates would be lower by now with 15% water changes weekly.

I'm up for suggestions and comments:help:

 

[smeese]

New tank....let it go for a while.

 

[Evil McToast]

But does 30 and 40 seem like a high amount of nitrate after 3 mos (two with the rock)? I've read that 2 months is a safe cycle time.

 

[smeese]

not necessarily unsafe, but keep an eye on it. I would say maybe your rock was not cured or contained a lot of dead matter. I am not positive but it would explain the amonia. I hope it all works out for ya. Steve

 

[Viv]

Clean out the fine brown detrius in the sump, by having it there you're feeding nitrates back into the display. You say you have critters. Snails? They eat the algae but also poop, and there poop should be cleaned out also...turning up the skimmer to skim wetter is an excellent thing to have done. Different tanks have different needs, nothing is set as far as time in which things are "ready". Your system may take a longer time to cycle and a shorter time with something else....it will eventually cycle, so don't worry too much about it. Keep testing and keep a record so you can see where its going... and good luck, keep us posted.

 

[Geoff]

do you have a wet/dry, cannister, or HOB filter?

most likely it is still just a bit young. needs time to purge out all of the dead/dying critters deep inside the LR.

G~