Test Aquarium Water Daily? Advance Nitrogen Cycle Testing & Tips

Your tanks have zero nitrates, zero phosphates, and nuisance algae galore, But as a beginner, you learned that low nitrates and phosphates should mean no algae. So what's wrong with your tank?

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. So yes, high ammonia can kill fish, and high phosphate levels can cause a nuisance in algae growth. But what can we learn about our tanks by tracking those things in the long term?

To clear up the confusion, we will discuss three tests - NH3, NO2-, & NO3-. First, of course, we're talking about ammonia nitrate and nitride.

Nitrogen Cycle

It's essential to learn that among the toxicity of the three, ammonia is super toxic to your fish. Nitrite is still less contaminated, and nitrate is just for your fish unless in crazy high quantities.

We primarily use these three in conjunction with each other, which lets us know when the nitrogen cycle is done, and the tank is ready to add fish. But that's not correct.

To run an entire course of a nitrogen cycle, start in N2, which is then converted to NH3 (Ammonia), NO2- (nitride), and nitrate NO3-.

In this hobby, we typically stop there, but that's not the end of the nitrogen cycle because you need that nitrate to return to N2.

Secondary Cycle

Your cycle is complete; you add a small number of fish after quarantining, and then you need to test every day for ammonia.

While your tank is cycled, anytime you increase the bio load, you must give your beneficial bacteria time to ramp up their production and multiply. So basically, to provide them with a chance to play catch up.

At above 0.5, you need to perform a relatively significant water change. Let's say 25-50% to bring those numbers back down. As long as there is enough surface area, whether sand, rock work, or ceramic media, beneficial bacteria will eventually catch up and bring those levels down.

Nitride is not anywhere near as concerning or toxic to your fish. 

High Ammonia

Let's say you are testing your ammonia, and it creeps up slowly, approaching 0.5, so you do a significant water change. Then, in a few more days, maybe a week later, it starts creeping back up, and you repeat this cycle repeatedly, but no matter what you do, your ammonia levels continue to rise.

So what's going on?

It's either one of two things.

Either your biofiltration isn't robust enough, or you've overstocked your tank, and your biofilter will never be able to catch up. 

  • You can keep doing water changes. This is a standard solution when doing a quarantine tank without a biofilter. 
  • Reduce your bioload. You can do this by removing fish in livestock or by decreasing the amount of feeding.
  • The third solution is to remove organic more quickly, so they don't have a chance to break down into ammonia. You can do this by changing the filter media more frequently.
  • Add more biofiltration. You can do this by adding more sand and reef rock. 

Testing Tips

you need to test your water parameters frequently and continue testing until your ammonia goes up and comes back down and your nitrate comes back down to zero.

Anytime you add new livestock, especially fish, you will start testing for ammonia and nitrate again to ensure that the secondary mini cycle doesn't get out of control.

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