nitrites and nitrates

[ckfazz]

I posted this in the reef chemistry forum but am not sure if that is where it belongs.

I recently set up a 12g nano tank, roughly on 1/01/06. I have 15lbs of fiji LR, 10lbs of LS and 65 watts of PC lighting with one damsel in the tank. My problem is that my ammonia spiked and dropped to zero about 2 weeks ago but my nitrites and nitrates have spiked but never come back down. Right now, after testing my water last night, my nitrites are at 5ppm and my nitrates are at 80 ppm. I have changed the water about every 4 days since the ammonia dropped but it does not seem to be helping any with the Nitrites and Nitrates. My current parameters are as follows

Temp 80
pH 8.3
Amm 0
Nitrite 5 ppm
Nitrate 80 ppm
Phos 0
Calcium 400
Alk 9 dkh
SG 1.23

Any suggestions? Currently, I dose kalk at night every other evening to replace the evaporation. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[AdidaKev]

It can take weeks for a tank to cycle fully, usually between 4-8 weeks. Patience is the key when waiting for the nitrite to drop. It eventually will get to zero. Nitrates can be reduced by performing routine water changes and/or with the addition of a refugium.

[ckfazz]

The last time I set up a 54 gallon corner reef, when my ammonia went to zero the nitrites started to drop within a few days. Was this just an unusual situation that it dropped a few days after the ammonia was zero? I am trying to understand why the nitrites would still remain high two weeks after my ammonia went to zero. I have been testing every three days and the results are always the same. Any help or ideas?

[TekCat]

Looks like your tank is cycling. With fish in your tank that is producing waste (that in turn produce ammonia/nitrite/nitrate) fuels your cycle. That IMO will take a little while to complete. On average cycle completes within 4-6 weeks. So, hang in there, and pray that your fish survives.
Now some suggestions:
- perform ~25% water changes twice a week.
- get a skimmer if you don't have one
- skim as hell (wet skimmate)
- if possible return fish to LFS until your nitrites drop to ZERO
- if not possibe, then keep feeding to a minimum and drop water temperature a little bit. This will slow fish's metabolizm, so it will produce less waste.
- after you get ZERO readings both for ammonia/nitrite do huge ~75% or more water change to export nitrates produced by the cycle.

[mg426]

all of the above with patience will yeild the best results

[ckfazz]

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate the answers. I was worried that something might have been wrong with the tank but now I know it is still just cycling