The Puffer Forum

That is a rena product, and they do sell zeolite packs - check all those compartments!

Zeolite looks a lot like carbon, too, so it might be mixed in with that.

They did send carbon with the filter but it was left out the entire time. Weird! Before I did the 100% water change I took the filter apart, rinsed the pads and bio-star things and nothing else was in there!

On an ever stranger note....I did the 100% water change, as I was filling the tank back up it was half way filled and my Nitrite was just barely above 0 which I guess would be understandable as I couldn't do a true 100% water change with the gravel holding some water and such. I filled the tank the rest of the way and left it over night without doing another test. The next day when I got home from work and did another test the Nitrite was high again and ammonia was zero! I really have no idea whats going on! Since I did decide to switch to saltwater the SG went from 1.005 to 1.020 which should have killed all the bacteria!

I am completely baffled. At this point I would normally assume it's my test kit but I'm using two different kits and getting the same results!

I added some live rock to the tank so hopefully that will help!

Could there be something dead (old food or something) in the tank, or maybe something from your house is causing weird spikes? Does you water have Nitrite in it?

There shouldn't be anything dead in the tank, I haven't added anything but the decor and water. I've tested my tapwater and get readings of 0 for nitrite. As for decor I originally had one big giant resin (plastic) rock, 4 silk-like plants, and some lace rock, plus I'm using the "gray coast" aragonite substrate by Seachem. Last night I switched out the lace rock with liverock. I was using pure ammonia during the cycle before but didn't add any after the 100% water change.

I'll test the tank again this afternoon when I get home and see how things look.

Well good news! It finally seems like things are working with saltwater. I purchased some LR and a product from my LFS that is similar to bio-spira but is new. They said they had really good results with it and gave it to a bunch of customers to try and had really good results. I added half the bottle on Wednesday and the other half last night. As of last night my ammonia was 0 and nitrite was >5.0ppm. I added a few drops of pure ammonia to get it up to 0.25ppm and checked again this morning...ammonia was 0 again and nitrite had dropped to 1.0!

Congrats! Good to hear that SOMETHING is working for you. ^_^

How big is the tank again, and what are you plans? I think you mentioned a Toby of some sort, right?

I know right...finally SOMETHING!

The tank is 47 gallons. I'm planning on a Valentini toby, a pair of false-perc clowns, and I've yet to decide on the last addition. I was thinking a small group (i.e. 3) of captive bred banggai cardinals.

Sounds neat! I don't know much about different kinds of saltwater fish, but it seems like it'll be a pretty active tank.

I'm hoping it turns out well! I'll be sure to post some pictures when it's said and done