Levels in New Tank?

[Fishtankkeeper]

I have a 10 gallon tank that has been running for about a month, but I still can't find traces of nitrates/nitrites (whichever come first) only ammonia. Is this normal or am I doing something wrong? I do daily water changes and vac. the gravel when I do the water changes, could vac.ing the gravel be causing this? When should nitrates/nitrites start appearing? Please help!

 

[Zimmanski]

I have a 10 gallon tank that has been running for about a month, but I still can't find traces of nitrates/nitrites (whichever come first) only ammonia. Is this normal or am I doing something wrong? I do daily water changes and vac. the gravel when I do the water changes, could vac.ing the gravel be causing this? When should nitrates/nitrites start appearing? Please help!

Do you have fish in the tank? If no then there's no need for water changes. If yes then fish in cycles can take longer than with no fish, you never know, could be a couple weeks or a couple months. What are the levels exactly when you do the water changes?

 

[Fishtankkeeper]

Do you have fish in the tank? If no then there's no need for water changes. If yes then fish in cycles can take longer than with no fish, you never know, could be a couple weeks or a couple months. What are the levels exactly when you do the water changes?

Yes, I do have fish in the tank. Also, I don't check the levels every time I just change the water. But the ammonia is probably about half and the nitrite/nitrate (whichever comes first) is at 0.

 

[Zimmanski]

Yes, I do have fish in the tank. Also, I don't check the levels every time I just change the water. But the ammonia is probably about half and the nitrite/nitrate (whichever comes first) is at 0.

About half? To effectively cycle your tank, especially with fish in the tank you need to have a liquid test kit and change the water only and every time the ammonia levels get above .25ppm and replace the water with a quality water conditioner that will neutralize ammonia and nitrite. Without knowing what these levels are you'll never know when you're cycled or when to do your regular maintenance. And just FYI, if you're using the test strips, they are commonly inaccurate and harder to read, the benefits far out weigh the extra money spent on a liquid kit and they will last a lot longer.

 

[Fresh2o]

Yeah, by this time you should have at least seen some nitrites. There is something interrupting the conversion of ammonia. What kind of filter are you using? Have you changed or maintained the filter media in the last month? How many fish are currently in you tank? Any plants? If you can get the API test kit that would be great.

 

[shellieca]

When I did a fish in cycle on my 10g I didn't see nitrites (comes first) until week 6 & the cycle completed 2 wks later. I don't know how many fish you have, I had 1 male Betta & a mystery snail. I tested my water daily & when my ammonia was >.25 I did a 50% water change which averaged every 2-3 days. So you not seeing nitrites yet isn't out of the norm.

 

[Fresh2o]

When I did a fish in cycle on my 10g I didn't see nitrites (comes first) until week 6 & the cycle completed 2 wks later. I don't know how many fish you have, I had 1 male Betta & a mystery snail. I tested my water daily & when my ammonia was >.25 I did a 50% water change which averaged every 2-3 days. So you not seeing nitrites yet isn't out of the norm.

Come to think of it, I used seeded media from another tank. Duh forgot about that.
I also forgot that water out of my tap is 1/0/5 ppm for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. Once i did a big water change, tested it the next day and was shocked to see nitrites out of the blue. Retested my tap and put 2 and 2 together.