Nitites are off the charts??

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b4tn

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Aug 28, 2005
Messages
98
Location
Stuttgart, Germany
Tank has been up for about a week now. It seems to me that it has cycled but it is possible that it is not done? My amonia levels raised then dropped so I assumed it was done cycling. Here are the readings I got thismorning.

dKH- 7
PH- 7
GH- 9
N04- 0
N02- >1 mg/l
N03- 20 mg/l
P04- .5 mg/l
Fe- 0
C02- 24-32 mg/l

What can I do to get my nitrite down? I did a 50% water change yesterday when I saw how high they where and it went back up over night. I am going to get a different test kit just to make sure.
 
I agree with bhunsucker...that is really high in terms of toxicity. Is your NO4 a typo for NH3 or NH4?

Your phosphate reading is also lower than it should be. Try for 1mg/1ppm. Are you dosing any nutrients or ferts?
 
Ahh. It is good that your ammonia levels decreased so quickly, but that is only the first part of the cycle. Now that your bacteria efficiently convert ammonia to nitrite, you have lots of nitrite to deal with. Water changes are the only way to deal with it now, and lots of them.

The nitrite phase can be longer than the ammonia phase, since they are slower growing bacteria. Since you are monitoring phosphat,, iron, and carbon dioxide, I assume you have a planted aquarium. Plants can help reduce nitrite, but they prefer ammonia. This might explain why your ammonia went down so fast, your plants are sucking it up. Plants can use nitrite, but it is less favored than ammonia, so perhaps this is why your nitrite levels are higer than you had expected, based upon your ammonia cycle.

edit: duh! and given the fact that this post is in the planted forum, now I am sure you have a planted tank!
 
Yes N04 was meant to me NH4 :D

It is still a low light tank so I havent dosed anything as of yet. I have some PC kit on order once I get that I will get C02 and probably start using ferts.

What is the best way to get p04 up without dosing? I have to mail order everything because of the language barriier :D

I didnt realize the nitrite cycle took so much longer. How often should I do the PWC? Every day? What %?
 
It is not the test kit. My first kit was a JBL test kit and the kit I just used was a Tetratest. Both are reading >1 the TetraTest kit has a higher range is is showing 1.6. Going to go do a water change. is 50% to much?
 
Agreed. 40 to 50 percent water change. Likely needed daily for a week or so. If you can handle twice a day, then you might be able to get the nitrites under 0.5 ppm. Have you gotten a python? makes water changes a lot easier, recommended for all but the smallest tanks.
 
My ammonia part of the cycle lasted about as long as yours did... only about a week. But then the Nitrite part took about 3-4 weeks, so be patient! Boy, was I sick of water changes! :) I think I ended up with partial water changes every other day or even more!
 
Yes N04 was meant to me NH4

Thanks for clearing that up. The problem regarding the PO4 being low is due in part to the tank being low light and you are still under going the cycle. It should be over really soon and at the point, the PO4 should rise and remain stable.

What types of plants do you have currently?
 
I think it has somwhat stabalized. I am still doing 50% water changes and as of now it hovers around .3 after sitting all day and overnight.

As for plants I have a crypt, some vals, some amazon, swords, and some micro swords.
 
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