To change or not to change????

[flitabout]

I am cycling out a tank and it's going really well. I am on day 3 and my ammo it down to 2 and nitrates are 80. My question is my nitrite is unreadable high. I always personally recommend a wc at 5 ppm nitrite and 50 ppm nitrate. But I kinda feel like letting ride and just seeing what happens. But I don't want to stall the cycle seeing as how well it's going and how fast.

 

[Rivercats]

Personally I'd do a WC to keep it moving along.

 

[flitabout]

That's what I was thinking I think I am just being lazy today LOL!

 

[gilpi]

I would think a water change would slow down the process? How about finding a piece of filter media from someone's established tank to speed the process?

I'm curious. How are you cycling the tank, with or without fish?

 

[flitabout]

Fishless and it has media from my other tank that is how it is going so fast. Water changes don't slow the cycle bb lives on hardscape like the filter media, the glass substrate on driftwood and plants. Very little if any is in the water. So water changes won't slow it down. But sometimes when you get high nitrite levels it can actually slow it down. I was just being lazy this morning, which is bad because I have a water changer so I don't even have to lug buckets I just didn't want to get the hose out! WC is done and now I wait to retest.

 

[gilpi]

Fishless and it has media from my other tank that is how it is going so fast. Water changes don't slow the cycle bb lives on hardscape like the filter media, the glass substrate on driftwood and plants. Very little if any is in the water. So water changes won't slow it down. But sometimes when you get high nitrite levels it can actually slow it down. I was just being lazy this morning, which is bad because I have a water changer so I don't even have to lug buckets I just didn't want to get the hose out! WC is done and now I wait to retest.

Correct, beneficial bacteria does not live in the water. The bacteria will eventually grow in your filter media since its being oxygenated by the water passing through it. The beneficial bacteria you are looking to culture needs to go through the "cycle" which starts with high ammonia levels in the water, eventually that starts dropping off and your nitrites in the water go up. So having the water go through the high levels of ammonia and nitrites is basically needed to complete the cycle.
Please don't mind me, I'm being too critical here
Having put media from another tank changes everything, your cycle should be much faster and depending on how much media you put in its almost as having an established filter.
Where I'm missing something here is how can you have high levels of nitrites in a fishless tank where there is no waste from fish or food to go bad?