Cycling not sure about something

[Dominick]

Ok im in the middle of my fishless cycle i had about 3ppm of
ammonia now im about down to 1ppm and the nitrite shot up
now when the ammonia hits 0ppm the nitrite will most likely be up there
should i keep introducing ammonia in small amounts letting it keep hitting 0ppm until my nitrite also hits 0ppm?

thanks in advance

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Yes. Half the dosage amount. Ammonia is still needed to feed the bacteria.

 

[Dominick]

ok thanks i thought i did but wasent real sure

 

[cplawrence]

One thing to watch out for though is that if the nitrite starts climbing too high and not nitrate is not forming yet, you may want to do some water changes to bring it down.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Yes, now that nitrite is up, only dose 1-2ppm ammonia when it reaches 0ppm.

 

[TomK2]

Or even 0.5 to 1 ppm per day now that ammonia zeroes. No real problem with the higher doses, but it will result in higher nitrite, and so a longer nitrite phase. Your call.

 

[Dominick]

Well as long as i did the test right i am showing nitrates allready
whats the danger limit for nitrates?

 

[TomK2]

Assuming that your tap water is negative for nitrates, that is a good sign! Did you test the tank or tap for nitrates at the start? When ammonia is zero, nitrite is zero, and nitrates have definitely increased, you are done. Nitrate is less toxic, and most people will keep them under 40 ppm with water changes. How far below 40 ppm is up to what kind of fish you keep, and how much water changing you want to do.

 

[Dominick]

well ammonia is down to .50ppm and nitrite is up there inbetween 2.0ppm
and 5.0ppm is there anything i can do to help thes little guys
convert the nitrite a little faster?

 

[src]

Seeded media from an established tank or Bio-Spira. The only way to speed up the process is to increase the amount of bacteria in the tank/filter. The only way to add bacteria is with time (as they multiply) or by adding more from an external source.

 

[JRagg]

You can turn up the temp a bit. I had mine in the low 80's when I was doing my fishless cycle, not sure if it helped or not but the whole thing was done in just under a month.

 

[Dominick]

So far iv inly been cycling for 10 days tho have a feeling that nitrite going to take longer

 

[rich311k]

All you can do is wait. I would imagine you have another two weeks to go unless you find some seeded media from another healthy tank.

 

[JRagg]

Yeah, the nitrite stage seems to take forever. I just got in the habit of adding a few drops of ammonia every day and only testing for nitrites every 3-4 days. You'll know you're getting close when nitrite drops below 5.0 again (and the AP test kit doesn't turn purple the second the drops hit the water).

 

[Dominick]

well i add the ammonia seems like once a day next day its always 0ppm
But now my nitrite is about 5.0ppm this is fishless would it be ok to
just leave it as is and let the bacteria do its job?
would PWC help speed things up?

 

[rich311k]

I would just leave it alone at the moment and just keep testing. If the nitrites start getting over 6 ppm, I would change water or this cycle is going to take forever.

 

[JRagg]

Do really high nitrite levels inhibit growth? I never changed mine and I'm sure they were much much higher than that (test only goes to 5). My cycle ended in less than a month. I guess my reasoning was "more food for the bacteria to eat, therefore more bacteria will grow". I dropped from 5ppm nitrite to 0.25 ppm nitrite in 1 day (about 25 days into the cycle). I had a Nitrite consuming machine on my hands.

 

[Dominick]

Wow haha those where hungry little buggers