3 weeks in to cycle and nitrites still high

[rsp]

Hi all

If you wouldn't mind, take a look at my water quality readings over the past week and you'll see that my ammonia trends from 1 to 2ppm, nitrite 2 to 5ppm and nitrate between 20 and 80ppm.

I do a 10% PWC when the nitrates start to rise, which seems to be keeping them around the 20-40ppm mark, and the nitrite hopefully under 5ppm from now on. I've heard that ammonia should be pretty much zero.

Do these readings look right, or do I need to do something different?

Thanks,

Rik.

 

[hakan]

Keep waiting, read a little more in the cycle process. It could take up to 5-6 weeks to cycle the tank.

Just leave it alone till ammonia and nitrite naturally falls to zero.

What size tank filter etc?
How are you starting your cycle? I.E Liverock? LiveSand etc

 

[rsp]

Hi Hakan thanks for your reply.

The tank is only a small 10 gallon. I have two filters: one undergravel, and the other an Interpet PF2 filter. I have been 'feeding' the tank very small amounts of fish food every 12h.

Thanks,

Rik.

 

[fddlss]

Feed it with enough food (in my case I use pure ammonia from ACE Hardware) to raise ammonia to only 1 PPM and do it every 24 hours. When you are able to drop ammonia and nitrites to 0 PPM in less than 12 hours you are cycled! What I do, is every morning I add enough ammonia (fish food, in your case) to raise it to only 1 PPM. The, I go to work and when I'm back I test for ammonia and nitrites. Ammonia takes about 9 hours to drop to 0 and nitrites about 12 hours.

***Edit: Take a look at the link in my signature.

 

[hakan]

If i were you, I would stop feeding it and let it be, thats what i have done with all my tanks. i Just add live rock to the tank and let it naturally cycle, then slowly add fish.
I believe the tank matures and remains more stable this way over rushing it and adding ammonia to it.
If someone else knows better please do tell because this is just my experience.

goodluck

 

[fddlss]

If i were you, I would stop feeding it and let it be, thats what i have done with all my tanks. i Just add live rock to the tank and let it naturally cycle, then slowly add fish.
I believe the tank matures and remains more stable this way over rushing it and adding ammonia to it.
If someone else knows better please do tell because this is just my experience.

goodluck

Everybody has their preferred method, but fishless cycle using pure ammonia is one of the most common and effective methods. Not to mention the easiness of doing it and that no fish will be harmed. There are different ways of performing a fishless cycle, some use fish food, some use ammonia, some use raw shrimp.

 

[fort384]

I don't think I would add any live rock to a FW tank......

 

[hakan]

My bad, I was reading in the wrong thread, Im talking about saltwater. Ignore my opinion

 

[ejaramillo01]

Hi Hakan thanks for your reply.

The tank is only a small 10 gallon. I have two filters: one undergravel, and the other an Interpet PF2 filter. I have been 'feeding' the tank very small amounts of fish food every 12h.

Thanks,

Rik.

My suggestion is to try to find the ammonia fro ACE instead of using the fish food. Also 10% water changes are not big enough.
Let's do the math, if you have 5ppm of nitrite, 2 ppm of ammonia, and 80 ppm of nitrates and you do a 10% water change, you should expect to have 4.5 ppm nitrite, 1.8 ppm ammonia, and 72 ppm nitrate.

Conclusion make one or two 50% water changes, and start to re-dose the ammonia with ACE (if possible).

 

[Homedog98]

Also, your setting yourself up for disaster only adding 1ppm of ammonia in that tank... You should do at least 4ppm of ammonia for the biggest bioload possible.