Confused

[Keds195]

Hi I checked my water last night it was ph 7.2 ammo 0.25 nitrites 1ppm nitrates 0. I checked my water today and it is ph 7.2 ammo 1ppm nitrites 0? So I did a pwc to reduce the ammo and its gone back down to 0.25.
Is it normal for nitrites to appear then disappear?

 

[Convict2161]

Hi I checked my water last night it was ph 7.2 ammo 0.25 nitrites 1ppm nitrates 0. I checked my water today and it is ph 7.2 ammo 1ppm nitrites 0? So I did a pwc to reduce the ammo and its gone back down to 0.25.
Is it normal for nitrites to appear then disappear?

My guess is your tank is cycling?

 

[Keds195]

Ye that's what I thought yesterday when nitrites was showing up but now it's reading 0 nitrites. So is it still cycling? Is it normal to fluctuate like that?

 

[Convict2161]

Ye that's what I thought yesterday when nitrites was showing up but now it's reading 0 nitrites. So is it still cycling? Is it normal to fluctuate like that?

IME nothing is normal lol. I've seen sooooo many cycles and they all were different.

You don't want any ammonia. You'll start seeing NitrAtes and that's it.

When the tank is cycled it will break down ammonia and nitrites then it gets converted to nitrAtes. NitrAtes are removed by water changes.

A cycled tank should only show nitrAtes as maybe on a rare occasion ammonia.

My tank is well over a year and I ever see when testing is nitrAtes.

I could be wrong. But I think for the most part this is correct. Hopefully more will chime in.

 

[Andrew McFadden]

Ye that's what I thought yesterday when nitrites was showing up but now it's reading 0 nitrites. So is it still cycling? Is it normal to fluctuate like that?

How did you cycle?

With a fish in cycle the cycle may have caught up with the bio load. Then if you added more fish or maybe fed to much it would have become a bigger bio load then what you originally had. Witch would cause ammonia and nitrITes to go up.

 

[Keds195]

Well I've lost 2 fish since I started cycling. I understand why the ammo and nitrites went up I just not understand why the nitrites have suddenly dropped from 1ppm to 0ppm.

 

[Andrew McFadden]

It probably turned into nitrAtes

But you need to keep up on water changes you may.need to do 3 a day so you don't lose anymore fish.

 

[Keds195]

Ah right I see. I'm going to test again in a bit see what comes up

 

[Andrew McFadden]

Test test test water change after water change is all you can do during a fish in cycle. Otherwise your reading should stay at like what convict posted above ^^^

Here is a very good article about fish in cycles you should read it
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/fishin-cycling-step-dark-side/