cycling a 10 gal

[mark shirah]

doing a fishless cycle. i am at week 5. after 4 weeks ammonia went to o and nitrites were almost off the chart. nitrates staying at 10. cut back ammonia to half for last 5 days. ammonia goes to zero in about 12 hours after i spike it daily.nitrites still very high. what do i do next?

 

[LittlePuff]

Don't cut down on the amount of ammonia. That's what's feeding the cycle. When you add fish, you will have a mini cycle. Normally, you're almost done. You may have another mini cycle when you up the ammonia. The nitrite part of the cycle takes the longest.


Kim

 

[Zagz]

I agree, keep the ammonia up. I did one fishless cycle and am currently doing another 2 tanks fishless cycling. I keep the ammonia at about 4ppm and the cycle took 13 days the first time. You need the ammonia to kick it up.

 

[TomK2]

Welcome to AA.

I agree, hold a steady course. Realize that when you test for nitrate, any nitrite in the water is added to the value. This only matters when nitrite is quite high. Since your kit measures nitrate values in 5 - 10 ppm increments or more, nitrite has to be up around 5 ppm for you to notice the impact on the nitrate test. Just thought I would mention it because your nitrate level might actually be a little lower than 10, since some of the nitrite is included in that. When your nitrite falls, your nitrate will stay the same or increase.

I havent seen anywhere that high nitrite levels can impair the bacteria, as is possibly the case with high ammonia levels. So I don't think you need to intervene. However, with high nitrite levels, it will take longer to see it come down because the bacteria are trying to move a mountain instead of a mole hill, sort of.
I have heard of the nitrite phase being shorter, longer and the same lenght of time as the ammonia phase, so only time will tell how long it will take.

Congrats and kudos to you for having the patience and empathy to do a fishless cycle!