fishless cycle so far

[eco23]

ok mate will try once more in the morning ,you have been very helpful and are an asset to these forums IMO,if you dont mind i will post result to you in the morning after another nitrate test
once again cheers

I look forward to hearing them. Have a good night!

 

[rubyjess]

hi all
so here goes i redosed my ammonia back up to 4.0 ppm lastnite
results this morning are
ammonia 0 to 0.25 ppm
nitrite 5.0 ppm
nitrate 4.0 ppm
ph 7.4
tested tap water again and nitrates were between 40/80 ppm

 

[eco23]

hi all
so here goes i redosed my ammonia back up to 4.0 ppm lastnite
results this morning are
ammonia 0 to 0.25 ppm
nitrite 5.0 ppm
nitrate 4.0 ppm
ph 7.4
tested tap water again and nitrates were between 40/80 ppm

Hey ruby, it's 3am my time so I'm about to stumble off to bed (I'm an insomniac, lol). The good news is that you're definitely well on your way to building a super strong biofilter with the way your tank is dropping ammo. I can't understand, however, why the big pwc's are not lowering the nitrItes. At this point I'd suggest to keep following the cycling guide and try to finish this baby up. Once we get the tank cycled we can start worrying about different water sources to use during pwc's to reduce the nitrAtes.

I still strongly suggest bringing a water sample from both your tank and water directly from the tap to the lfs and have them test it to make sure your test kit is accurate. I just had a guy last night who had a brand new API kit that must have been a bad batch because it was giving false readings.

So for now, just keep doing what you're doing and get it tested from a third party when you get a chance to go by the lfs.

I'm heading off to bed and I'll see if I can think of other possibilities, but I'll check in with you tomorrow. Have a good night (morning to you I guess, lol.)

*oh, and assume you meant 40 parts nitrAte, not 4.0.

 

[rubyjess]

lol yes 40 parts my bad,gonna get the tests done at my lfs this morning
cheers for all your help good nite

 

[rubyjess]

ok
just done another test to check my ammonia and its gone down to 2.0 ppm from 4.0 ppm in 6 hours
nitrites were sky high 5.0 ppm
nitrates have gone down to 5.0 ppm
thought that was a bit strange ,thought nitrates would be going up??

 

[eco23]

ok
just done another test to check my ammonia and its gone down to 2.0 ppm from 4.0 ppm in 6 hours
nitrites were sky high 5.0 ppm
nitrates have gone down to 5.0 ppm
thought that was a bit strange ,thought nitrates would be going up??

Hey, now if they were 40 last night and they're 50 now...they did go up. However, the fact that they started at 80 after the pwc, dropped to 40 then up to 50 baffles the mind, lol.

Between the crazy nitrAte readings going up and down, and the fact that nitrIte wouldn't drop after two pwc's...I keep going back to the idea it's a problem with the test kit. Just last night, a guy had a 2 week old API kit that was giving him absolutely wrong readings, so apparently they do have bad batches of solution occasionally. I wouldn't run out and spend the money for a new one yet though until you get the lfs to test it for you. If their readings are completely different than yours...then it's time to look at a new one.

 

[rubyjess]

hi
my nitrite reading were 5.0 not 50 ppm ????
i took a sample to my lfs and they said my tap water was just about ok for nitrates ,my tank water reading were same high in nitrites ,he told me to not bother with ammonia and to just leave my tank with light off lol
and he told me to never do a pwc during a cycle ,so i am super confused now
think i need a few beers ha ha

 

[eco23]

hi
my nitrite reading were 5.0 not 50 ppm ????
i took a sample to my lfs and they said my tap water was just about ok for nitrates ,my tank water reading were same high in nitrites ,he told me to not bother with ammonia and to just leave my tank with light off lol
and he told me to never do a pwc during a cycle ,so i am super confused now
think i need a few beers ha ha

I must have mixed up when you were saying no2 and no3. Remember I told you not to listen to a thing the lfs says? I'll read back through the thread in a minute. Be back.

 

[eco23]

Did you get actual #'s from the lfs?

 

[rubyjess]

sorry for the delayed reply getting married in the morning so all over the place lol
the tap water was at 25ml/g he was using the tetra liquid test
tank water was ammonia 1.5 mg/l
nitrites were 3.3-33 mg/l maxed out
he said my tap water was ok nitrate wise
cheers
couple of picks of my tank not bad for my 1st attempt

 

[eco23]

sorry for the delayed reply getting married in the morning so all over the place lol
the tap water was at 25ml/g he was using the tetra liquid test
tank water was ammonia 1.5 mg/l
nitrites were 3.3-33 mg/l maxed out
he said my tap water was ok nitrate wise
cheers
couple of picks of my tank not bad for my 1st attempt

Problem is "okay nitrAte wise" means something completely different to them then it does to us on AA. I wish we knew what it was. I'd still recommend what I said before and just continue the cycle because it seems to going along quickly and efficiently, there just seems to be some really odd occurrences with the fact no2 didn't budge after two back to back pwc's and no3 has been fluctuating randomly. The no3 is the end product and should be steadily rising during a cycle, not dropping on it's own. Like I said though, just continue with what you're doing and keep us posted. You should be very close to the end.

Congrats on getting married by the way