Getting frustrated

[Patrice]

I am cycling my 30 gallon aquarium. Everything was ok until I had 1ppm ammonia and nitrite/nitrate was unreadable. so I did a 2x 60% pwc, and a 80% pwc to be able to read the tests. Now, if i give ammonia to my tank 2ppm , the next day I will have 0 ammonia but nitrite and nitrate will be sky high (unreadable again). What do I do? Do I wait, and don't give any ammonia until nitrate feeds on nitrite? I don't want to do others pwc.

 

[Caseyboy]

I am cycling my 30 gallon aquarium. Everything was ok until I had 1ppm ammonia and nitrite/nitrate was unreadable. so I did a 2x 60% pwc, and a 80% pwc to be able to read the tests. Now, if i give ammonia to my tank 2ppm , the next day I will have 0 ammonia but nitrite and nitrate will be sky high (unreadable again). What do I do? Do I wait, and don't give any ammonia until nitrate feeds on nitrite? I don't want to do others pwc.

The spike is normal. Doing super high % water changes will not help. 20% a week till every thing levels out. It may take time. Your doing fine. Some just start adding fish willy nilly like with out care. Keep check every couple days and when nitrates drop take your time one fish at a time.have fun and good luck.

 

[Patrice]

Do i had ammonia to 4 ppm. or wait Caseyboy.

 

[Hubert90]

I don't agree. If u have sky high nitrite and u don't do anything about it, it may result in a ph crash resulting in stalled cycled. As frustrating as it is. Keep up the water changes (I would anyways). Here's abit of motivation if Ur nitrite is spiking like that, it means u are close to the end of Ur cycle! ya I would do water changes until nitrite is low and redose ammonia.

Btw don't test nitrate until nitrite is gone because high nitrite will alter Ur nitrate reading! All the best

 

[Patrice]

That's what i did yesterday (water change to a readable test)
and by adding ammonia (the next day) its spick in nitrite and nitrate that the test where unreadable. ammo was 0. are you telling me im gonna have to do water change every day. oufff

 

[librarygirl]

That's what i did yesterday (water change to a readable test)
and by adding ammonia (the next day) its spick in nitrite and nitrate that the test where unreadable. ammo was 0. are you telling me im gonna have to do water change every day. oufff

No, you shouldn't have to. If you did a pwc yesterday and got the nitrites down to where you can read them on the test, I'd leave it alone for at least a few days. The spike in NitrIte is normal; eventually it will come down to zero on it's own and then you have a cycled tank. If you leave it too high too long it can stall things, but I dont think you're at that point yet.

I'd redose ammonia and check again in 24 hours. If ammonia is gone again, redose. Keep doing this for a bit and see if nitrites come down on their own.

 

[Patrice]

ok then, for now its seem i am on that spike. I will do nothing for now see where it go from here. add ammonia, when nitrite go down (if not water change). look the result the next day. do it over again. seem simple. The thing is, do not leave the nitrite sky high for long right?

 

[librarygirl]

ok then, for now its seem i am on that spike. I will do nothing for now see where it go from here. add ammonia, when nitrite go down (if not water change). look the result the next day. do it over again. seem simple. The thing is, do not leave the nitrite sky high for long right?

Right, but since you just did a water change yesterday it's OK to let them go for now and see what happens. They'll probably rise again and go to 5+, we'll just see how it goes. Just dose ammonia every 24 hours if it gets to 0.

 

[Patrice]

Why will it raise if i dont add ammonia? and i dont knows if knows but my ammonia is always at 0 the next day. i don't knows but it seams that not giving ammonia will diminish the nitrate an nitrite. i that correct? if so that what it should be done?

 

[eco23]

What day are you on? This really sounds like one of those times you just need a bit more patience. I agree with everything Librarygirl said, just let it go for a while longer since you just did a pwc. It's okay to go a few days dosing up to 1ppm if you'd like...but personally I wouldn't keep it at that level for more than 3-4 days before bumping it back up.

 

[-Mac-]

It sounds like what happened near the end of my cycle. No matter how often I pwc'd to read trItes, the next day it was off the charts. I got stubborn about it and went on a every 2nd day routine so I'd not go completely mad, because the water changes had to be so darn steep just to get back to readable.

 

[FishieMomma]

We're at the same place in our cycles. I feel your frustration!

 

[eco23]

All these water changes at the nitrIte spike phase of fishless cycling aren't harmful...but they aren't necessary to do quite as often as people have been believing recently. It's fine to do a couple to knock down the nitrIte...but as you see the level just jumps right back up. The importance is to restore the nutrients and buffers to the water...it's not so much about keeping nitrItes down.

There is some debate about whether the high no2 itself is harmful to the cycle, but I tend to believe that unless it is at a ridiculously high level, the problems and stalls are actually caused by what is used up in producing them...not the nitrItes themselves.

The first time I did a fishless cycle I only did a 50% pwc halfway through, my nitrItes were through the roof, and everything completed perfectly fine.

Again, there's nothing wrong with doing it often...it's just a trend I'm seeing recently that I don't believe is as necessary as people are being led to believe.

 

[Patrice]

For now its ok, nothing happening, when the nitrite get low i had ammonia, still have nitrate the next day, so i am dosing only when needed until i see 0 nitrate.

 

[eco23]

For now its ok, nothing happening, when the nitrite get low i had ammonia, still have nitrate the next day, so i am dosing only when needed until i see 0 nitrate.

Do you mean 0 nitrIte? You'll never have zero nitrAte...they're the sign of an established tank.

Just keep doing what you're doing...everything is normal.

Check out the guide in my signature to get some info. In fact, a lot of people need to read over it because there's some bad info flying around recently.

 

[Patrice]

tanks, i will do that