Levels for fishless cycling

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Maggiea218

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Jul 16, 2013
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I'm cycling a 10 gallon and need a little help with my levels because I'm unsure of where they should be. My ammonia is at 3ppm, my nitrItes are at 1ppm and my nitrAtes are about 10-20 ppm. Are these levels normal? I checked about three days ago and not much has changed except for my nitrites and nitrates went up a bit, but not really too much with the ammonia. Should I do a pwc since its so high? I had to add about a gallon last week because the water was getting low and levels didn't change, just wanted to check and see if they were normal. I'm using API master test kit to test.
 
I've been cycling about three weeks (on Monday), ammonia hasn't gone down once yet.
 
You may need to do a water change. After a couple hours or next day test again you should read less than 20 in trades and zero ammonia and trites.
 
Your ammonia will not go down on its own what your trying to do is build bacteria. That is why you keep ammonia in the tank. After you have your bacteria established they will take care of the est.
 
I am far from an "expert". However, I DID just finish doing a fishless cycle on my 30 gallon tank.

What I find odd about your water levels is that you state there is both a high level of ammonia AND a fairly high level of nitrates. In my experience, the Nitrates were the very LAST thing to show up. The progression went from dosing the tank with a high level of ammonia to zero ammonia, but high nitrites...to finally, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and THEN 10-20 nitrates.

The fact that you have high ammonia, nitrites and nitrates all at once is confusing to me?
 
I am far from an "expert". However, I DID just finish doing a fishless cycle on my 30 gallon tank.

What I find odd about your water levels is that you state there is both a high level of ammonia AND a fairly high level of nitrates. In my experience, the Nitrates were the very LAST thing to show up. The progression went from dosing the tank with a high level of ammonia to zero ammonia, but high nitrites...to finally, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and THEN 10-20 nitrates.

The fact that you have high ammonia, nitrites and nitrates all at once is confusing to me?


Yes! I thought these levels were very odd too! That is why I posted this because I thought ammonia was supposed to go down before anything else showed up on the test. I heard there is sometimes a delay in the ammonia when you see nitrites and nitrates but it has been too long. This is why I am wondering if a pwc would help??
 
Try a water change and check your readings. Next time you test you should only be reading nitrates
 
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