Middle of Cycle

[ThomasG07]

I am currently in the middle of a fish in cycle on my 10 gallon tank and my nitrites and nitrates are off the charts (Ammonia less than .25ppm, Nitrites above 5 ppm and Nitrates above 40 ppm. I do two 50 percent water changes a night and the levels are back to the same the next day. Ive had Nitrites in my cycle for about a week now, should they go down soon? I have 5 fish that are doing great through this toxic cycle. I also have a 20 gallon aquaclear filter and a 10 gallon top fin filter.

 

[Oceangirl]

Did you start off with mature Filter media from another tank? My reading took a while to change, I just kept up the water changes and kept praying. Just keep monitoring the levels, did you change anything around? I changed one thing in my tank and it stalled the cycle. Have you rinsed the filter pad/ inside filter machine with mature tank water during your weekly water change (not your daily one)? I did that because my tank seemed to have stalled, plus I switched out the mature filter pad for another mature one. Then bam I am most likely days away from finishing ( I hope)

 

[tamtam]

I am currently in the middle of a fish in cycle on my 10 gallon tank and my nitrites and nitrates are off the charts (Ammonia less than .25ppm, Nitrites above 5 ppm and Nitrates above 40 ppm. I do two 50 percent water changes a night and the levels are back to the same the next day. Ive had Nitrites in my cycle for about a week now, should they go down soon? I have 5 fish that are doing great through this toxic cycle. I also have a 20 gallon aquaclear filter and a 10 gallon top fin filter.

What sort of fish do you have in there? Even with a fish in cycle that seems like a pretty high spike so quickly for both nitrite and nitrate, especially with 2 large water changes a night.

Sadly the nitrite conversion takes a while, it can take up to 3 weeks for it to drop. I find it strange though that you still have ammonia so far into your nitrite spike.

What is your feeding schedule like? Are you possibly over feeding? Are you gravel vaccing regularly to get that added waste out?

Have you tested your tap water straight from the tap to get a baseline for what is in there? Perhaps some of these levels are coming from there?

 

[librarygirl]

I agree with TamTam, something is a bit off. Test your tap water and see what levels if any of ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate are in there. It's possible you're just putting in nitrites with water changes. What fish are in the 10 gal? If it's overstocked that could be an issue as well. Nitrites at 5 are pretty detrimental to fish; even though they may "look" ok they can be burned from high nitrites. Test your tap water for nitrites; if it's 0 or if the level is a lot lower than what's in the tank, do a few 50% back-to-back water changes to get those nitrites down. Also cut back on feeding and vacuum the substrate to suck up any extra food or waste that could be contributing to the toxins.