My tank is DEFYING THE LAWS OF CHEMISTRY and I don't know what to do.

[Ellebogen]

Hey, y'all. Long story short, I've been cycling my tank for over two months now. I diligently add ammonia. I take readings all the time with my API master test kit. But my tank defies the laws of chemistry.

I have had a nitrite spike forever. I've done more water changes than you could possibly believe, sometimes up to five times per day, and sometimes taking almost 80% of the water out of my tank. The nitrites refuse to go down no matter what I do.

I SEE nitrAtes increasing all the time, so I KNOW I have bacteria in my tank getting rid of the nitrites. Logically all of the water changes that I've done SHOULD lower nitrites. I've tested the water I use, the bucket I use, EVERYTHING I use to do water changes, and none of them contribute to nitrites. It's like as soon as I dump water into my tank it suddenly becomes nitrite city.

I started using Stability and it's increased by nitrAte production a ton, so again, I know I have that bacteria. I'm about to tear my hair out knowing that no matter what I do, my water is going crazy.

 

[Ellebogen]

What do I do? (Sorry, post went wacky before I could add that.)

 

[tangs27]

Is the nitrite reading always in the same range? It might be your test if I were you I would purchase a new nitrite test and see if it says something different.

 

[Ellebogen]

It's not my test kit, either. I did a control test where I tested water that I knew had no nitrites in it. It read zero, as expected. So it's not my test kit or any of my water changing supplies. It's something in the tank.

How long until the bacteria that turn ammonia into nitrites die? I'm considering just not dosing ammonia until it goes down, but that hasn't worked in the past. I need some serious help, because I'm getting really frustrated.

 

[Mebbid]

You've build up such a huge amount of nitrites it's just out of control 0.o

I would just do a 100% water change, refill the tank, wait a day, and then (assuming the parameters are good) add some fish. Your tank should be cycled enough to sustain a minimal fish load.

 

[Fishperson]

Mebbid has a good idea, but if you decide to wait for some reason then you should stop dosing ammonia. You don't need more at this point.

 

[tangs27]

If stopping the ammonia didn't work then I would agree with doing 100% water change or doing 75% every day if you have fish in the tank already.

 

[Ellebogen]

Will it kill all of my good bacteria if I do a 100% water change though? I'm really nervous about it because I've worked so hard for two months that I don't want to mess it up..

 

[Chaik]

As long as you're not using an antibiotic and don't change the filter cartridge you'll still have a bacterial cycle

 

[Mebbid]

Will it kill all of my good bacteria if I do a 100% water change though? I'm really nervous about it because I've worked so hard for two months that I don't want to mess it up..

Nope. As long as you dechlorinate the water then you will be perfectly fine. Bacteria are more sturdy than people realize.

 

[Fishperson]

I think the OP's question was wouldn't getting rid of all the water take away the bacteria with it? And the answer is no, they live on the hard surfaces of the aquarium, and not really in the water. They mostly live in the filter.

 

[tnfinfan]

Yes, but... The bacterial additives state a period of time on the label when they want you to not change the water. This is because you're dumping them into the water so they can find places to land and populate and you don't want to remove them before they've done so. I'd wait out the label's time period (guessing it's one week?) but stop dosing ammonia in the interim. You won't starve the ammonia processing bacteria to death in a few days' time and the nitrite processing bacteria get a few more days to establish. Then, I'd test and do the full water change if it's still needed. The second population does normally take longer to establish. They just don't divide as quickly as most bacteria. But yeah, you likely have enough there to begin a gradual stocking and doing a full water change then adding fish wouldn't really hurt, you'd just be wasting whatever benefit there was left to be had from the additive.

 

[Fishperson]

If you dump most of them in the filter like I've heard many do you wont' have that problem. And I don't think it would take that long for them to populate, maybe a day or two.

 

[teagybear]

My tank had the exact same issue. Did so many water changes and no budging. I only did a 2 ppm ammonia dose every other day and it finished cycling within 3 days. Best of luck to you!