Nitrates

[Purrbox]

A traditional cycle with no seed material typically takes about 6 weeks total. Temperature, bioload, etc all play a part and can shorten or lengthen this time. By the time you see a Nitrite spike you are usually towards the end and often it's only a couple more weeks.

[chipchop]

I hope so. This is getting exhausting in terms of the 70% daily water changes. But I have lost no fish. They seem fine.

[neilanh]

The fact that you're getting that much nitrite is a good thing. It means your cycle is progressing. But, like was stated, you're going to have to keep it up until the nitrifying bacteria to convert NO2 to NO3 can be raised.

[chipchop]

Seems like I am gradually making progress. I have been doing daily water changes of no less than 50 and up to 80 % getting nitrite levels down to .50 or so. By the next day, levels go back up over 1, but that is a lot better than the 3 I was getting. Also, nitrates are now registering around .2 which seems like progress. Also, the fish are doing very well.

[neilanh]

Good job, Keep doing exactly what you're doing, even though it's probably not much fun. You'll be happy with the results.

[Satori]

These same type of results really freaked me out as well when I was starting my community tank. The pet shop gave me really really bad advice (that it was okay to add fish after 3 days). I lost a bunch of fish until I started hitting the books and finding out what was what.
Right around the end of my tank cycling I saw a HUGE spike in ammonia and nitrItes. So I did two 75% water changes in one night.
Before the first wc my ammonia was around 1ppm and the NirtrItes were just above 5ppm. After the first water change the ammonia dropped to about .25ppm and the nitrItes to about 2ppm. I did another 75% change about 3 hours later and both ammonia and nitrites dropped to 0.
I tested every six hours after that. About two days later my nitrites elevated again, so I changed water 50% and they dropped to zero.
After that my NitrItes and ammonia stayed at zero and my NitrAtes hovered around 9ppm. I learned later on that I was hitting the end of the tank's nitrogen cycle.
But everything now is fine. I've got a whole community tank flourishing. Just stay on top of those water changes and DO NOT use any water additives other than those that reduce chlorine.

[chipchop]

You had mentioned that their gills may turn red from nitrite overexposure. Is this permanent damage or will it repair? The water is definitely improving but I can see some of the wear and tear on the fish. Particularly the platys

[rkilling1]

The other thing you can do during this time is add salt to the aquarium. Assuming you don't have live plants.

The salt will help the fish breath better when the NO2's get high. I would only add the salt if the fish seem stressed.

[chipchop]

I feel like the energizer bunny. Still going.... This has been a ton of effort. My wife keeps asking me if I am going to need to do this every day permanently, and I keep assuring her no (shes been very supportive but its a reasonable question!)

[chipchop]

Nitrates are starting to spike - probably about 30.