Nitrite spike - How long?

[jamesrm]

How long does the Nitrite spike normally last in a fishless cycle? I have gone the pure ammonia route and I am cycling two new tanks at the same time. Both have identical water peramiters. Obviously, it takes more ammonia to dose up the 55g as to the 33g to 2-3ppm, but both convert it to zero in about 12 hours or so.

My nitrites have been spiked for about 4-6 days now, just wondering when I can expect those to level off. Nitrates are between 60-80.

Thanks!

 

[Zagz]

It shouldn't be much longer IMO. Keep dosing the ammonia, once both the ammonia and the nitrites drop to 0, you'll be cycled. With your nitrates already being so high, I would suspect you are very close to done. Although nitrate readings aren't very accurate when the nitrites are so high.

 

[LandGhoti]

It shouldn't be much longer IMO. Keep dosing the ammonia, once both the ammonia and the nitrites drop to 0, you'll be cycled. With your nitrates already being so high, I would suspect you are very close to done. Although nitrate readings aren't very accurate when the nitrites are so high.

Yup. I did fishless cycle with a shrimp and after my ammonia went to 0, I got so impatient for my nitrites to do the same. It took about a week, although I didn't keep a log or anything. I wondered if it would ever go down to zero, so I stopped checking my water and decided to let it be. When I did check again, ammonia and nitrite were both zero, and nitrate was between 10 and 20. I agree with Zagz: it shouldn't be much longer.

 

[neilanh]

Don't you need to keep feeding ammonia though while you're waiting? You don't want the nitrIfying bacteria to not be able to keep up with the ammonia once your fish arrive.

 

[LandGhoti]

I've never done fishless with pure ammonia, but yes, there needs to be a constant source of ammonia for the bacteria to convert. When you keep dosing (or the decaying shrimp stays in there) it is keeping those good bacteria busy. I think once you have enough bacteria in there, the ammonia and nitrite are converted so quickly, they never have a chance to register. I know in other fishless cycle threads where pure ammonia was used, they had to keep dosing the tank with ammonia. Since I just left the shrimp in there until it was gone, I have no idea how much to dose, but I know someone else does! I did leave the remains of the shrimp in there even after I put my first fish in a week ago. It is now completely gone. I've checked my water 2 times in the past week and it's always been 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 10-20 nitrates.

 

[neilanh]

I just wanted to make sure he knew to keep dosing.

I'm in my first cycle like this too, we're about the same place. I have been keeping a log, moreso for a reference for when I do this again. Here it is if it helps

Deleted it. bbcode isn't holding it's formatting, so it just looks like jumble on here.

Let me try attaching it as a pic.

 

[SparKy697]

Nice record keeping neilanh.

For what it's worth, here is some data from a 10 gallon that I just finished cycling. You will find two pages of data, one is the raw data and the other is in chart form. The total time was 17 days, 4 days longer than it took my 29 gallon to cycle. I had seed material in the 10 and none in the 29!

Go figure, it seems that many of the "rules" don't apply to smaller tanks.

I hope this helps the question. It seems to me like the nitrite is never going to drop and then one day it is all gone

 

[neilanh]

Kudos to you too Sparky!
I should clean up my spreadsheet and post it too. I didn't graph mine, but it's definately interesting to see it like that. I think now I'll have to be a copy-cat and do that too!

I don't think there are "rules", too many variables for this to be an exact science. I was hoping to be done in 14 days, like I talked about early in my thread, but I don't think I'll be too far off of that. I'm still thinking fish next weekend.