No2 AND no3 HIGH Fishless Cycle

[MiamiFishy]

Dont know what happend, im doing a fishless cycle ..so far was doing good now its been 2 days with nitrite at 10.00 and nitrate at 200 ppm... did I do something wrong or its just the normal course of thing???

Still adding ammonia, at 3 ml per day... its that alright???

Thank you
The tank is 29 gal
been cycling for 3 1/2 weeks

 

[TomK2]

Well, are you using a quality liquid reagent test kit? Test strips are notorious for goofy readings. Also, you should keep the ammonia level in the 1 ppm to 5ppm range until it goes to zero in 24 hours. Then you can cut your ammonia dose back, which will keep the ammonia eaters growing and avoid huge nitrite spikes.

I am going to go out on a limb and bet that you have used test strips? AP liquid reagent kits are rather inexpensive (@15 bucks) online. Other cycle issues can be raised if the pH gets to low (less than 6.5). Without knowing the ammonia solution concentration, I can't say for sure, but 3 ml sounds a bit much. I know that a 10% solution needs 0.34 ml per 10 gals for 1ppm.

 

[MiamiFishy]

Thank you TomK2,

I don't know what % concentration is on the ammonia im using, its from Ace hardware, and for what I have read around here, it is believe to be 10% pure solution....
I can see why maybe the cycle is giving me high levels for the Nitri and Nitra solutions, my ammonia levels have been kinda low, at about 2.5 ppm. That would explain why I find my pH level at 6.2.

Ill add some more ammonia when I get home and raise it to 5 ppm.

Im using Red Sea freshwater test kit which brings pretty much everything except a Nitrate kit. I get miss results from this kit and the AP ammonia kit, yet when I test the tap water, both kits agree in the result...

anyway, Thank you again... ammonia here we come! Can't wait to see my ammonia and nitrite levels go down to zero!
One last question: when I finally do get the zero Ammo & Nitrite in the 24 hrs, I know there is a PWC recommended of at least 75%, but not to use water treatments like AquaSafe etc, just a simple dechlorinator... is Prime safe to use on the new water to be added to a just clycled tank? or any other for recommendation ???? I don't want to kill my beneficial bacteria by adding some product that might removed all the ammonia from the water... please help me with this small detail. Thank you all again

 

[TomK2]

the water change after the cycle is complete is to lower nitrate levels before adding fish. 40% to 60% should suffice. Make sure you are truly using A FW nitrate kit. If its a SW nitrate kit, the readings are way higher.

http://home.comcast.net/~tomstank/tomstank_files/page0018.htm