Stocking Verification Requested.

[NeonJulie]

Yeah, it's white. Should I do a water change, or wait it out and hope it fixes itself?

The tubes sat overnight and never changed from Peppermint.

I decided to call Aquarium Pharmaceuticals, and after hacking their terrible menu service, finally got a person. He told me to go home and check the lot number of the test, to make sure it was within the last 3 years. Then he said that while he'd never heard of clear or green colors, based on the information of it turning purple on contact, that the NitrIte levels were indeed OFF THE CHART upon further processing. We must be talking levels like 6 or higher.......


I also turned down my heater... it's set to 85 but it's been producing 90 degrees consistently. (When my house thermostat wasn't busted. When it got cold, then it dropped down to 85, and then it was back up to 90.) I dropped my heater down t 79, and it's now producing 85-86. Maybe the high temps were responsible...

 

[bs6749]

Then he said that while he'd never heard of clear or green colors, based on the information of it turning purple on contact, that the NitrIte levels were indeed OFF THE CHART upon further processing. We must be talking levels like 6 or higher.......

How much ammonia did you add? It is VERY possible that you added WAY too much, thus creating the purple color. Your ammonia WILL drop. That is the whole point of the cycling process. You start with a given quantity of ammonia (hopefully not TOO much) and then nitrifying bacteria change this into nitrIte. At this point you should see a decrease in the ammonia level and an increase in the ammonia level. If you added WAY too much ammonia initially, which I feel is your case, then your nitrIte readings WILL be off the charts for some time. The bacteria need to convert all of this nitrIte into nitrAte. I would expect to see your nitrAte readings start to increase rapidly and then go off the charts as well, while the nitrIte levels should decrease. DO NOT ADD MORE AMMONIA. You will only add more time to the cycling of your tank. If I were you I would change 10 gallons of water out. If you do this and add clean water (RO/DI water would be great) you may be able to see your readings actually on the chart/card. Dilution is the solution in your case.

 

[NeonJulie]

I initially added around 5 ppm ammonia after testing. (1.5 tsp.) A few days later it had risen (without adding any) to 6ppm. (There may have been old food from previous attempts at cycling before I found my chemical agent.)

It took 6 days to reduce to .1. Then I added a lesser amount (1 tsp), which ended up looking like 4ppm. The next morning that was gone, so I added 1/2 tsp. When I went home a few hours later, THAT was gone as well... I was feeling like I couldn't keep up, so yesterday morning I added enough again to bring it to the 5ppm amount. That was gone as WELL by last night!

I was told last night not to add any more, so it's been sitting at "Safe" to non-existant Ammonia levels for at least 24 hours...

When the water began to get cloudy, I started preaging about 4-5 gallons. When I tested at 6ppm, I asked if I should do a water change. I was told to let it go, but if it got beyond 8 to change it out. I ended up doing that water change 3 days later, when the tank was so cloudy and my NitrAtes had disappeared. (I feared algae.) So I HAVE done at least 1 water change in between all this...

The Purple color is still on the charts. (the Grey and Green colors aren't.) It's something like 2.0 or 3.0 NitrItes. I record my tests, they were:

.5
.35
.75
2.0
3.0
2.0
2.0

And then the "what color is THAT value?" Maybe I should have just let it keep dropping before I ever added any more, but all my instructions say wait for the Ammonia to disappear, then add a little more each time...

Should I go to the store and buy bottled water then?

 

[majolo]

If you think your reading is off the chart, you could dilute the sample first: mix, say 5 ml of tank water with 15 ml of distilled water, draw your test sample from that, and then multiply the result by 4 (in this case).

 

[bs6749]

I would buy 10 gallons of drinking water and put it in the tank. I would also stop adding ammonia. You could add tap water but there should not be many, if any at all, impurities in the drinking water. It should be closer to pure water than your tap water is. At any rate you jsut want to dilute out whatever is in your tank. I personally feel that too much ammonia has been added and all of these separate additions of it are causing your fluctuating, and very high, nitrIte readings.

Maybe add some CYCLE or something with nitrifying bacteria to the tank. Some people say that this does not work but I used it and my tank was cycled in 2 weeks and I haven't had a problem with it since. It has been running for months.

 

[NeonJulie]

Ok, but I don't think I want to add any more bacteria that would add to the level of NitrItes - I'm not seeking to dilute the ammonia (in fact, I can't keep any in my tank more than a few hours before it disappears), I'm trying to get rid of the excess NitrItes that apparently don't have a place to call home. (I think.) I'm pretty sure I threw out my Cycle...

I have never heard of avoiding adding ammonia during a fishless cycle... what I've heard is to continue smaller amounts to keep things alive. I don't want everything to die off and have to start over, it seems like what needs to happen is that the population decreases. But the tank has already gone almost 36 hours without anything other than a pinch of food to sustain any colonies...

At what point am I going to be in danger of losing the right amount of bacteria I've been working so hard to produce??

 

[bs6749]

You WANT your ammonia to be converted into nitrItes. Since you don't have any fish in the tank it is okay to have high nitrIte levels. You just want to have a completed cycle and once the ammonia becomes nitrItes, a second bacteria will convert these nitrItes into nitrAtes, which are less harmful to fish. When your cycle is complete, you should have NO nitrItes and very low nitrAtes. You will almost always have nitrAtes in your tank, this is normal. You will NOT be getting rid of nitrItes by adding ammonia. In fact you are doing the exact opposite of what you want. The ammonia is a source of energy for the bacteria that produce nitrIte, which you don't want. As a result you are helping the nitrIte producing bacteria population to thrive, by introducing ammonia that they use to live and reproduce.

You DO need ammonia, but mainly only in the beginning to produce nitrItes which another bacteria change to nitrAtes. What you really need in your tank are microorganisms that convert nitrIte to nitrAte. These could be introduced by adding Cycle which should have both types of bacteria (ammonia > nitrIte and nitrIte> nitrAte). Bacteria that produce nitrAtes as a waste product will be introduced slowly to your tank otherwise. Adding Cycle to your tank would speed up this process for you.

 

[NeonJulie]

The dilute test was completed.... 25ppm NitrItes! YIKES! Water change is ensuing.

 

[NeonJulie]

Well I'm glad a 95% water change was able to fix it, and bring parameters back to 2.0 ppm!

In place of the gourami, would it be possible to have 1 GBR?