Yet another cycling question (tons of nitrite)

[manooosie]

Ok, i am on week 4 of cycling and can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Ammonia is gone every 24 hours, and Nitrates are now high (at least 55 ppm). However, my chart (ap master test kit) for Nitrites only goes up to 5, and its easliy at 5ppm. Should I stop putting in Ammonia to try and lower Nitrites, or will eventually they die down? Its been like this for 3 days...

 

[rich311k]

Start dosing half the amount of ammonia. You need to keep adding it to feed your bacteria. Those nitrites will drop soon. Your are almost done and getting there fast.

Good work. Just stay the course a little longer.

 

[greenmaji]

How are you guessing 55ppm? the bacteria should be fine with up to 20ppm.. but testing for the high point of the NO2 spike can be tough.. 5ppm is just fine and will likely be that way for some more time, depending on how long it took for the NH3 part of the cycle to take expect at least that long for the NO2 maybe a bit longer at worst... HTH

 

[manooosie]

i am not guessing 55 ppm, that is what the kit said...
what I am guessing is that the Nirtrites are way above 5 ppm

 

[TomK2]

well, here is what I know about interference and the nitrite test:
_____

Interferences: (not a complete list, where interference levels are given they are for the Hach Co test, and might not appy to Aquarium Pharmaceuticals)

Very high levels of nitrate (>100 ppm) since some of the abundant nitrate will convert to nitrite and register on the test. Ferric Ions, Ferrous Ions, Lead Ions, Mercurous Ions, Cupric ions.
________

So, could you be seeing nitrate interference? I don't know. Or you just have really high nitrite. such is possible with a fishless cycle. Every ppm of ammonia you add will become a ppm of nitrite at some part, on its way to being a ppm of nitrate. I only question the remaining high nitrite because you have enough bacteria to make lots of nitrate (assuming you did not start out with 50 ppm in your tap water), so why would it be so high? Test kit error, and operator error are also possible explanations. Or you just have really high nitrite. I would cut back on the daily ammonia dose to ease up the pressure on the nitrite eaters.

for more info on test kits, feel free to peruse my web page devoted to the topic:

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

 

[manooosie]

yea, i will ease up and see what happens. My tap had zero nitrites and nitrates...

 

[greenmaji]

I missread.. I thought you said 55ppm of NO2.. any NO2 can throw off a NO3 testkit.. wait untill your NO2 drops to zero then test for NO3.. HTH

 

[caudelfin]

Whenever I get tons of nitrite I do a 50% change of water, the lower nitrite seems to help the nitryfiing bacteria to get started. Just what I have seen in my own tanks.
caudelfin