nerdelish
Aquarium Advice Freak
Hi everyone,
I am new to the forum and very new to the hobby. This is my first time setting up an aquarium. I have a 29 gallon tank and I have decorated it with lava rock, driftwood, and some hardy live plants.
Though this is my first time posting, I have been lurking around the forum for a few weeks reading posts to learn about aquarium setup. I have been following the instructions on this thread for my fishless cycling process. http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...guide-and-faq-to-fishless-cycling-148283.html
I am half way through the process and I have a question about water changes and nitrite/nitrate readings.
I have been dosing the aquarium with ammonia up to 4ppm, letting it dive down to 1ppm and then dosing it back up to 4ppm. I just started to get nitrite and nitrate readings a few days ago. I have been using the API master test kit to monitor my progress. Today my reading was as follows:
Ammonia: 1 ppm
Nitrite: 5 ppm
Nitrate: 5 ppm
Now, in the post I linked above it says to keep dosing the aquarium until both nitrates and nitrites are unreadable and then do a partial water change. My nitrite reading are getting pretty close to becoming "off the chart" but my nitrate reading is still pretty low.
So my questions is this: Do I need to do a partial water change yet or should I continue to add 4ppm ammonia until my nitrate levels are off the chart?
I am new to the forum and very new to the hobby. This is my first time setting up an aquarium. I have a 29 gallon tank and I have decorated it with lava rock, driftwood, and some hardy live plants.
Though this is my first time posting, I have been lurking around the forum for a few weeks reading posts to learn about aquarium setup. I have been following the instructions on this thread for my fishless cycling process. http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...guide-and-faq-to-fishless-cycling-148283.html
I am half way through the process and I have a question about water changes and nitrite/nitrate readings.
I have been dosing the aquarium with ammonia up to 4ppm, letting it dive down to 1ppm and then dosing it back up to 4ppm. I just started to get nitrite and nitrate readings a few days ago. I have been using the API master test kit to monitor my progress. Today my reading was as follows:
Ammonia: 1 ppm
Nitrite: 5 ppm
Nitrate: 5 ppm
Now, in the post I linked above it says to keep dosing the aquarium until both nitrates and nitrites are unreadable and then do a partial water change. My nitrite reading are getting pretty close to becoming "off the chart" but my nitrate reading is still pretty low.
So my questions is this: Do I need to do a partial water change yet or should I continue to add 4ppm ammonia until my nitrate levels are off the chart?
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