danielfish said:
ammonia has spiked and now has gone down to reading bout 0 now nitrate and nitrite have started to rise to around 5 doing 25% 2times now to day does this mean im nearly at end of cycle.
I was in your position up until a week ago (long story) and I can say with absolute certainty that water changes and accurate testing are the most crucial parts of the fish in cycle. So:
1: Get yourself a liquid test kit, I personally prefer the API master test kit. The colours seem far easier to distinguish in my opinion. The nutrafin ammo test in particular i found almost impossible to use, there's such a slight change in colour from 0-0.6ppm I found it impossible to accurately determine the level, API's kit shows vivid yellow at 0 changing to green at 0.25ppm, but each to their own.
2: If you have to, don't be afraid of doing a 90% change, I did. As long as you match temp and pH (and obviously dechlorinate) it will be far less stressful to your fish than enduring long periods in toxic water.
I found that it was a difficult balancing act, on one hand wanting to cycle as quickly as possible, on the other wanting to keep ammo & nitrite as low as possible for my fish's comfort.
I aimed to pwc as soon as levels hit 0.25ppm on either ammo or nitrite, sometimes it didn't work out that way and levels had hit 0.5 or even 1.0ppm on testing so I changed water to bring levels back down below 0.25.
If your nitrite is testing at 5ppm (did you mean 0.5ppm??? 5ppm nitrAte is fine but nitrIte is toxic!) you need to do some serious water changing to avoid stressing your fish and bring it back down below 0.25ppm and bear in mind that if yr level is 5ppm a 25% pwc will still leave your nitrite at around 3.75ppm (your pwc volume % will reduce yr levels by the same %)
Finally, not meaning to be the bearer of bad news but nutrafin cycle contains bacteria that may not sustain itself indefinitely which is why it directs you to re-dose regularly. I used tetra safestart to speed my cycle along, and it worked fantastically, both in speeding the process up and preventing dramatic toxin spikes and the bacteria it contains are proven to sustain themselves successfully long term. When I was looking for advice on my problematic cycle the vast majority of advice I received indicated that safestart and Dr Tims one and only are the only two bottled bacteria products worth considering, although people's experiences inevitably vary and what works for one won't necessarily work for another.
Hope I haven't bombarded you with too much all at once!
Hope yr cycle ends soon
