Fish less cycle

[Jimmygreen]

Hi, newbie here im doing my first fish less cycle, I'm currently on day 8 of fish less cycle. I've put one dose of Dr timms amonina on day 1 to get it to 2ppm. Also I put a bottle of tetra quick start in for the bacteria. So far the amonina Level has stayed at 2ppm and not changed, nitrites have stayed at 0, nitrate which I started testing on day 6 are 5ppm.

My tank is 14 gallons and I've been keeping the temperature at 26c. I have a couple of small plants in the tank and have the filter on.

I know it takes time but what's confusing me is still no nitrite but seeing low nitrate is this normal? Just want to make sure I'm doing it all correctly. Many thanks

 

[Aiken Drum]

Your water test is a home test kit, not laboratory testing. All sorts of things can throw off your water test results. Any one of your tests could be showing false negatives or positives. Or they could be accurate and you are seeing your nitrite going to nitrate. You are currently 1 week into a typically 6 to 8 week process, so i wouldnt expect to see very much for a while yet.

Personally i wouldnt even be testing for nitrate at this stage. It doesnt tell you anything useful. All you are looking for is your ammonia dropping, and when thats dropping start to test for nitrite. When you are able to cycle out 2ppm ammonia into zero ammonia and nitrite in 24 hours you are cycled. See how much nitrate you have then and do a water change to get that down.

 

[Jimmygreen]

Thanks for the reply I'll just start checking the amonina levels now until it starts to drop, I know it takes time. I guess this is the boring part of the cycle. Thanks again