Fishless cycle-Confused on sky high nitrites with nitrates??

[JamieOi]

Hi , this is my first post and I joined just to start this thread as I'm , well... Stumped!
Ok so starting from the beginning - I'm 13 and my fish keeping began with a the usual story of winning a goldfish from a fair only to watch it die in a tiny un-cycled tank ... And then feeling awful when I had to put him to sleep in clove oil.

So I got a 24litre tank, heater and I already had the filter from my goldfish. I bought an API master test kit and pure ammonia.
So I started adding to about 4ppm of ammonia.
After about 4 days I was beginning to build up my nitrites. And after another few days the nitrites were off the chart ... Well it is actually very hard to tell anything above about 2 ppm on the liquid test. Within a couple of days my nitrates were rising.they went up to about 60-80ppm and then wavered very slightly.Anyway, it's been about 2 weeks since then and nothing has changed... Sky high nitrites and between 80-160ppm nitrates... I'm lost! What's going on and what should I do? Also - when the drops of nitrite test start to sink they turn from the clear blue to a purple before I've shaken it. ?

Please explain and give advice

Thank you!!I want to get my fish soon

 

[eAts]

With the nitrate test kit, don't forget to really shake the hell out of bottle two, and when you think you've shaken it enough, shake it some more. I'm surprised you were seeing trite and trate so quickly. Usually the nitrite stage takes the longest.

 

[Fishperson]

Do a water change to get the nitrites down. That happened to me too, and my cycle stalled for a bit.

 

[JamieOi]

With the nitrate test kit, don't forget to really shake the hell out of bottle two, and when you think you've shaken it enough, shake it some more. I'm surprised you were seeing trite and trate so quickly. Usually the nitrite stage takes the longest.

Yep - I do shake the ATE one lots....

 

[JamieOi]

Do a water change to get the nitrites down. That happened to me too, and my cycle stalled for a bit.

Ok so I did like an 80% water change and an hour later tested and nitrites still in readable and nitrates are still way up there??

 

[JamieOi]

My question is why have nitrites been so high for weeks even though there is lots of nitrates present?

 

[jlk]

Welcome to AA!! 24l is only about 6g. You are handling a fishless cycle correctly but 4ppm of ammonia on a 6g is beyond overkill. There is a limit to the amount of real estate for your bacteria to grow on and the amount of ammonia is beyond what they are able to grow to handle.

Simple solution here. Change as close to 100% of the water as possible. Wait half an hour and retest your levels. You want your nitrites readable at 1ppm or preferably much less. If they are not, change another 100%, wait and retest. Assuming your tap water has zero ammonia, just add .5ppm of ammonia and see how things look in 24hrs. We can then go from there!

Btw, on the nitrite test, if the drops turn purple as the fall in the tube or on the bottom, your nitrites are off the charts high. If they go from purple to blue/grey/odd color, the results are no longer readable. Please ask if you have questions!

 

[JamieOi]

Welcome to AA!! 24l is only about 6g. You are handling a fishless cycle correctly but 4ppm of ammonia on a 6g is beyond overkill. There is a limit to the amount of real estate for your bacteria to grow on and the amount of ammonia is beyond what they are able to grow to handle.

Simple solution here. Change as close to 100% of the water as possible. Wait half an hour and retest your levels. You want your nitrites readable at 1ppm or preferably much less. If they are not, change another 100%, wait and retest. Assuming your tap water has zero ammonia, just add .5ppm of ammonia and see how things look in 24hrs. We can then go from there!

Btw, on the nitrite test, if the drops turn purple as the fall in the tube or on the bottom, your nitrites are off the charts high. If they go from purple to blue/grey/odd color, the results are no longer readable. Please ask if you have questions!

Okie dokie I will do another water change tonight after school. So if it doesn't bring nitrite down then should I do another immediately or do I need to wait a day?

 

[jlk]

If you retest and your nitrites are still high, do another water. You can wait if you want to but just don't add any ammonia until things are under control.

 

[JamieOi]

If you retest and your nitrites are still high, do another water. You can wait if you want to but just don't add any ammonia until things are under control.

So I did my 100% change last night and came out with these results:
Ammonia - 0ppm
Nitrite- 0ppm
Nitrate-5ppm
Ph- 7.4-7.6

I then added 3 ppm of ammonia. Am I on the right track now? Will the nitrites stay at 0 now?


Thanks!

 

[Coryluv]

The 0s at the moment are from the massive water change. As has already been said do not use so much ammonia in that small tank.

You may or may not see 0s in 24 hours. You just have to wait and test. If you see 0s then yes, it is nearly done, but you want to dose the ammonia again (.5 to 1 ppm) and check again in another 24 hours. If you can add ammonia and then test the next day for several days and you still have 0 ammonia and nitrite, that's when you know the good bacteria are working.

 

[jlk]

Let us know how things look in 24hrs. I suspect the nitrites may be off the charts high again. This is why I suggested only adding .5ppm of ammonia until your bacteria have a chance to catch up. Even 3ppm of ammonia is a bit much on a small tank but lets see what happens.

 

[JamieOi]

Let us know how things look in 24hrs. I suspect the nitrites may be off the charts high again. This is why I suggested only adding .5ppm of ammonia until your bacteria have a chance to catch up. Even 3ppm of ammonia is a bit much on a small tank but lets see what happens.

Ok- so i was hoping to come back to 0's but instead I've got somewhere between 2-5ppm of nitrite and between 0-0.25ppm ammonia. So what am I supposed to do now so my cycle doesn't stall again?

Can't WAIT to get this over with ...

 

[MMantelli]

It will also help if you crank your heater up to 84-86 f. And when you do your water changes don't forget to not let your filter get dry it will kill the bb. I just did my first fishless cycle(all I've done is fish in) its a pain in the but yes but have paitience and your fish will be much better off.

 

[Coryluv]

Ok- so i was hoping to come back to 0's but instead I've got somewhere between 2-5ppm of nitrite and between 0-0.25ppm ammonia. So what am I supposed to do now so my cycle doesn't stall again?

Can't WAIT to get this over with ...

Ill let jlk answer what you should do, but I just wanted to say this thread caught my eye last night because I'm where you are. Yesterday, I did an 80% water change to get the nitrite in my tank down to readable levels. If the nitrites are too high it inhibits the good bacteria you need from growing.

I hear you on the "can't wait", but the cycle will take its own time and all you can do is make sure to do things like keep the temp up, keep it aerated, dose appropriate levels of ammonia, and not to let the nitrites get too high.

Remember that for years people only did this fish in. While it was hard on the fish, there were many more variables and still eventually the tank cycled. So just keep at it. I will happen.

 

[Peteostler43614]

Keep the amonia addition to 0.5-1 ppm every other day with good aeration and good filtration. I agree that you should keep the temp up at about 28.5-29 C. Watch the nitrite, every time that you add ammonia in a "lump" the nitrite will go up, then the nitrate will go up eventually. Fish secrete ammonia slowly and constantly so you should never get spikes, as it is converted almost as fast as it is produced. I have never liked fishless cycles, i much prefer 1-2 hearty fish to do a fish in cycle. I feel that the my tanks cycle more quickly with a semi constant ammonia secretion. It requires a little more attention to do the levels daily and water changes every other day, but I like it. Good luck with your new fish! hopefully soon you can add one. (I would now as you already have proven that you have the bacteria, now they just need a constant ammonia source to thrive.) but that is just me... Have fun and welcome to fish keeping.

 

[JamieOi]

Ok - so today the results are:
Nitrites- around 5ppm could be bit less or more not sure.
Ammonia- 0-0.25

So... what do I do? Do I keep adding ammonia? Or should I be adding less?
Really want to get this done with

Thanks for all your help! Especially jfl

 

[MMantelli]

What are your nitrIte and nitrAte readings

 

[JamieOi]

What are your nitrIte and nitrAte readings

I will go test the nitrates now - been on paperound.

 

[JamieOi]

Ok so results for nitrates are about 20-40ppm... Nitrites 2-5ppm or more. Ammonia 0.25ppm.

What to do next?