help cycling

[di cho]

hi i been cycling for about a week or so now. my ammonia is dropping from 5ppm to .25 in less than a day but my nitrite is still high my test say 3.3 ppm or higher of nitrites. what should i do? do i raise the ammonia up back to 5ppm?

 

[Sillyfishies]

Dose back up. You have to keep feeding the nitrite to nitrate bacteria. You're doing fishless correct?

 

[TotallyCoral]

Yes, keep dosing the ammonia up and feeding the bacteria and eventually you will see your nitrites start to disappear. You wouldn't want your bacteria to starve and die. Patience is the KEY when cycling. Good luck!

 

[di cho]

yea im doing a fishless cycle. ok so do i keep on dosing it back up to 5ppm till my nitrite drop and nitrate raises?
p.s for people who are looking for pure ammonia i got mine at a 99cent store after going to walmart, home depot, walgreens and cvs.

 

[Sillyfishies]

yea im doing a fishless cycle. ok so do i keep on dosing it back up to 5ppm till my nitrite drop and nitrate raises?
p.s for people who are looking for pure ammonia i got mine at a 99cent store after going to walmart, home depot, walgreens and cvs.

What you do is keep dosing ammonia up to 5 ppm until it can go from ammo to nitrites to nitrates in 24 hours.

 

[Cbcrash]

I fishless cycled for over 6 weeks. It's cycled and I still don't have fish in it lol.

 

[giants1249er]

yea im doing a fishless cycle. ok so do i keep on dosing it back up to 5ppm till my nitrite drop and nitrate raises?
p.s for people who are looking for pure ammonia i got mine at a 99cent store after going to walmart, home depot, walgreens and cvs.

You can also get it at ACE Hardware stores in the US.

 

[di cho]

in the beginning it took about 10ml of ammonia to bring it to 5ppm and now it takes about 20ml to bring it to 5ppm is that normal?

 

[paytertot]

3.3ppm? Are you using strips to test? Liquid is the way to go

 

[di cho]

no its the liquid test. so is that normal for me to have to double the doses to get to 5ppm?

 

[Sillyfishies]

no its the liquid test. so is that normal for me to have to double the doses to get to 5ppm?

It shouldn't change....

 

[di cho]

so my ammonia drops to drop eveyday but my nitrite stay 5ppm+ and my nitrate is at about 5ppm is it cycled or do i keep on waiting?

 

[shellieca]

so my ammonia drops to drop eveyday but my nitrite stay 5ppm+ and my nitrate is at about 5ppm is it cycled or do i keep on waiting?

Your ammonia & nitrites need to be zero. Both of my fish in cycling tanks recently spiked on the nitrites so I'm hoping it's the signal of the cycling process coming to an end. I'm not holding my breath though.

 

[di cho]

my nitrites still wont drop even after an 80% water change. why is that?

 

[jetajockey]

It could be that the concentration is actually much higher than 5ppm and since thats the top end of the chart that's the highest you can read it as.

 

[di cho]

so should i do another water change to bring it back down?

 

[jetajockey]

I'd get it down to a level to where you have a better idea of what it is at, so yes, I would.