Hi... starting a new 14 gallon tank

[jcostantino]

I've been cycling a 14 gallon hex tank for the past week and a half and these are my test readings so far:

Day 1: pH 7.4 (added fish - 1 dwarf gourami and 2 platys) (didn't check water)
Day 2: pH 7.4, Ammonia 0 ppm, Nitrite 0.5 ppm (weak color)
Day 3: Ammonia 0.25 ppm (weak color), Nitrite 0.5 ppm (weak color)
Day 6: Ammonia 0.25 ppm (weak color), Nitrite 0.5 ppm
Day 9 - Ammonia 1.0 ppm, Nitrite .5
Day 11 - Ammonia .5 Nitrite .5 (maybe slightly darker than .5)

When I say 'weak color' I mean the color of the test result is less than the level recorded but more than the color of the lower reading. IE: .25 ppm ammonia would be about .12 ppm because the color is halfway between 0 and .25.

About mid way i gave the tank a squirt of Amquel and did a 10% water change. I also bought some Bacteria Booster (or whatever it's called - it's their house brand) from Pet Supermarket because they didn't have Bio Spira. The BB was dosed according to the instructions for the capacity of my tank.

The kit is Fresh Lab's pH/ammonia/nitrite test kit.

So far the water has been clear with the exception of what looks like tiny air bubbles floating around in the current. The three fish (two platys and a dwarf gourami) are doing perfectly fine.

Questions:

1. Why have my nitrite levels always been around .5 ppm? I double checked the results and they were .5. I think the indicator color is getting slightly darker over time but the kit makes it hard to tell the difference from one level to another.

2. Is it possible that my test kit isn't testing nitrites correctly? The only thing I haven't done yet is to test bottled water to see what results I get.

3. Where am I at in the cycle? It seems as though nitrites are starting to peak. I'm going to do another water change this weekend and retest.

 

[dskidmore]

It seems odd that your nitrite is so steady. I would have expected it to start low and go up around day 9-11. Sometimes it's helpful to get a second opinion on the color if you are having trouble telling. Your idea of testing bottled water is a good one. Distilled or RO water should have a nitrite reading of 0. If that comes out right, pour out some of the (tap?) water you used to fill the tank, and let it set overnight before testing it. If it's 0.5 nitrite, that might explain some things. You are probably about 1/3 through your cycle. I would expect Ammonia to continue to go down, then you need to test nitrates to see if they went up.

When cycling a tank with fish, it may be helpful for the health of the fish to add the amquel+ daily. It will detoxify the ammonia, but leave it available for the bacteria to grow on. Ammonia levels above .25 can be damaging to the fish. The test kit numbers will not be affected by the addition of amquel, but you can be more confident about the fish's health.

 

[jcostantino]

Ok, I checked bottled water - 0.05 ppm nitrite. I also checked my tap water, also 0.05 ppm. Last night the tank was testing >1 ppm nitrite and I changed 2.5 gallons of water. I retested today and it was still >1 ppm so I changed about 6.5 gallons of water and now it's reading 0.5 so I apparently had a LOT of nitrite.

The fish seem fine, I haven't tested ammonia yet but I figure it should be going down since the nitrite is going up so high. Maybe I'm mid way through the cycle if the nitrites are up so high and the ammonia seems to be falling?

 

[dskidmore]

Yep. Nitrites should start coming down soon.