Is this normal?

[The_Wolfman]

Ok i recently just got done cycling my tank but when i tested my water today i had...

Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0.25ppm
Nitrate 5.0 ppm

is it normal to have a little bit of nitrite after the tank is cycled? and i wasnt reading any nitrates all week but now it went up a little bit...

 

[fort384]

I would say you are at the tail end of your cycling. You want NitrIte = 0. You want to make sure Ammonia is still being introduced to the tank until NitrIte = 0 so that you don't end up starving the bacteria that convert the ammonia to NitrIte.

It is very close though. You will have some nitrAte in the tank so long as you don't have a bunch of live plants to use them up. NitrAte gets removed by regular water changes, but is not lethal until you get in the 50+ ppm range.

 

[The_Wolfman]

well the thing is i had my nitrite at 0ppm for the past week...just today it spiked up a little bit

 

[fort384]

hmm any bioload in the tank?

If it sat at 0 for a week and now crept back up, it is possible you could have lost some of the nitrosomas by starvation if you weren't dosing ammonia or have any kind of bioload in the tank (fish, fish food, etc... some source of ammonia).

 

[The_Wolfman]

i think thats what happened...ive been dosing the tank with pure ammonia since i started cycling but after it was done, i minimized the dosages...how long is it going to take to get it to regrow back? theres gotta be some of it left right?

and how many ppms of ammonia should i keep dosing until i get the fish? i'm expecting to have my fish sometime next week