Low ammonia high, nitrite during day 6 of fishless cycle

[dragon14]

Hello everyone,

I am using API Testing Kits (where you use the test tubes and water, I read to not use strips somewhere, so I bought the liquid test kits).

I am on day 6 of a Fishless Cycle for a 10 gallon freshwater tank and right now:
* ammonia is at about .25 -.5 ppm.
* nitrites I think are off the card. It's really hard to tell, it goes from 2 to 5 on the card, no in between. They're definitely over 2, maybe under 5, may be over 5.
* Nitrates are at about 10ppm. This is the FIRST day we measured Nitrates.

From the beginning of my cycle:
Day 1:
1 tsp ammonia added, it read at about 3-4 ppm.

Day 3:
ammonia borderline at about 2ppm

Day 4:
Ammonia between .5 - 1ppm.
added 1/2 tsp ammonia, then it was at about 2-3ppm after waiting about 30 minutes to test.

Day 5:
* the ammonia was 1ppm
* nitrite was high, around 5 probably. We added a 1/2 tsp of ammonia, and I added a pinch of ground up fish food after testing.
Day 5 is the FIRST day we measured nitrites, since I read that it takes up to a week to see anything. Maybe I should have tested sooner, but I did not.

My question is, considering everything above and the fact that my ammonia is low and the nitrites high, is this about normal?
Should we do about a 25% water change since the nitrites are high and then maybe add some ammonia too?
Or should I add some more ammonia and NOT do a water change?

Anything else that I may have forgotten to ask?

Please let me know if you need any more information Thanks in advance for helping! I want to make sure we do this right and that it is going well. I was SO SO excited when I got a nitrite reading last night!

 

[dalto]

I would say your cycle is going very quickly. Did you add some established media or bacteria in a bottle.

You should keep adding ammonia to get you somewhere in the area of 2ppm every day. You don't need to do a water change.

 

[dragon14]

Thank you Dalto

I am really happy to hear that it seems to be going quickly! I had a feeling when I saw the nitrites so high last night! The ammonia seems to be lowering quite quickly. I read several guides and websites but the one here seems to be by far the best! I read on another site to check about every 3 days for about 11-12 days, but, I am glad that I was checking every day (except day 2, I didn't check anything on day 2).

Before you replied/before I read your reply, we did about a 30% water change. I added a 1/2 tsp of ammonia afterwards though, and am going to test ammonia and nitrite again before bed I am also going to add a little bit of fish food too for some nutrients.

No, we did not add anything to start it. I am a little wary of bacteria in a bottle and such, I've read mixed things about them. We did a half-hearted fishless cycle for almost a month before starting this real cycle 6 days ago, and by half-hearted I mean I put in ground up fish food twice a day daily and hardly checked the water at all. And we did a water change or two. The ammonia was really high. The tank was disgusting from the fish food, and I didn't grind it up very good either sometimes. We cleaned it out, rinsed the filter and the prefilter we put in the intake (since we have a betta fish), so basically started from scratch again, but, the filters may have had a few bacterias that are helpful in it Also we started over coz we wanted to have sand anyway instead of gravel.

Thanks again for replying to me!

 

[dragon14]

So after the water change and adding the ammonia last night (the first time), the ammonia was around .5ppm.... nitrites still very high.

I added a 1/2 tsp of ammonia, still have to test tonight, but, hmm... maybe this is a good thing?

 

[dragon14]

So I didn't test it again right after, but tonight I tested it, ammonia was basically 0, maybe a slight tinge of green but definitely not .25 ppm.

Nitrites still looked sky high... it's SO SO SO hard to tell the difference between 2 and 5 ppm though on the card.... UGH!

Added 3/4 tsp ammonia and will test ammonia before bed...