my nitrites are going BACK up?!

[squishyaimz]

Hey all!

8th week of cycling as of today!
Finally had a breakthrough and my nitrites came all the way down to 5ppm last week.
They also dropped to 0.50 on friday, then 0.25 yesterday.
However I tested this morning and theyve gone up to 2ppm
My nitrates are sitting around 100ppm (deffo not as dark as the 160ppm but looks darkrer than 80 on the chart)

Ughh! Seriously!?

Ive asked on my axolotl group and theyve told me to just leave it because its " normal" however I was literally like 0.25 ppm away from being cycled. Surely thats not normal!? my brain is screaming at me to do a water change but I dont know!

 

[Aiken Drum]

Why do you think a water change will help? What are you expecting it to achieve?

By all means, change some water, dose ammonia again and see what happens. Cant hurt anything, but i dont see how it will help either. Even if your cycle establishes itself immediately after the water change, as you say, you are nearly there anyway and would have no way of knowing if it was down to the water change or not.

 

[squishyaimz]

Ok no worries, so should I wait? I guess I just dont understand why its gone up

 

[Aiken Drum]

Its absolutely up to you. My opinion is that doing a water change wont achieve anything except make you feel happier and more in control of what is going on. If its something you think will help, then its something you should do. I dont see how it can hurt anything, so go ahead and change some water. Im genuinely interested in what you think a water change will achieve. Its difficult to support or debunk your idea without knowing what effect you think a water change will have. Maybe you have insight that i dont that will change my opinion.

As to why your nitrite is rising.

- You are dealing with natural processes. They can change with changing circumstances and conditions. Perhaps something is causing your pH to fluctuate, perhaps the temperature isnt stable. I know we had a heatwave here last week that raised the room temperature and therefore the tank temperature above what it normally is. Its now dropped. These swings can have knock on effects that will effect processes in your tank, especially a newly establishing tank.

- Your test kit isnt all that accurate. Its a home test kit not laboratory testing. All sorts of things can effect a test result. Dont expect consistency and accuracy from them. Its good enough to look after your fish and cycle a tank.

 

[squishyaimz]

Ok thank you!

I guess because where I did x3 80% water changes when my nitrite was like 20ppm and it brought it down nicely , so now im thinking if I do that again it will bring it down again lol.

Ill leave it then - what should I do if it continues to increase?

 

[Aiken Drum]

Well of course doing 3 x 80% water changes will bring your nitrite down. Every 80% water change removes 80% of your nitrite. So 3 x 80% water changes will bring 20ppm down below 1ppm.

The point of cycling a tank is so you dont need to do water changes to bring ammonia and nitrite down.

 

[Aiken Drum]

As to what to do if nitrite continues to increase. Either see it through or do 100% water change, add your axolotl and finish off your cycle with a "fishless" cycle.

 

[squishyaimz]

Ok thank you for your help, ill leave it