NitrAtes without nitrItes?!

[ElanaJoy]

Hi fishy friends. I started cycling Oct 30, and it is Nov 6th today. My question is, how is it possible for my nitrAtes to be going up and still have 0 nitrItes? It doesn't make sense to me from all I have read. Anyways, here is what has happened so far:

Day 1 Amm 6 Nii 0 Nia 0.5
day 2 3.5 0 7.5
day 5 1.25 .10? 10
day 7 0.25 0 20
I dosed ammo back up to 4 now...
And here I am. Does this make sense? I had a good amount of seeding material from the LFS.

I think my PH is around 7.5 if I recall from testing the first day. It's not that warm, I haven't purchased the correct size heater yet. There is SOME algae that started before I started cycling it (I had it just running with plain water for a while)... but not much.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!!

 

[Fresh2o]

Yes, this is possible. I had the same thing happen during my last fishless cycle. I tested all three parameters once a day, probably around the same time each day. Turns out that there WAS nitrites, however, the time I was testing was outside of the detectable "peak". I had a day off and decided to test for nitrites every 3-4 hours the next two days after dosing ammonia. I was able to catch a spike of nitrites during one of the tests; it was nearly back to zero at the next testing period.

 

[ElanaJoy]

Yes, this is possible. I had the same thing happen during my last fishless cycle. I tested all three parameters once a day, probably around the same time each day. Turns out that there WAS nitrites, however, the time I was testing was outside of the detectable "peak". I had a day off and decided to test for nitrites every 3-4 hours the next two days after dosing ammonia. I was able to catch a spike of nitrites during one of the tests; it was nearly back to zero at the next testing period.

Wow! Thanks. So it's likely cycling, and I should take my cue from the nitrates (if I don't have time to test throughout the day)?

How long ago did you cycle? All is still stable?