Nitrite

[JimmyA]

I read on the net that if you let nitrite get past 5 ppm, it can poison the bacteria and stop your cycle. Is that true?

 

[Hubert90]

I read on the net that if you let nitrite get past 5 ppm, it can poison the bacteria and stop your cycle. Is that true?

Yes it can stall Ur cycle.

 

[JimmyA]

I just did pwc (half my tank) and my nitrites are still almost the same 5 ppm. My ammonia went down to 1 ppm and my nitrates went down to 20 ppm. Do I add more ammonia or wait? I am about 12 days into my fishless cycle.

 

[Hubert90]

I just did pwc (half my tank) and my nitrites are still almost the same 5 ppm. My ammonia went down to 1 ppm and my nitrates went down to 20 ppm. Do I add more ammonia or wait? I am about 12 days into my fishless cycle.

No no do more pwc. Bring ur nitrite down before u dose ammonia. Bring it Down to .5 or 1

 

[JimmyA]

Thank you.

 

[JimmyA]

Had to drain almost the whole tank to get nitrite down.

 

[pantherspawn]

Same thing happened in our last fishless cycle as a test and it did in fact stall the cycle.. I let it ride for almost three weeks with no pwc and had no change in the cycle.. I did 2 pwc of 75% back to back and then did three 20% pwc after that and the cycle was finished within 3 days.

 

[JimmyA]

Wow, hope my tank has that success!

 

[JimmyA]

Hope my cycle is over soon!

 

[mfdrookie516]

Something doesn't make sense. If you do a 50% PWC, your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate will all be half what they were (assuming there is any). There's no logical way, unless you had ~10ppm nitrite, that you still had 5ppm after a 50% change. That's a fact, not possible.

 

[JimmyA]

I did a complete water change finally and am starting with 4 ppm ammonia again.

 

[JimmyA]

Could have had excessive nitrite, test only goes up to 5 ppm.

 

[pantherspawn]

Something doesn't make sense. If you do a 50% PWC, your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate will all be half what they were (assuming there is any). There's no logical way, unless you had ~10ppm nitrite, that you still had 5ppm after a 50% change. That's a fact, not possible.

Was most likely higher than that but unable to read actual amount with an API kit it only reads 5.. and if its in excess of five a 50% till might not bring it down enough to read lower than 5.