mrg02d
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Hello all,
I decided to make a new thread since this particular issue is by itself.
I have been cycling my tank for a week or so now and using live rock and SeaChem Stability. This is a fishless (replaced by 10% ammonia) cycle.
So far, my ammonia can go from off the charts to zero with 24 hours. My nitrites do not go up or down. (well, I really cant tell a difference in the colors much with the API test).
Nitrates are very high. (Either 80ppm or off the charts, colors hard to distinguish).
Shouldnt my nitrites be doing something if the ammonia (added each day) is dropping to zero and I have a ton of nitrates?
Seems no matter what I do, the nitrites will not move up or down. (Or maybe they are already off the charts and I just cant distinguish the colors).
Could I be adding too much ammonia,(Around 8ppm each day), even though the tank seems to knock it out after 24 hours?
Is it normal for nitrites to just sit like this?
Could someone recommend a better test kit? The ammonia and pH seem to be just fine. Nitrates and Nitrites are a real pain to read. I just know that purple is bad (nitrites) and blue is good. For nitrates, red-orange is bad, and yellow is good.
BTW-The Stability seems to work at lowering ammonia very fast! I started yesterday with ammonia off the chart, and 8 hours after adding Stability it was down to around 2-4ppm! Nitrites were unchanged.
Thanks!
Matt
I decided to make a new thread since this particular issue is by itself.
I have been cycling my tank for a week or so now and using live rock and SeaChem Stability. This is a fishless (replaced by 10% ammonia) cycle.
So far, my ammonia can go from off the charts to zero with 24 hours. My nitrites do not go up or down. (well, I really cant tell a difference in the colors much with the API test).
Nitrates are very high. (Either 80ppm or off the charts, colors hard to distinguish).
Shouldnt my nitrites be doing something if the ammonia (added each day) is dropping to zero and I have a ton of nitrates?
Seems no matter what I do, the nitrites will not move up or down. (Or maybe they are already off the charts and I just cant distinguish the colors).
Could I be adding too much ammonia,(Around 8ppm each day), even though the tank seems to knock it out after 24 hours?
Is it normal for nitrites to just sit like this?
Could someone recommend a better test kit? The ammonia and pH seem to be just fine. Nitrates and Nitrites are a real pain to read. I just know that purple is bad (nitrites) and blue is good. For nitrates, red-orange is bad, and yellow is good.
BTW-The Stability seems to work at lowering ammonia very fast! I started yesterday with ammonia off the chart, and 8 hours after adding Stability it was down to around 2-4ppm! Nitrites were unchanged.
Thanks!
Matt