Stuck, some nitrates and no nitrites

[chasgood]

The Ammonia eating bacteria colony is growing and eating at a faster pace every day. Once they have turned enough ammonia to nitrites the second type of bacteria starts to colonize. The bad news is they take twice as long to get established. So your looking at 2 to 3 weeks more of close monitoring till things settle down. Hopefully the filter media and plant you got from another tank will cut that time in half.

 

[reversemarcosis]

Hey guys just giving an update. Since Sunday. I've officially got no ammonia. No nitrites and 20ppm of nitrates. I guess I'm there! I took out the used media today hopefully results won't change. Thanks for all everyone's help.

 

[eco23]

Hey guys just giving an update. Since Sunday. I've officially got no ammonia. No nitrites and 20ppm of nitrates. I guess I'm there! I took out the used media today hopefully results won't change. Thanks for all everyone's help.

Wait, wait, wait...why'd you take out the established media? That's pretty much a 100% guaranteed way to press the rewind button on your cycle. If you're just now staying zeroed out, this is a very delicate balance point. Did you have to give it back?

 

[librarygirl]

^^ agree with Eco, don't take it out! Keep it in (for a good long while if not forever if you can lol) and keep adding ammonia every 24 hours and check it to make sure it's still processing the ammonia, a good week of that and then you can do a large pwc and add fish. But if you take out the media so soon as Eco said you might be setting yourself backwards.