Fish less cycle nitrates

[zrated]

I'm trying to cycle a 36 gallon tank using the fish less method. I have the API master test kit and a diluted pure ammonia solution. My question is will Nitrates dissipate or should they show up during a test? I did a test and it was showing 0.25 ammonia, 0 nitrite and 0 nitrates. I added 2 tea spoons of ammonia and the next day the tests showed 0.5 ammonia, 0.5 nitrite and 5 nitrate. The following day i did the tests again and got 0-0.25 ammonia, 0 nitrite and 0 nitrates. This is really throwing me off because all the posts i have read say the end product should me nitrates in the water samples, but mine also drop to 0 after a day or two. There is only i live plant in the aquarium, which i dead now anyway. Please help as i do not want to kill my 4 tetras that are being transfered from a 10 gallon tank.

FYI...i used Nutrafin cycle to start the cycle

 

[BigJim]

Welcome to AA!

The fishless cycle usually takes several weeks. Dose your ammonia up to 2-4ppm and let it be for a while. After that, test for nitrites. After you see your nitrites spike and recede, then then test for nitrates. Nitrites can throw off the nitrate test.

 

[jsoong]

I am wondering if your testing is accurate ...

1. What is your concentration of ammonia? 2 teaspoon of the usual household ammonia should send your ammonia levels up more than 0.5.

2. Nitrate should not go down on its own - unless there is something removing it - some eg. a live plant, lots of algae. Under certain circumstances, bacteria can also remove nitrates (turning it into N2). Typically, you need quite the setup to achieve this (Salties have denitrogenators for their tanks), I rather suspect that a testing error is more likely.

3. Although high nitrites will interfere with the nitrate test, your levels (0.5) are not high enough to do that .... plus it gives you falsely high nitrates, not zero.

I would suggest you validate your testing. Test your ammonia level right after you dose, to make sure that you get a good level (aim for 4 ppm is good). Also test pure water to make sure you can read zero. <REading 0.25 right at the start is a bit suspect.>. If you have some nitrate source (say some fertilizer - but check label, not all have nitrates, many have ammonia as the N source) , make up a nitrate solution to make sure your kit can test accurately.

I once had a similar problem (although i was adding nitrates for my plants, not cycling), the nitrate test was bad & gave me terrible results .. It was after I made up a 20 ppm NO3 solution to have the kit read trace that I clued into what was happening. <The nitrate test is very sensitive to the shaking of the bottle #2 & 3 ... as the reagent is an emulsion. if you don't shake enough, the wrong amount of reagent would be used, this throws off the current test, and also subsequent tests as the reagent concentration is now off.>

 

[noob2saltH20]

I agree with jsoong something seems off. Make sure your reading everything correctly as jsoong said your nitrates won't just disapear on their own. As far as your dead plants go. If your doing a flc I would not add anything live until your cycled.

 

[zrated]

Thanks for the help...i believe you are correct it was probably a testing error.
i ran a couple more tests a few days later and here are the results:
PH ammonia nitrite nitrate
6.6 0.-0.25 0 5

added 2 tsp of ammonia after this test and some tetra safestart...checked ammonia 2 hours later and reading was 3-4ppm

these next set of tests were taken about 15 hours later the next evening
PH ammonia nitrite nitrate
6.6 0 0 5-10

is it safe to say the tank is cycled?... just to be sure i will keep adding ammonia for a couple of days to see what happens, but i think the cycle is done...it's been about 6 weeks from the initial setup. Before the first test i had to do a PWC due to a low PH of 6 and that brought the PH up to 6.6.

 

[jsoong]

I think you are done. Keep adding the ammonia to keep the bacteria fed. If the ammonia keeps disappearing & there is no sign of nitrites, you are ready!