Good evening all,
I recently purchased a 120l tank and am currently doing a Freshwater fishless cycle with Dr Tim’s Ammonia. I had tried with household ammonia in the beginning but didn’t seem to be getting anywhere. About two and a half weeks ago I did 100% water change and added Dr Tim’s One and only and Ammonia. I am now at the stage where 2ppm or Ammonia is processed in to Nitrite in less than 24hrs. My issue is with Nitrite and Nitrates. Two days ago I realised that my Nitrites were off the chart and read that this could stall the cycle. I decided to do a 90% water change and this brought my nitrites and nitrates right down to a readable level. I then decided to dose the tank back up to 2ppm Ammonia and this has been processed to Nitrite in less than 24hrs. When I tested Nitrites tonight they are 5ppm+ and Nitrates are around 80ppm. Ammonia was zero. Ammonia is obviously being processed fine. Nitrite must be being processed as there are Nitrates but could it be that there is not enough bacteria yet to process all the Nitrite? I did also read the presence of a lot of Nitrites in a test will also give a positive nitrate test even if there isn’t any? Any suggestions on what to do?
I recently purchased a 120l tank and am currently doing a Freshwater fishless cycle with Dr Tim’s Ammonia. I had tried with household ammonia in the beginning but didn’t seem to be getting anywhere. About two and a half weeks ago I did 100% water change and added Dr Tim’s One and only and Ammonia. I am now at the stage where 2ppm or Ammonia is processed in to Nitrite in less than 24hrs. My issue is with Nitrite and Nitrates. Two days ago I realised that my Nitrites were off the chart and read that this could stall the cycle. I decided to do a 90% water change and this brought my nitrites and nitrates right down to a readable level. I then decided to dose the tank back up to 2ppm Ammonia and this has been processed to Nitrite in less than 24hrs. When I tested Nitrites tonight they are 5ppm+ and Nitrates are around 80ppm. Ammonia was zero. Ammonia is obviously being processed fine. Nitrite must be being processed as there are Nitrates but could it be that there is not enough bacteria yet to process all the Nitrite? I did also read the presence of a lot of Nitrites in a test will also give a positive nitrate test even if there isn’t any? Any suggestions on what to do?