Help with Fishless Cycle! Nitrites dropped to 0 in a day!!

[LogiFish]

Hello All!

Long time lurker, first time poster. I need some help with a fishless cycle I have been going through with my 20 gallon high.
For some context:
- I started my cycle 5/9
- I have the following items: API test kit, prime, fish flakes, Ammonia, Aqua-tech filter, and an aquaclear 50 filter
- tank sits at about 80 F degrees

Here are where things get “fishy” ?

I started my tank with the intention of getting a baby axolotl. So initially I had a few fake plants/ornaments
and no substrate what so ever, my tank was very boring lol. Anyway, I was running though the motions of the cycle, dosing the tank with ammonia, seeing ammonia drop, nitrites showing up, spiking, and then nitrates appearing as well. I should also mention that I was putting in 1 tablespoon of fritz turbo start 700 every few days.

Last week, I was contemplating on if I actually wanted an axolotl because I’ve seen through many threads my tank is too small. So, on 5/27 I decided I wanted to change my tank to have fish. I know this is where things got messed up. I went out and bought black diamond blasting sand and a piece of driftwood. I completely emptied my tank out. Saved about 30% of my tank water in buckets, put the blue filter cartridge of the aqua tech in the bucket of water and went to the garage to clean and set the tank up. Once I got the tank how I liked it, I added the water back in, added fresh tap water, dosed with prime, and I had half a bottle of turbo start which I threw all of it in to the tank. I noticed when I set my tank up that water was coming out my aqua tech filter both through the outtake and going back out through the intake. I figured out that my blue filter was the issue since when I took it out the water flow was normal. I took some tank water out, and swished my filter around in it, and put it back in the filter. I should also mention that the aqua tech filter sucks so I bought an aqua clear and I have both filters running at the moment until the aquaclear establishes with the tank.

Before my change my readings were:

Ammonia: 4
Nitrites: 2
Nitrates: 20-40

Now after my change:

Ammonia: 4 (same)
Nitrites: COMPLETELY DROPPED TO 0!!!
Nitrates: 10-20 (Dropped)

Not sure what I did, I could’ve crashed my cycle messing with filter too much. Should I do a water change? Should I change to a fish in cycle?

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[Aiken Drum]

Your tank is just establishing. You will see all sorts of things in your test results that wont make sense. All sorts of things going on in your tank can cause false readings. You are dosing products which contain bacteria that are supposed to help cycle tanks and that bacteria may take some time to establish in your filter media properly. It may work well for a while, then fail to establish and you appear to go backwards. Hopefully it quickly establishes and your cycle progresses quickly.

I wouldnt even bother testing for nitrite and nitrate until your initial dose of ammonia is gone. All it causes is confusion when the results dont come back how you expect.

When your ammonia is gone, redose to 2ppm and then start testing for nitrite also. Everytime your ammonia drops below 1ppm, redose it back up to 2ppm. When you can dose 2ppm ammonia and 24 hours later see zero ammonia and nitrite you are cycled. Then test for nitrate, big water change to get it down to 10-20ppm.

 

[LogiFish]

Hello Aiken,

Thank you for the reply! I know that Ammonia turns into Nitrites by Nitrites consuming them. If there are no Nitrites currently present, is that a concern? Also should I do a water change to lower the Ammonia or is 4 ppm a good amount?

Thanks!

 

[Aiken Drum]

I wouldnt worry about nitrite. As said i wouldnt even be testing for nitrite while there is still ammonia present.

4ppm ammonia is a good starting point. It puts an amount of ammonia in there so you dont need to keep redosing at an early stage. Its more than you need to be cycling out, so once that's gone just redose back to 2ppm.