Mid cycle and now confused

[AquaBud]

I just performed a first time water change on my 20 gallon tall. Before the wc, my ammonia was 0 my nitrates were pegged out and my nitrites were about 40. Now my ammonia is .50, my nitrites are still maxed and my nitrates are 5.

Is this normal? I'm using Prime and I know my tap water has a little ammonia in it. I was under the impression the nitrates would decrease enough for me to gauge them after the wc but I see this isn't the case. I'm just checking to see I'm not missing something here.?.?.?

 

[kevan07]

If your nitrates were off the scale to begin with in order for you to beable to read them you sometimes either have to do a huge water change (90%) or you can do several smaller water changes to bring the levels down into a readable range.

As for the ammonia did you add anymore after the water change also I know you said that you have some ammonia naturally in your tap water, what does your tap water test at?

 

[AquaBud]

My tap is a tad higher than that. I didn't add any water after the wc. Maybe I'm not using enough Prime?

I did a 50% wc. How often now should I be doing them?

Also, how much Prime should I be using for a 5 gallon bucket? The instructions on the bottle about the threads are a tad confusing lol.

 

[threnjen]

Did you mix up nitrItes and nitrAtes a lot in your original post?

If your NitrItes are still off the chart and you want to be able to read them, just do another WC.

You're talking about a fishless cycle, right? There's no proscribed schedule for water changes in a fishless cycle.

If you have any sort of dropper, it's 2 drops per gallon for Prime.