Nitrite and Nitrate levels during fishless cycle?

[Veeshun]

I'm in the middle of a fishless cycle. I was just to the point in the guide where my Nitrite and Nitrate levels were off the chart so I did a 50-60% water change. My Nitrates went down however my Nitrites have not. I'm still testing at a violet purple color that is off the chart. I'm also having to add ammonia every night back up to 4.0 since it's back down to 0.25-.50 ppm 24 hours later. Any suggestions? I'm also including a picture of the test results below.

 

[librarygirl]

You can try a larger water change, as much water as you can remove to try to get nitrites down to a more readable level on the chart. If they're really high it can take more than one water change to get them down. It sounds like everything is progressing nicely!

 

[Veeshun]

Last night I did two 90% water changes an hour apart that dropped the nitrites to about 1-2ppm. Today they're off the chart again, was it a bad idea to dose the ammonia back up to 4ppm? They ate through the ammonia in less than 14 hours. What should I do now?

 

[librarygirl]

You can try dropping the ammonia dose down to 2 for a few days to try and let the nitrite bacteria catch up. The nitrite phase is the longest, can take a few weeks, it's normal for it to spike. Keep an eye on your PH too, make sure it isn't dropping too much (mid-low 6's can stall the cycle).

 

[Veeshun]

Ok, it's been a steady 7.8 since I started. I've been watching it like crazy just to make sure. So it's normal for the nitrates to play catch up? Will the nitrates start to neutralize the nitrites spike?

 

[Veeshun]

I've been searching around on here and looking at some of your responses to other threads. I see that the nitrite spike is normal and part of the cycling. I also read that the nitrite phase is the longest part. So basically since I can't keep the nitrites from being off the chart, just feed them a little less? They eat 4ppm's of ammonia in around 12 hours. Will there be a day where they suddenly all vanish after being off the charts? They're still off the charts now. So I just keep feeding them ammonia until they drop to 0 correct?