Nitrite spike

[Rosebud]

When do the nitrites spike in a fishless cycle? I have a 10 gallon that I set up on Jan. 22. The last 5 days my ammonia has dropped from 4 ppm to around 0.25 every day, but the nitrites are staying around 5. When can I expect a change in the nitrite levels?

Roxi

 

[Scottyhorse]

Try a water change, like 25%. When I cycled my tank, the nitrites were so high, the color was pink, so I did a HUGE water change, and the tank cycled that week.

 

[librarygirl]

The nitrite phase is the longest, takes about 3 weeks on average before you'll see a drop. If nitrites are 5+ for a week or more, or/and ammonia conversion slows or/and PH drops, then do a large water change(s) to try to get nitrites to a readable level on the chart, then redose ammonia. If they've been at 5 for a week you can do a full water change to try to get them to a readable level on the chart but It'll likely spike again, that's normal. It'll go down to 0 in it's own time but you might have some more waiting to do.

 

[Convict2161]

Just my opinion but I wouldn't do a water change during the cycle process. If you think it may have stalled out your trites have spiked give it a few more days and see where your at.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Rosebud]

Thanks for the replies. I found a thread of someone else's cycle and it seems the
Nitrite spike happened at around 21 days. That will be next Tuesday for me. I'll keep doing what I've been doing until then and see what it looks like then.

Roxi