nitrites with no food source

[harmy4993]

how long would you expect to keep getting a nitrite reading when you stop feeding ammonia to a tank?

its getting close to the 72 hour mark of me not putting any ammonia in the tank. after 12 hours my last ammonia added dropped to 0. so now 60 hours after that 0 mark i still have the exact same reading on my nitrite. figured by now it would start to fall just because lack of food.

normally i wouldnt do this but i gave my filters to a coworker so seed my filters for me and after 1 1/2 weeks of the same reading i wanted to try and see what happens. im just trying to get an understanding of whats going on.

 

[Purrbox]

Your Nitrites won't fall until the bacteria that feed on it reach sufficient quantities to make a dent in the amount present. Also by stopping adding Ammonia you stop feeding the bacteria that consume it and will start to see die off. You need to start feeding Ammonia again or you're going to end up causing yourself to start over from scratch.