On day 4 ammonia steady at 4ppm. Have a bottle of fluval cycle. Should I use it or wait for cycle to begin naturally? I read somewhere that the bottled bacteria are somewhat inconsistent and tank can get ammonia spikes. Thanks for any advice
If you have bought a bottle of Cycle may as well use it. Dont expect it to have any noticable effects, but it won't do any harm to try it. Its not an ammonia source so cant cause an ammonia spike. Let us know how you get on with it.
If you have bought a bottle of Cycle may as well use it. Dont expect it to have any noticable effects, but it won't do any harm to try it. Its not an ammonia source so cant cause an ammonia spike. Let us know how you get on with it.
It doesnt take a lot of ammonia to create a lot of nitrite and nitrate. Its 1:1:1 more like 1:3:4.
So maybe your ammonia has dropped a little, not enough to really register as a lower ammonia reading but enough to produce a high nitrite reading.
These are home test kits, not laboratory testing, and all sorts of things can throw off the results. In particular its regularly cited that high nitrite can give an inaccurate high nitrate reading.
Maybe your ammonia went from say 4.5ppm down to 3.0ppm. The test isnt really accurate enough to distingush between those levels. That drop would produce about 5ppm nitrite, which is what you are seeing. And its possible nitrite that high could throw off the nitrate reading.
Im not saying thats whats happened, but its an explanation. These tests should be a guide to making decisions and not something you rely on for accuracy. All you can really say is you have high ammonia and high nitrite. Having nitrite is a positive step and shows some ammonia is going to nitrite. Its likely some nitrite is going to nitrate too. All very positive.
You likely have another 6 or 7 weeks to go yet. Just let things sit a while, wait for the ammonia to drop further before redosing.
Do you need any assistance on how to do a fishless cycle?
Touch and go. If your tank cycles in 28 days as the instructions on the site you mention indicates, you should be good. If it takes longer you will run out. The quickest ive seen someone on this site cycle a tank without using established filter media is 3 weeks. Ive recently cycled a tank in 3 weeks using established filter media. Typically 6 to 8 weeks is needed. Often it takes longer and 12 weeks isnt uncommon.
Typically it takes 2 to 3 weeks before your ammonia is being completely cycled to nitrite. The nitrite to nitrate stage usually takes a lot longer, say 4 to 6 weeks, to cycle out all the nitrite to nitrate. You may see some nitrate straight away, but it seems to take a lot longer to build up to cycling everything out. Hopefully yours will be on the quicker side of things. Let us know how you get on.
Typically it takes 2 to 3 weeks before your ammonia is being completely cycled to nitrite. The nitrite to nitrate stage usually takes a lot longer, say 4 to 6 weeks, to cycle out all the nitrite to nitrate. You may see some nitrate straight away, but it seems to take a lot longer to build up to cycling everything out. Hopefully yours will be on the quicker side of things. Let us know how you get on.
Thanks again. Appreciate itPersonally i prefer to keep things readable on the tests, so i usually do water changes if nitrite gets too high to test. But IMO its not necessary, ive cycled tanks with high nitrite. Other people will say that too high nitrite can cause your cycle to crash. There isnt a definite answer.
One thing i will say is that as a lot of nitrite comes out of ammonia, it does have a way of getting very, very high if the ammonia to nitrite phase is going well but the nitrite to nitrate phase isnt established yet. From that PoV I think its a good idea to keep nitrite from just going up and up and up by periodically bringing it back down with a water change.
Personally i prefer to keep things readable on the tests, so i usually do water changes if nitrite gets too high to test. But IMO its not necessary, ive cycled tanks with high nitrite. Other people will say that too high nitrite can cause your cycle to crash. There isnt a definite answer.
One thing i will say is that as a lot of nitrite comes out of ammonia, it does have a way of getting very, very high if the ammonia to nitrite phase is going well but the nitrite to nitrate phase isnt established yet. From that PoV I think its a good idea to keep nitrite from just going up and up and up by periodically bringing it back down with a water change.
I would cut back to dosing to 2ppm, and skipping a day or 2 here and there wont hurt anything and will give you chance to see if nitrite is dropping without you topping it up every time you redose ammonia. If you are really worried about how long it takes to receive your delivery, cutting back to 1ppm or even 0.5ppm will keep the bacteria fed, still produce nitrite so that stage is progressing, and you can increase again to 2ppm when you get your new solution.
I would cut back to dosing to 2ppm, and skipping a day or 2 here and there wont hurt anything and will give you chance to see if nitrite is dropping without you topping it up every time you redose ammonia. If you are really worried about how long it takes to receive your delivery, cutting back to 1ppm or even 0.5ppm will keep the bacteria fed, still produce nitrite so that stage is progressing, and you can increase again to 2ppm when you get your new solution.
If your nitrite is higher than your test can read i would change some water to keep it readable and then redose ammonia. I wouldnt change water because of the pH dropping. Thats just what the pH wants to be at and probably not worth trying to fight that.