Tank is cycled but NitrAte are high (after PWCs)!

[lapintoxic]

Hi all,

I did not want to open a thread for this but now I am really wondering what is going on.

I have followed the fishless cycle on this website and was able to speed up the process via a filter a friend of mine let me borrowed from is 55G tanks (I have a 20G tank btw).

So, at the end of cycling, I was adding 4ppm of pure ammonia in the morning (around 8am) and 4ppm the same day around (11pm) because it was completely gone by the time I added it for the second time.

Anyway, that is not the problem. I went through the NitrItes pike not too long ago and on Friday, I finially see the NitrIte going down. I continued adding ammonia and now, after 24h I can see that all of the ammonia and NitrItes disappeared which is great...

...BUT, my NitrAtes are really high. I know that it is normal to see High NitrAtes but I did a 90%pwc this morning and after I still had high NitrAtes. I did a 50% pwc tonight and vaccum my gravel and I still have a good 30ppm of NitrAtes. So I am king of confused since I have not added ammonia since yesterday and I have no NitrItes anymore.

Is there a reason why my NitrAtes are that high? Can it be because of the Filter my Friend let me borrowed from his tank?

Please let me know since I can't wait getting my new fish very soon.


Thank you in advance,

[jeffp]

how many times did you dose up to 4ppm ammonia and how many water changes did you do, if any?

[jeffp]

Whoops, sent too early. Anyway, I was going to also say that it is very possible to have that high of nitrates since it sounds like you repeatedly dosed up to 4 ppm ammonia without doing any water changes until the end.

[steez]

check your tap waters nitrAte level.

[lapintoxic]

I have done multiple PWC during the cycling process. I can't say how many exactly but I would say probably close to 10.

at the end of my cycling process, I was dosing 4ppm of pure ammonia twice a day so that can explain why I have high NitrAtes but I have not put many since.

Thanks Steez, I will check this very soon and let you know.

[lapintoxic]

So I tested my tap water for the NitrAtes and it is around 5ppm (in the lower side though) so it is fine.

I added 4ppm of ammonia yesterday to keep the bacteria healthy but I should have added 1ppm so I am sure my NitrAtes will be high today.

I will try to do a full cleaning (vacuum) of the gravel since I was not able to do that yesterday (I made my own vacuum and just tried it quickly).

I will keep you posted but let me know if you have any other idea where the NitrAtes can be from.

[zparticle]

It is very likely that you just have a massive amount built up and stored in the substrate, make sure you clean the substrate VERY well and then do a 100% water change. It make take a couple full WCs to get the nitrates down. Just my opinion.

[lapintoxic]

Thank you very much for the reply zparticle. I will follow your recommendation and see how it goes. I really want my fish today...

[librarygirl]

Adding 8 PPM of ammonia in one day is a lot; usually you should only dose to 4 ppm in 24 hours (even if you test at the 12 hour mark and it's 0, wait until the 24 hour mark to redose). That's probably where all the nitrates are coming from. I only dosed my cycle to 2-3 and had nitrates over 160 when I finished. Nitrates that high can take a good number of pwc to get down. You did a couple and they did get down to 30, so I'd say they were just very high from the ammonia overdosing. If you're sure that ammonia is staying at 0 one day after dosing and nitrites have already spiked and fell to 0, I'd say you're good to go. Just do as many pwc as needed to get those nitrates as low as you can get them the day before you add fish, don't forget to use dechlorinator during the pwc and bring the temperature in the tank down if you set it high for the cycle. Then get your fish. Monitor the water for a week once the fish are in to be sure though. And ask your friend if you can keep the filter you borrowed for a while longer; the last thing you want now is to remove any bacteria from your tank. Good luck!

[lapintoxic]

Hi Librarygirl,

I actually "cleaned" the gravel in tape water (with dechlorinator) this morning and put everything back in the tank afterwards. I waited a little bit and then I vacuum the gravel to remove whatever was left in the tank. And I finally I did a 25% PWC this afternoon just before getting my fish.

The NitrAtes were down to 5-8ppm so I went to get all the the fish I wanted (1x Pearl Gourami, 3x Gold Gourami and 4x Zebra Danio).

Thanks for the reply/help to all of you who replied.

[steez]

Awesome.

Good luck!

[jetajockey]

As long as the tank is processing all of the ammonia and nitrite you are good, just PWC till the nitrates are down to nil and stock it up. There's multiple reasons why you could have a large nitrate number, I believe they've already been mentioned earlier in the thread so I won't repeat them. Congrats and post some pics