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Thanks.

What if i can't get the nitrate down to 40? Been checking pH every other day or so. It's steady at about 8.1. Have not checked the gh or kh.

Ok, I guess I misunderstood. I am dosing ammonia daily. I did a 90% water change on Sunday. The ammonia and nitrites are still zeroing out daily. The nitrates staying around 100. I have developed a lot of diatoms on the rocks and the one broad leaf plant. I don't mean to be dense but what do I...

So I've done a 50% water change and an 80% water change and the nitrates have maybe dropped to 120. This is a 10 gallon. How many water changes am I going to have to do to get down to an acceptable level for fish? I am dosing daily with ammonia.

I did a 50% water change today and tested water after 45 minutes. The nitrates are still at 160+. Guess I'll do a 75% water change tomorrow. Yes?

Librarygirl, I reread your first response and it is very clear. Don't know why I was confused. Guess I was just excited I get to add fish!!!! COZ, meant to add that my tank is 10 gallons. Thanks to all, Roxi

COZ, I started Jan. 22 and added some plants on Jan. 25. The nitrate spike was on Feb. 21, so exactly 31 days.

Keep dosing before doing a water change or should I go ahead and do the water change too?

Thanks everyone for your responses. I'll do the water change now and add ammonia. I don't think I can get my fish until next week. Do I add ammonia to bring it to 4ppm every day until I get fish? Roxi

Testing today is: Ammonia 0 Nitrites 0 Nitrates 180 (red) Do I do a 50% water change and add ammonia back up to 4ppm? Is the tank ready for fish when the nitrates drop? I've read the fishless cycle steps but my nitrites/nitrates did not seem to follow the steps. My nitrites were...

So the nitrate test turns red but what does the nitrite test do?

Can someone please tell me what color the test tube water is when the trites and trates "go off the chart." I am at day 25 fishless cycle 10 gallon. Every 24 hours the ammonia goes from 4 ppm to about 0.1 and the nitrites are always at 5. Thanks.

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

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

Where am I? In the last 24 hours ammonia went from 4ppm to 0.25ppm. Nitrites still look to be 5.0. Roxi

Update - in the past 24 hours ammonia dropped from 4ppm to 1 ppm and the nitrites are at 5.

Ammonia still looks close to 4, but the nitrites increased to 0.5. Roxi

I've got movement in my cycle! Yay! I had a reading of 0.25 nitrites this morning. Ammonia was close to 1.0 so I added 1.0ml and that brought it back up to 4 ppm. Now that the nitrites have started do I test every day or every other day? Thanks, Roxi

Fishless cycle and I have the API test kit. Got my plants in tonight. The Didiplis was a pain. What I thought were about 4 stalks ended up being about 30+ two to three inch pieces and 30+ one to two inch pieces. I took a pic will see if I can upload.

I am really having a hard time "reading" my test results. Do you hold the vial in front of the white card or against it? Do you have your light source at your back? overhead? front? Do you try for sunlight outside? Today is overcast and my ammonia looks like 3, not 2 like I thought yesterday...

I got home late with the plants so left them in their bags last night. After I took the Anubias out of the bag to wash it, there were 7 tiny Malaysian snails left behind in the bag. I am rinsing and rinsing and rinsing and hunting the leaves for snails. I'm hoping that the nature of the leaves...

Thanks for that. Thanks for that suggestion. I'll try it. The guy at my lfs told me to take a little of the sand out and pour some vinegar over it and see if there was a reaction - bubbling. I forget what he said that would mean. Would the same test tell me something about the rocks as well...

I did put in a few rocks that have always been used in past aquariums. My iPhone changed the spelling of the second plant. It is Anubias.

It is a fishless cycle. I am using ammonia from Ace. It is a 10% solution. I bought two plants tonight - Didiplis deandra and an Anibias. I'll check the tank levels again tomorrow.

Congrats on ridding the tank of velvet and on a successful experiment. Sounds like a fun tank to watch.