smallfry53
Aquarium Advice Freak
Hi everyone,
I got my first aquarium a couple weeks ago. It's a 29 gallon tank. I have been reading nonstop trying to figure it all out.
It seems like the standard while doing a fishless cycle is having a big nitrite spike (4ppm+) then a big nitrate spike, but that's not exactly what has been happening. I added ammonia when I first got the tank (and yes it is pure ammonia) and nothing was happening so I got impatient and bought a piece of driftwood and a plant from my lfs. These must have had a lot of good bacteria, because within a day my nitrite was at about 1ppm. Then a day or two later I had high nitrate levels (40-80ppm). The day after that my nitrite dropped to 0ppm. For the last few days I have had my ammonia at about 2ppm, and nitrate keeps going up, but no nitrite anymore.
Is it possible that I am almost already cycled after only about two weeks? The part that confuses me is that my nitrate keeps going up a ton even after doing a few pwcs, but nitrite is 0ppm and ammonia isn't going down very much.
Sorry for being a bit wordy, but wanted to be fairly detailed. Please let me know if you have any insight, and or need any more info. Thanks.
I got my first aquarium a couple weeks ago. It's a 29 gallon tank. I have been reading nonstop trying to figure it all out.
It seems like the standard while doing a fishless cycle is having a big nitrite spike (4ppm+) then a big nitrate spike, but that's not exactly what has been happening. I added ammonia when I first got the tank (and yes it is pure ammonia) and nothing was happening so I got impatient and bought a piece of driftwood and a plant from my lfs. These must have had a lot of good bacteria, because within a day my nitrite was at about 1ppm. Then a day or two later I had high nitrate levels (40-80ppm). The day after that my nitrite dropped to 0ppm. For the last few days I have had my ammonia at about 2ppm, and nitrate keeps going up, but no nitrite anymore.
Is it possible that I am almost already cycled after only about two weeks? The part that confuses me is that my nitrate keeps going up a ton even after doing a few pwcs, but nitrite is 0ppm and ammonia isn't going down very much.
Sorry for being a bit wordy, but wanted to be fairly detailed. Please let me know if you have any insight, and or need any more info. Thanks.