Cycle ??

[Deltafishin]

Day 22 fish in cycle, 10 gal tank. The numbers have been pretty steady this past week with ammonia build up very slightly sitting at.25 took three days to climb to .40. Ph stable at 7.6 and no signs of nitrite and nitrate is just starting to show color on the api test but I would call it trace. Tank 78 degrees.


I find it odd that I have never seen a nitrite change but I'm seeing trace nitrate. I also find it odd that she's stayin steady. I am using seachem stability as my starter. I do have a plant very green and healthy and a moss ball. So what's going on with this cycle

 

[ScotJudd]

Hi. When you do fish in cycling the ammonia level is kept very low to protect the fish, therefore the nitrites are very low and can be quickly converted to nitrates. It may well be that you don't ever get a nitrite reading and it will appear that the ammonia is converted directly to nitrates. If your nitrates continue to rise and you have had no nitrite reading then this is a good thing. Many people have the ammonia to nitrite bacteria establish way ahead of the nitrite to nitrate bacteria and have problems with a nitrite spike - very bad for the fish. Just keep the ammonia down to 0.25 or below and sit it out. Keep monitoring nitrites just in case they do suddenly appear.
Prime is a very good product for detoxifying ammonia, nitrites and nitrates and can protect your fish during the cycling period. Prime does not affect your bacteria colony or the results on your test kit.


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[Deltafishin]

Thank you, this makes since and my plant is lush and green so he is doing his job very well. Ammonia has been stable vs two weeks ago it was out of control. Fish are healthy and happy, the plane is healthy so u don't think I'm doing it wrong, it's just not following the curves in the textbook. I tested today and all was the same but I did a 20% xchange anyway as it's been 5 days. I let my ammo get to .50