Day 7 into fishless cycle I think I am ready for 50% water change. Make sure?

[BlueAnchors]

I have a 29 gallon tank with a 30 gallon filter(no carbon). Here is a play-by-play of my cycle. To test I am using the API freshwater master test kit.

June 5
Amm. 4.0 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Nitrate 0 ppm

June 6 @ 1:00pm
Amm. 4
Nitrite 1.0
Nitrate 4.0

June 7 @11:00 pm
Amm 0
Nitrite 2.0- 5.0
Nitrate 80 ppm

Dosed it back up to 4.0 ppm pmm.

June 8 @ 10:00 ppm
Amm 0
Nitrite 5.0
Nitrate 20

Dosed it back up to 4.0 pmm

June 9 @ 11:00 pm
Amm 0
Nitrite 2.0 ppm
Nitrate 40 ppm

Dosed it back up to 4.0 ppm for amm.

June 10 @ 6:30 pm
Amm 0
Nitrite 5.0 or higher
Nitrate 160 or higher

So my question is am I ready to do a 50% water change? And if I am do i do the water change and then test my water and if my ammonia needs to go up put it back up? Also how much longer do you think I will have till this cycle is finished? Thanks!!

 

[librarygirl]

Darn, that's fast! LOL What's your secret? Did you use seeded media to help cycle?

I'm far from an expert so I would wait until someone else comes along to verify this but: high NitrIte can stall the cycle, so yes maybe do a large water change to get the NitrItes down, then redose and see what happens. You want the NitrItes to get down to zero as well as the ammonia. It looks like you are very close though!!

 

[BlueAnchors]

ahah I will tell you my "secret" I tried to cycle my tank once but I did 8 ppm of ammonia causing a big mess. So I try to kill the bacteria for about 2 weeks. Once I thought I "killed" all the bacteria I started over. I guess there was some bacteria left that is helping me along.

 

[pantherspawn]

I've found that anytime the nitrite gets above 5ppm its best to do a pwc to lower them back down to below 5, preferably 3 or less. Also, your ammo shows 0.. make sure you don't starve the bacteria and have to start over. Jut because there is nitrites doesn't mean you can cutting out feeding the ammonia reducing bacteria.

 

[BlueAnchors]

each day the amm. levels got to 0 I would put 5 ml of amm. in the tank to get the level back up to 4 ppm

 

[pantherspawn]

each day the amm. levels got to 0 I would put 5 ml of amm. in the tank to get the level back up to 4 ppm

OK perfect.. just double checking lol