Question on my fishless cycle-
I am 4 weeks in, 55 gallon tank, and have been stuck in the "nitrite off the charts" phase for 3 weeks. I've even had Nitrate since week 2, sitting at 10 ppm based on the API test kit. In the last couple weeks, I was having pH/Kh issues. My tap water turns yellow after 3 drops on the Kh test and has a pH of 7.4.
I noticed one morning two weeks ago the pH dropped to 6.4 and the kh turned yellow with one drop. Added baking in a PWC (30%) and this seemed to kickstart things. NitrAte jumped to 40 ppm and nitrite was still off the charts. pH was back at 7.4 and kH at 3 drops on the test kit.
The next day, Nitrate was only reading 20 ppm. I have live plants (3 amazon swords, one small anubias) so I figured that might be the issue. I waited a few days and my pH/kH started dropping, so after reading various threads and other websites I did a massive water change (80-90%) to bring the tank back to readable levels of nitrIte and nitrAte. This brought nitrIte to an almost readable level (drops didn't instantly turn purple when they went in the test tube, only after shaking) and nitrates down to 2.5 ppm.
Fast forward 1 week, last night I test nitrates and they are at 40 ppm. I was so happy I tested it a second time and got 40 ppm again (and yes, I am making sure to shake the hell out of the nitrate #2 bottle for 30 seconds and then shaking the tube for 60). NitrIte has remained off the chart. Tank processes 3-4ppm ammonia (Ace Hardware janitorial brand) in 12 hours and has done so for 2 weeks now. This morning I test nitrAtes and they have dropped back to 20ppm.
Do I just remain patient and monitor the pH/kH to add baking soda when necessary? Weekly PWC? Adjust the amount of ammonia I'm dosing from 3ppm to less? Do nothing? I just want to make sure I am not "stalled" or get some clarification on why my nitrAtes are not exponentially rising like the fishless cycle articles mention. I'm wondering if the heavy filtration (Eheim 2215 and eheim 2213 canisters) and plants are causing the weird nitrate results. There has also been the white hair algae growing and dying off on my very large piece of driftwood.
Thank you for any and all advice/thoughts.
I am 4 weeks in, 55 gallon tank, and have been stuck in the "nitrite off the charts" phase for 3 weeks. I've even had Nitrate since week 2, sitting at 10 ppm based on the API test kit. In the last couple weeks, I was having pH/Kh issues. My tap water turns yellow after 3 drops on the Kh test and has a pH of 7.4.
I noticed one morning two weeks ago the pH dropped to 6.4 and the kh turned yellow with one drop. Added baking in a PWC (30%) and this seemed to kickstart things. NitrAte jumped to 40 ppm and nitrite was still off the charts. pH was back at 7.4 and kH at 3 drops on the test kit.
The next day, Nitrate was only reading 20 ppm. I have live plants (3 amazon swords, one small anubias) so I figured that might be the issue. I waited a few days and my pH/kH started dropping, so after reading various threads and other websites I did a massive water change (80-90%) to bring the tank back to readable levels of nitrIte and nitrAte. This brought nitrIte to an almost readable level (drops didn't instantly turn purple when they went in the test tube, only after shaking) and nitrates down to 2.5 ppm.
Fast forward 1 week, last night I test nitrates and they are at 40 ppm. I was so happy I tested it a second time and got 40 ppm again (and yes, I am making sure to shake the hell out of the nitrate #2 bottle for 30 seconds and then shaking the tube for 60). NitrIte has remained off the chart. Tank processes 3-4ppm ammonia (Ace Hardware janitorial brand) in 12 hours and has done so for 2 weeks now. This morning I test nitrAtes and they have dropped back to 20ppm.
Do I just remain patient and monitor the pH/kH to add baking soda when necessary? Weekly PWC? Adjust the amount of ammonia I'm dosing from 3ppm to less? Do nothing? I just want to make sure I am not "stalled" or get some clarification on why my nitrAtes are not exponentially rising like the fishless cycle articles mention. I'm wondering if the heavy filtration (Eheim 2215 and eheim 2213 canisters) and plants are causing the weird nitrate results. There has also been the white hair algae growing and dying off on my very large piece of driftwood.
Thank you for any and all advice/thoughts.
