No nitrAtes?

[Adangelo100]

Be been cycling my tank for about 3 weeks maybe more and my ammonia zeroed out on Wednesday and my nitrItes have zeroed out but the weird thing is I had more nitrAtes in the beginning of the cycle and now I'm reading zero... I tested it with the API kit 3 times and shook the hell out of the 2nd bottle... I'm confused :/

 

[ejaramillo01]

Be been cycling my tank for about 3 weeks maybe more and my ammonia zeroed out on Wednesday and my nitrItes have zeroed out but the weird thing is I had more nitrAtes in the beginning of the cycle and now I'm reading zero... I tested it with the API kit 3 times and shook the hell out of the 2nd bottle... I'm confused :/

Strange, but since the ammonia and nitrites zero out, did you add ammonia back to reach 4 ppm?

 

[librarygirl]

Have you done any water changes? That would remove nitrate. Try shaking and banging both bottles (bang both on a hard surface a few times too), remember to shake bottle 2 for a full 30 seconds and the tube for a full minute. Nitrates only leave the tank through water changes so if you didn't remove any with a water change it must be a testing error unless you have a lot of live plants. Remember to keep dosing ammonia until you're ready to get fish. Congrats on completing the cycle.

 

[Adangelo100]

I should have mentioned its a fishIN cycle (had no idea what this was until AFTER I got my lil fishies). I do daily 10% water changes and test the water before I change the water.

 

[librarygirl]

Oh oops sorry I should have asked if it was fishless or fish-in. What size tank and what fish do you have? You might not get much nitrate; my tank is pretty full of small fish and I only get about 5 ppms of nitrate between water changes, your daily changes might have knocked them down some too. As long as the ammonia and nitrite stay at 0 you should be good to move to a weekly maintenance schedule of 50%. You can keep testing for nitrate just to see what happens and make sure they stay <20 between water changes. Depending on the size tank and number/type of fish you might not get much nitrate but you should get some.

 

[Adangelo100]

I am way over stocked... I have a silver dollar and had two neon tetras all in a dinky 2.5 tank that all in all cost me a fortune... now I have 5 neons bc my friends tank somehow cracked... My 2.5 set up with the 3 fish was suppose to be temporary until I could afford a bigger setup... When I originally got the tank I had no clue about any of the cycling and the rules of stocking... Another reason I do daily water changes so the poor fishies don't get smothered in ammonia and other toxic things... I'm just so whole I have so many fish in this little tank and no nitrAtes

 

[Adangelo100]

Surprised*** not "whole"