GraceTheNoob
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
- Joined
- Sep 14, 2021
- Messages
- 13
Please help!! I don't know what I'm doing wrong.
I'm doing a fishless cycle. I've been going for around around 3 weeks now. The tank is fully set up, filter and bubble stone running, loads of gravel, plants, biological media within the filter etc etc etc.
The cycle seems to have stopped halfway through.
Every time I dose with ammonia to 2ppm, the ammonia levels fall to 0 within 24hrs. This has been the case for around 2 weeks. Good stuff.
But my NITRITES just don't seem to be going anywhere. The only time my Nitrites fall is when I do a water change. And then it's right back up when I dose the tank with ammonia again (NB I don't dose every day because the nitrite level absolutely rocketed out of control).
What's baffling me is that tests for nitrAtes are coming up positive as well. So clearly the Nitrites are being converted into Nitrates, but the overall level of Nitrites never seems to fall by itself? I don't know what I'm doing wrong here. I've used API Quick Start live bacteria, and yesterday added Dr Tim's One and Only.
I use API 5-in-1 tests to read Nitrites and Nitrates, and a separate API ammonia test to read the ammonia.
Can anybody help?
I'm doing a fishless cycle. I've been going for around around 3 weeks now. The tank is fully set up, filter and bubble stone running, loads of gravel, plants, biological media within the filter etc etc etc.
The cycle seems to have stopped halfway through.
Every time I dose with ammonia to 2ppm, the ammonia levels fall to 0 within 24hrs. This has been the case for around 2 weeks. Good stuff.
But my NITRITES just don't seem to be going anywhere. The only time my Nitrites fall is when I do a water change. And then it's right back up when I dose the tank with ammonia again (NB I don't dose every day because the nitrite level absolutely rocketed out of control).
What's baffling me is that tests for nitrAtes are coming up positive as well. So clearly the Nitrites are being converted into Nitrates, but the overall level of Nitrites never seems to fall by itself? I don't know what I'm doing wrong here. I've used API Quick Start live bacteria, and yesterday added Dr Tim's One and Only.
I use API 5-in-1 tests to read Nitrites and Nitrates, and a separate API ammonia test to read the ammonia.
Can anybody help?