I’ve been cycling my quarantine tank since November 12. That’s about three and a half months ago.
I am now seeing nitrite (this started a few weeks ago) but it still takes three to four days for it to totally process.
When I read the cycling guide, it said to add ammonia any time ammonia is at zero or close to it and nitrite is clearly below 1 ppm. Ammonia is processing in less than twenty-four hours but nitrite is staying at 2-4ppm for days and then overnight will plummet to 0ppm.
I added a bit of sponge from my 60 gallon tank two weeks ago but I haven’t seen any benefit. That could be because the 60 gallon has only been set up with fish since October and I did not do a fishless cycle with it. I planted it densely and added twelve black neons. There’s never been any ammonia or nitrite in that tank. I think that could be why there isn’t much bacteria on this sponge that i added.
QT is 29 gallons.
Temp: 76 F
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 2ppm
Nitrate: 40-80ppm (I can’t decide which one it looks like, both shades of red on the color chart look the same to me)
Ph: 7.6, though it usually is a little lower than that.
I last added ammonia Feb 22 at around 10PM. I’m using an API Freshwater Master Test Kit. I don’t have any substrate in this tank because I prefer to run my QTs barebottom since it’s easier to sanitize the tank between new batches of fish.
What else can I do to hurry this along? Am I potentially doing something wrong? I don’t want to do this for another three months.
I am now seeing nitrite (this started a few weeks ago) but it still takes three to four days for it to totally process.
When I read the cycling guide, it said to add ammonia any time ammonia is at zero or close to it and nitrite is clearly below 1 ppm. Ammonia is processing in less than twenty-four hours but nitrite is staying at 2-4ppm for days and then overnight will plummet to 0ppm.
I added a bit of sponge from my 60 gallon tank two weeks ago but I haven’t seen any benefit. That could be because the 60 gallon has only been set up with fish since October and I did not do a fishless cycle with it. I planted it densely and added twelve black neons. There’s never been any ammonia or nitrite in that tank. I think that could be why there isn’t much bacteria on this sponge that i added.
QT is 29 gallons.
Temp: 76 F
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 2ppm
Nitrate: 40-80ppm (I can’t decide which one it looks like, both shades of red on the color chart look the same to me)
Ph: 7.6, though it usually is a little lower than that.
I last added ammonia Feb 22 at around 10PM. I’m using an API Freshwater Master Test Kit. I don’t have any substrate in this tank because I prefer to run my QTs barebottom since it’s easier to sanitize the tank between new batches of fish.
What else can I do to hurry this along? Am I potentially doing something wrong? I don’t want to do this for another three months.