Confused On Cycling Readings

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kj23502

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:blink: I'm cycling a 125 gallon tank w/fish in(although I did set up 2 filters onto an existing tank and then moved them over when I started the big one). I think it's kinda mini-cycling since i had the other 2 filters on a running aquarium.

Anyway my ? is.....I have no ammonia reading and lately my nitrites have gone up to 1ppm in 1 day(everyday I was changing at least 1/2 the water). My last water change was Friday and I tested the water today and the nitrite was only .25ppm after 2 days. Where I'm stumped is I didn't get any higer nitrate readings. If nitrites processing shouldn't I get higher nitrate readings?
 
Hi,

If you are getting nitrite with no ammonia, it sound like you have enough ammonia processing bacteria, and it's just the nitrite processing bacteria which have still to catch up.

If your nitrite is going down but no rise in nitrate, it is possible that you are removing the nitrite with your water changes. This isn't a bad thing, your fish will thank you for it.

Keep doing water changes and aim to keep nitrite below 0.25mg/l in order to inflict minimal suffering on the fish. You will eventually see nitrite dropping away to 0 and at that point you are cycled and can stop the daily water changes.

Your readings sound normal to me and are nothing to worry about. Keep doing what you are doing, and good luck.

Hope this helps.

Cheers :good:

BTT
 
It still confuses me a little. I have 17 juvie cichlids in there creating a lot of poop, etc. After two days of no watera changes or anything nitrite should've been higher and if not nitrate should've been! Or so I thought. Maybe I screwed up the test somehow ????
 
It's pretty easy to screw up the nitrate test. I'm not sure which brand of test kit you use, but on API i know its important to follow the instructions exactly and do lots of shaking. Even then it sometimes goes wrong for me, and even when its right I find it really hard to differentiate between the colours.
 
:blink: I'm cycling a 125 gallon tank w/fish in(although I did set up 2 filters onto an existing tank and then moved them over when I started the big one). I think it's kinda mini-cycling since i had the other 2 filters on a running aquarium.

Anyway my ? is.....I have no ammonia reading and lately my nitrites have gone up to 1ppm in 1 day(everyday I was changing at least 1/2 the water). My last water change was Friday and I tested the water today and the nitrite was only .25ppm after 2 days. Where I'm stumped is I didn't get any higer nitrate readings. If nitrites processing shouldn't I get higher nitrate readings?
I had pretty much the same pattern when I set up my new tank this way. I never had an ammonia reading but nitrite stayed at around 1 for a couple of weeks before it disappeared. Can't say about the nitrate cos I didn't bother testing while I was changing every day. Now I don't bother testing cos I change 20% twice a week :rolleyes:
 
It's pretty easy to screw up the nitrate test. I'm not sure which brand of test kit you use, but on API i know its important to follow the instructions exactly and do lots of shaking. Even then it sometimes goes wrong for me, and even when its right I find it really hard to differentiate between the colours.
Tell me about it!!! I have the API freshwater master test kit also and nitrate is a pain in the rear!!

I just completed tests. i haven't changed any water since Sunday so it's been two days now. I fed my fish yesterday. I cut back a little b/c of water quality issues.

Ammonia- clearly 0
Nitrite-very clearly .25 ppm
Nitrate- fuzzy 10ppm

All the fish look good except for 2 which have a fuzzy part on their side. It basically looks like they got in a fight and had a little chunk taken out of them and now there's fuzz on it. I already talked about it in emergency. I added aquarium salt and it's actually looking better. Colin T said to try aquarium salt first b/c I was trying to refrain from using anything that will distroy what bacteria I have!
 
I tested again today and nitrites were lower yet....but still not much of a raise in nitrates???
ammonia 0
nitrite prob about .12...inbetween 0 and .25
nitrate about 10/15ish give or take a point or too?

I still don't get it. I didn't do a water change yesterday since nitrites were acceptable range, today they are even lower(i still didn't do water change), and I still don't have a raise in nitrates...
SERIOUSLY....what gives?
 
there's a bit of a rise there. nitrate was about 10, now it's about 10-15. so that could be a 5ppm rise. To be honest, you won't get massively noticeable rises in a day for nitrate. I think as long as your nitrite is going down you don't need to worry. Nitrate tests are so hard to get accurate results, I only think of them as a vague indicator (zero, a bit or a lot).
 
yeah nitrate readings are indicitive at best, don't worry about it, jsut worry over the ammonia and nitrite.
 

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