Where Has My Ammonia Gone?

[Chappers]

I'm about 6 days into a fishless cycle and getting a couple of strange results.

Ammonia levels are dropping, I added enough ammonia at the start to get me to 2-3ppm after a couple of days this dropped to 0.25ppm so I add the full dose again and it continues to drop. Strange thing is I'm not getting any nitrite at all, so where is the ammonia going?

The other strange bit, is my tap water has about 10ppm nitrate, but testing nitrate a few times over the last week, and it has dropped to 0ppm. So where has that gone?

A couple of bits of info. that might help. I am seeding with a full filter and media from another tank thats had fish in for 6 months plus. I am also seeding with filter start. I've had a bacterial bloom for about 4 days, and it's just starting to clear.

Thanks for any help you can give.

 

[Stimo]

live plants will reduce and consume nitrate ?

 

[Chappers]

Good call, but no live plants. I do have another theory though.

I think from reading this article on bacterial blooms http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/246850-bacterial-blooms-explained/, that the ammonia is dropping because of the activity of a build up of heterotrophs, hence the bloom I had. Not sure why I'm not seeing nitrite, maybe because they are less efficient at the conversion?

I added ammonia again yesterday, and tested at 2-3ppm. Previously after a day that would have dropped to around 0.5ppm. Today however it hasn't changed. I'm kind of hopefull now that the heterotrophs are begining to be replaced by autotrophs and I'll start to see nitrite in the next few days. I'll continue to test daily and see what happens next.

Still not sure where the nitrate went either, can heterotrophs take away nitrate?

 

[ag-au]

Well silly input but are you using a liquid test kit? The strips are less effective at lower readings.

 

[Chappers]

I'm using the API liquid test kit, thanks. I'm still at a bit of a loss really, just hoping the cycle starts soon and everything starts to follow the expected readings.