25 days of high nitrite

[AndyRascal]

Hi
Stared cycling a 50g salt tank early February. Used dry Rock and sand as didn't want hitchhikers due to the tank being for seahorses.
Using external canister filter with pads and alphagrog.
Dosed ammonia up to 5ppm
Dosed nitrifying bacteria
Saw low levels of nitrites within 5/6 days
Ammonia zero after 11 days
NitrAte has crept up to 80ppm

NitrIte been at 5ppm for 25 days now and shows no sign of lowering.

Any thoughts please?
Regards

 

[Colin_T]

add some liquid bacteria.
have lots of aeration.
keep the water temperature around 28-30C until the tank is cycled then lower it.

Don't bother testing for nitrates until the tank has finished cycling because nitrate test kits read nitrite as nitrate and give you a false reading.

Maybe do a 50-75% water change and see if it helps.

 

[AndyRascal]

add some liquid bacteria.
have lots of aeration.
keep the water temperature around 28-30C until the tank is cycled then lower it.

Don't bother testing for nitrates until the tank has finished cycling because nitrate test kits read nitrite as nitrate and give you a false reading.

Maybe do a 50-75% water change and see if it helps.

Hi
Yes I've added more bacteria a week ago and temp is around 26 at present.
Have a wave maker pointing at surface for agitation.
Only tested for nitrAte now and again cus as you say, can deal with that at end of cycle.
I'll try a bit of a water change as that's the only thing I haven't done. I suppose the nitrItes could have crept higher and stalled the cycle.
Cheers