Add And Wait, Without Any Established Bacteria

[jonathand]

Still reading 1 or 2ppm Nitrite, thought it might have stalled but Nitrate levels are gradually getting higher...

Got a little problem now as I'm going away tomorrow and won't be able to dose the ammonia for several days.

Planning to put a larger amount in than normal and perhaps some food flakes to break down.

Hopefully it won't set the cycle back too much!

 

[Skins]

Still reading 1 or 2ppm Nitrite, thought it might have stalled but Nitrate levels are gradually getting higher...

Got a little problem now as I'm going away tomorrow and won't be able to dose the ammonia for several days.

Planning to put a larger amount in than normal and perhaps some food flakes to break down.

Hopefully it won't set the cycle back too much!

Fingers crossed it wont set your cycle back to much. Adding the 5ppm H/H ammonia + food before you leave sounds good to me, when the h/h ammonia gets consumed the rotted down food should just about start to take effect.

Keith.

 

[jonathand]

Day 49 and I'm back to daily testing again.

The extra ammonia did process over the weekend but the nitrite doesn't seem to have changed much.
Thought it might have had a chance to catch up, but the extra load might have made it spike again.

This is what it looks like after 5 and 15 minutes

What colour/ppm does anyone think that nitrite is closest too?

When it finally reaches zero, should it appear blue straight away (like tap water does) or gradually over 5 mins?

 

[Skins]

Day 49 and I'm back to daily testing again.

The extra ammonia did process over the weekend but the nitrite doesn't seem to have changed much.
Thought it might have had a chance to catch up, but the extra load might have made it spike again.

This is what it looks like after 5 and 15 minutes

What colour/ppm does anyone think that nitrite is closest too?

When it finally reaches zero, should it appear blue straight away (like tap water does) or gradually over 5 mins?

Your nitrite looks purple/lilac in the left pic and green in the right one. When you get a 0ppm reading of nitrite it will go blue straight away, what colour dose it go straight after test at present?
When you went away did you add some fish food?
Keith.

 

[jonathand]

Hi,

Yeah it starts purple then goes lighter once shaken, so obviously not quite there yet.

I did add a small pinch of food and there are still a few tiny flakes left on the sand.

Cheers

 

[waterdrop]

There is no meaning in reading test kit results at times other than what the instructions tell you. If the instructions tell you to compare the colors after 5 minutes the do it then and don't be tempted to let it sit and be read later.

These autotrophic species of bacteria that we need are just very slow growers and very picky about their environment. There are many, many factors we can't or don't know to measure so we just have to keep giving it time and doing as many things right as we know how. Mostly we just have to be vigilant and patient. Eventually the nitrite will drop to zero ppm within 24 hours after the ammonia was dosed and then a while after that it will drop to zero in only 12 hours after dosing. Then you can start your qualification week!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[jonathand]

Thanks for the replies, I think I've worked out why it's taking so long.

Since setting up the tank, I have processed 22ml ammonia, which in my tank is roughly 40ppm ammonia in total.
Now if each 1ppm ammonia becomes 2.7ppm nitrite, multiplying that gives over 100ppm nitrite to be processed!

When I thought nitrite had started dropping, it was actually still going up each time I added more ammonia, no wonder the colours have been appearing so strange!
Yesterday I decided to do a 40l water change, I know it's not usually done at this stage but it had been a whole month since the nitrite was first detected.

When I retested, it was the bright pink/magenta I'd seen back in January, still way off the chart (left tube).
I then tested 0.5ml tank water mixed with 4.5ml tap water which appeared around 2ppm (right tube).

That means I still had about 20ppm nitrite, after changing around 80% of the water.
Did another water change again today and now I'm finally seeing readings on the chart for once (left tube)

Have added just 1ppm of ammonia now to see if there is any/enough bacteria to cope with that.
If it can then I will gradually increase the load over the next few days.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, the "nitrite spike" does usually mean huge amounts of nitrite! WD