Cycle advice

[Pspence01]

Hi everyone, I’m new to this great hobby.
I’ve had my freshwater tank for a month.
I’ve used dr Tim’s ammonia to dose my tank up to 3ppm and micro-lift bacteria gel on my filter.
My ammonia has started to drop very slow. My nitrites jumped last week to 4ppm and have now all but gone and converted into nitrates but I can’t seem to get the last bit of ammonia to drop below 0.5.
I thought the nitrite would’ve take all the ammonia before it went down before turning into nitrates.
Am I on the right path or do I need to do anything to get more nitrites to take over?
I have a 40 litre (8 gallon) tank and last dosed ammonia on Saturday to 2ppm

 

[Essjay]

Is your nitrite reading at zero? You say 'all but gone', but how much is left?

 

[Pspence01]

About 0.5 ppm. Nitrate at 30.
min also using a fluval u1 filter. No rocks or plants

 

[Pspence01]

I’m just not sure if I’m doing anything wrong - should the ammonia have dropped before the nitrite?

 

[Essjay]

Nitrite appears before ammonia drops to zero, but by the time nitrite starts to falls, ammonia usually is zero.

But I do need to check something. Are you using the API testers? The reason for asking is that it is known with this nitrite tester that if nitrite is very high the liquid in the tube turns a sort of blue immediately on adding the drops, so we need to eliminate this possibility.

 

[Pspence01]

I have both the api test strips and aqua care test tube - ammonia and nitrite tests

 

[Pspence01]

Nitrite appears before ammonia drops to zero, but by the time nitrite starts to falls, ammonia usually is zero.

But I do need to check something. Are you using the API testers? The reason for asking is that it is known with this nitrite tester that if nitrite is very high the liquid in the tube turns a sort of blue immediately on adding the drops, so we need to eliminate this possibility.

Ammonia has dropped a little but nitrite has dropped considerably.

last week my nitrite had gone to zero when there was still ammonia present so I topped the ammonia back up and the nitrite spiked back up but now the same has happened.

 

[Essjay]

If it's not the liquid API nitrite tester, the colur at high level is not the problem, it was a long shot but I just needed to eliminate that as a possibility.

It does seem a bit strange, and to be honest I don't know what to suggest.

Do you intend having live plants in the tank? These take up ammonia as fertiliser. Even just some species of floating plant would help.

 

[Pspence01]

If it's not the liquid API nitrite tester, the colur at high level is not the problem, it was a long shot but I just needed to eliminate that as a possibility.

It does seem a bit strange, and to be honest I don't know what to suggest.

Do you intend having live plants in the tank? These take up ammonia as fertiliser. Even just some species of floating plant would help.

i wasnt planning on it. I wonder if I should wait till tomorrow and do a small water change?

 

[Essjay]

A water change may help. It certainly won't hurt.

 

[Pspence01]

A water change may help. It certainly won't hurt.

Would putting more beneficial bacteria in help it?

 

[Naughts]

if you are using tap water, can you find out if the supplier adds chloramine rather than chlorine? Have you added any Prime water conditioner?
Does your tap water show ammonia when tested?

 

[Pspence01]

if you are using tap water, can you find out if the supplier adds chloramine rather than chlorine? Have you added any Prime water conditioner?
Does your tap water show ammonia when tested?

Here is a link to my water.

Kingswood, Fishponds and Mangotsfield - Bristol Water

www.bristolwater.co.uk

I haven’t added prime but I have been using microbe - lift extreme to sort the water out before I put it in the tank.

 

[Naughts]

Here is a link to my water.

Kingswood, Fishponds and Mangotsfield - Bristol Water

www.bristolwater.co.uk

I haven’t added prime but I have been using microbe - lift extreme to sort the water out before I put it in the tank.
[/QUOTE/

you don't have chloramine in your water so that wouldn't be adding ammonia and the microbe is just bacteria so doesn't effect the ammonia.
As it is a low level you could wait for the nitrite to reach zero then follow Essjay's advice about adding floating plants (they have many benefits for fish) to process the ammonia.
I used a bacterial starter and had low level ammonia readings (0.25) for many weeks so it may just be that it needs to work through the cycle.
welcome to the hobby!