Cycle done?i thuink so

[vantgE]

Okay yesterday nitrite down to 0.5 or still at 5.0 hard to tell

But yesterday i ran out of my normal amonia and i bought some new stuff from the real Canadian superstore no name brand, didn't have an ingredients list bhut didn't bubble however seemed thicker than the other amonia i had from safeways again the no-name brand

And today no amonia no nitrite no nitrate

Why did the nitrate go down last i checked it had maxed out the test thingy, i didn't know it's suposed to go down, so i was wandering if the amonia i bought is wrong or if I am truly done the cycle?

 

[wuvmybetta]

I've never done a fishless cycle,vantg. Just bumpin' for ya

 

[vantgE]

thanks wuv, i found some of the other amonia left and put it in last night and today the readings are back down to zero but i'm still stumped about the nitrates, being zero

 

[karrihug]

do you have live plants in teh tank? i have found that if i have lots of live plants my nitrate is never high. most of the time my 55 and 56 gal have less than 5ppm of nitrate.

 

[vantgE]

well it has massive amounts of algae and although currently has no reall plants i'm sure this unbelievably large presence of algae could have a similar effect

I tell them everday close the blinds no one listens

 

[karrihug]

not sure how much nitrate algae will use. but i know it is one sign of having too much. are you sure your nitrate test kit is ok?

 

[vantgE]

It has worked before, and i think the main algae reason is that the tank tends to be in direct sunlight most of the day, but i used to have really high nitrates as i said maybe the algae will go down now

 

[tstenback]

Is the reading maybe off the scale so it shows as nothing? It would be very odd for nitrates to drop at all never mind drop overnight. I think if you could take a sample to an LFS or a friend to get them to check the nitrate it may confirm one way or the other. HTH