Cycling And Nitrates

[Kurosakii]

Hello,
Unsure if this is the right section to ask; only gotten back into the hobby recently.
Cycling a new tank and following the steps to cycle from this link: http/www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f15/the-almost-complete-guide-and-faq-to-fishless-cycling-148283.html
It says to do a water change when the nitrate levels are off the charts so >160ppm but the colour of my nitrate doesn't correspond to any on the chart: http/imgur.com/a/objfA
 
Perhaps I'm colour-blind.
It's bright red and there isn't one to complement it on the chart. Is it off the charts? Or simply one in between 40-80 or 80-160 mg/l, and so I should proceed to add ammonia upto 4ppm daily until a darker red  than 160ppm appears?
Additionally, is my tank close to finishing its cycle? When I add ammonia to 4ppm, it is ~0.5-1ppm the next day. It's been 24 days now. 
 
Help much appreciated, thanks

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[fluttermoth]

Nitrate tests are the most inaccurate of the home tests.
 
I would say that result is around 60ppm. If it gets a lot darker then it might be a good idea to do a water change to bring it down a bit.
 
Latest advice for fishless cycles is to dose ammonia only up to 2 or 3ppm. 
 
What are your nitrite levels like?

 

[Kurosakii]

Thanks. I'll only add 2 drops here on out; perhaps it'll zero down with lesser drops but not sure whether this is an indicator of a definite finished cycle.
Nitrite is currently 0. It's always converted to nitrate before I get a chance to record it. Only once was I able to document it but was ~0.25. 

 

[fluttermoth]

You should be fairly close to finishing, although it's hard to be sure.
 
When ammonia (and nitrite) a zero 12 hours after you've dosed, you'll be done.

 

[webbo87]

Just a quick question hope i aint stealing the thread people my cycle is showing 0 on ammonia and nitrite after 24hr after dosing around 3-4ppm im in the stage of doing this a few times but i have a problem with my ph dropping badly from around 7.6 down to 6.4 is this down to nirates been so high, i have already had to do a big water change twice during my cycle due to this because it slowed down my ammonia going ! anyone got any advice dont want it stalling again when so close to finish !

 

[TwoTankAmin]

You are cycled. The final test should be over 24 hours rather than 12.
 
The whole cycling process is acidifying over time. It is not just nitrates. Long before nitrates have accumulated the pH will tend to drop. Research bio-acidification if you are curious. Think old tank syndrome if you are not. Think KH too.

 

[webbo87]

So is it because im cycled and the adding of 3ppm of ammonia each time drops to 0 the cause for the low ph, its only recently dropping this low back end of cycle would be around 7.4-7.6 when i started ! or would you keep testing but keep to say 2ppm ammonia ? my tap water is 7.6 ppm thanks

 

[TwoTankAmin]

You are cycled. Do a big water change, get the tank up to temp and add fish.

 

[webbo87]

Thank you i dosed 1ppm at 8 this evening will i be ok tested 8 tomorrow morning if all good big water change temp down and fish time ?

 

[misterpro]

Sure.
 
When your water test is fine (it will be) turn your heater down.  Do the biggest waterchange possible (95% or something like that) to get the skyhigh nitrates out.  And go shopping.  (Even the next day is no problem.  The beneficial bacteria don't starve very fast.)

 

[webbo87]

Lovely stuff thanks so is a PH drop normal occurance for end of cycles ?

 

[misterpro]

I had a crash from ph 8.2 to 6.7 half a week before I finished cycle.
 
So basically yes.  The simple answer is that your bacteria that convert ammonia to nitrite and then nitrate use buffering (KH) from your water to do so.  If the KH becomes very low your water becomes "unstable" and the ph crashes.  It's normal.
 
Although if it happens with fishes in the tank they'll start dropping dead.  But that shouldn't happen because
a) The load of the fishes will be less then what the load from the ammonia bottle cycling was
b) You'll do water changes (adding buffering)

 

[webbo87]

Thanks a lot good to hear