Cycling Anxiety

[InaneCathode]

I'm not sure if my tank is actually cycling or not... I've added the ammonia as perscribed (up to 5ppm) about 3-4 weeks ago. About a week ago it went back to 0ppm, and a little bit of nitrite was visable (it wasnt 'off the charts' as it's described in the FC thread) I added more ammonia to get it back to 5ppm, it went back down to 0ppm but the nitrite appears to have not risen any, nor has there been any noticable increase in nitrates.

Could it be that my ammonia is gassing off some how? I just don't see how the ammonia levels can drop, but everything else stays reasonably stable.

Also, are all drop test kits as dodgy as mine, color wise? It's seriously hard for me to tell what the color card is telling me. Perhaps i'm colorblind as well? Do they make a digital tube reader system?

 

[Underwurlde]

Drop tests are notoriously inaccurate!

Get a test kit instead perhaps or ask your LFS to test a sample of water for you. Looks like your tank is getting there. The bacteria that 'scoff' nitrite take longer to colonize than the ammonia 'scoffing' bunch.

My tank took like >6 weeks....

Keep going!

Andy

PS I've only got a digital tester for pH - £10(ish) 'from Hong Kong' on ebay (bargain). Digital meters for Amms, Nitrite and Nitrate are way expensive I think. BTW I find the test kits hard to read so I ask my wife (who is an artisit) to read them for me and she manages to read it consistently very accurately for me - they are the best of a worst (cheap) bunch if you get my drift.

 

[mr williams]

I don't know where they find 4 shades of red so similar for the nitrate test.

 

[InaneCathode]

drop test as in test tubes/water