Cycling Day 8; Lots Of Nitrate...

[EllenMarie]

Today, in counting will be cycling day 8. I added ammonia two days ago, and it has already dropped down to about .2 ppm. My nitrites seem to be high- off the scale, infact. (I'm an API user A little help?- I saw a pinned post saying that if the water in the test tube turned green, being unable to read, you had your nitrite spike. Mine turned a neon purple...( assuming I've had my Nitrite Spike???) compared to the sheet, the purple in my test tube is VERY purple...! My Nitrates are around 40ppm. My fish load will be pretty large...if not about average. anybody have an idea of when I should be able to put my fish in? Should I be concerned that my tank is cycling fast? is 8 days- too fast? Thanks! Ellen

 

[Cupster]

Looks like your bacteria are turning the Ammo into Nitrite ok but it takes longer to develop to the cultures that change this into Nitrate. I take it you have no fish in at the moment?

I think you should do a large >50% water change to get the Nitrite down but im sure someone with more knowledge will be commenting soon.

EDIT: Re: Water change - make sure you match the temp and dechlorinate the new water otherwise you will kill the bacteria you have grown already.

 

[Moby-Krib]

Looks to be coming along nicely. You still have a ways to go though.
Wait till you see 0 Ammonia before you dose again.
I'm going to assume your 40ppm Nitrates are a baseline from your tap water as 8 days is pretty early to be seeing any.
Test a cup of Dechlorinated tap set out over night to get a base line of all your readings to compare to if ever you have the need.

The off the chart Nitrite is nothing to worry about in a fishless and shows the first set of bacteria are taking hold nicely ,
you could do a water change just to bring it down to readable if you want but no need really.

Wait for Ammonia to go to 0 and no less than 24hrs between dosings, even if you see it drop to 0 sooner.

no real need to match the temp during a fishless but do make sure to dechlorinate if and when you do.
Keep an eye on PH if you see it drop drastically this is a valid reason for a water change as a low ph will likely stall or delay the cycle.

Good choice in going fishless.

 

[4seasons]

This is the color of an off the chart nitrite. More of a grey than green. Happens somewhere around 50ppm nitrite.

 

[Moby-Krib]

View attachment 67686
This is the color of an off the chart nitrite. More of a grey than green. Happens somewhere around 50ppm nitrite.

It has to be the flash playing tricks with the color.But I see less than .25 Nitrite in that picture myself.
what you see with your own eyes is what to go by.

 

[jb1997mcd]

The ammonia shows up green. The off the chart nitrites are usually a deep purple, looks like .25 to me as well,

Although I have never seen 50ppm nitrite.

jb

 

[4seasons]

View attachment 67686
This is the color of an off the chart nitrite. More of a grey than green. Happens somewhere around 50ppm nitrite.

It has to be the flash playing tricks with the color.But I see less than .25 Nitrite in that picture myself.
what you see with your own eyes is what to go by.

When the nitrite gets this high (somewhere around 40-50ppm) you don't get the purple anymore. It will turn the color in that pic I posted. I know it looks close to .25ppm but it is a little more grey than purple. This is one of the problems with the API kit especially in a fishless cycle. Remember that 1ppm ammonia is converted into 2.7 ppm nitrite so until the nitrite starts getting converted into nitrate all of your ammonia turns into a huge nitrite spike. So if you add 4ppm ammonia everytime it drops to 0ppm say 7 times across 2 weeks and your nitrates haven't started climbing yet you now have 75ppm nitrite in your tank and you will get the false reading like in the picture. You think that your cycle is getting close to finished because of the light color of the nitrite test but you haven't seen a rise in nitrates yet. But if you do a 75% water change and then retest you will see the bright purple color again on your nitrite test because you now have 18ppm nitrite. I have seen a few people think they have a fully cycled filter because of this, then they add fish only to find a nitrite spike a few days later that kills their fish. Believe me when I say if you get a color that looks like this on your nitrite test without a rise in nitrates during a fishless cycle you need to do a huge water change check again and dose your ammonia at a much lower rate.

This is the color of the test for 40ppm nitrite, not a camera trick.

 

[Trin20kau]

Very helpful, thank you.