Cycling My 46G Bowfront. Weird Readings.

[l_l_l]

hey there! I have started cycling my 46 gallon tank with pure ammonia and I'm getting weird readings, not sure what to think of those.

First of all I had the chance to get an old filter media from someone coming with his filter as well and his substrate too. He rinsed the media in cold water but only slightly he said.
Substrate was still covered with water having about 2 inches on top of it.

I have been doing a few readings on and off but only for ammonia.
Now I have tested ammonia, nitrites and nitrates.
Here are my readings: 0.50 ppm ammonia (tested at 3ppm 12 hours ago), 0ppm nitrites, and 15-20ppm nitrates..
What am I looking at?
I just added another dose of ammonia to make sure my bacteria is fed and kept at above 3ppm, but I was expecting of seeing nitrites in my readings.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Exactly what set of cycling directions are you following?
Also you have not supplied sufficient details to enable one to assess your situation.
 
Info needed would be tap water params for pH and KH at least. Info on what is in the tank, what dechlor you use, what test kits. When did you start cycling?
 
It is hard to assess what is going on when there is little history for what you did when.
 
2.5 ppm of ammonia on an API test kit should turn into about 6.4 ppm of nitrite and then into about 9.2 ppm of nitrate. This assumes there are no nitrite oxidizing bacteria present. Since you have seeded the first problem I see is seeding should move similar amounts of both types of bacteria into a new tank. So whatever ammonia can be processes it should also process the amount of nitrite that creates.
 
The bacteria can last a pretty long time without ammonia, so there was no need or reason for you to have added more.

 

[l_l_l]

I am using API test kits and my pH is of 7.4
I'm cycling using most of what I have read so far here. The guide on top part of this site helped me a lot. The tank has been running for a week now but I didn't add any ammonia to it before now.
My first results after the tank was running for a day were :
ammonia and nitrites are at 0.25 PPM, nitrates are at 5 ppm. PH of 7.2

My tap water is at 7.4 pH, no ammonia nitrites or nitrate.
I don't own a kh test kit neither knew I should have one.
Edit: I use prime as water conditioner.

PS everywhere I read about ammonia told me I should add some until I see it coming down from 3 to 0 in twelve hours..

 

[TwoTankAmin]

That helps a lot. First off, not everywhere tells you that, I know because i worte the cycling article here and i do not ever say that, Its a 24 hour period not 12. But everywhere will also tell you to add more ammonia than you should and this causes most of the cycling problems folks encounter.
 
The reason for knowing your KH is that is is a measure of carbonates in a tank. Carbonates are inorganic carbon and this is essential for the bacteria. Low carbonates and/or low pH can both stall a cycle. This is also mentioned in the article.
 
My best bet here is you added enough bacteria to pretty much cycle the tank. The ammonia reading is likely in error and probably due to the Prime. It can throw off ammonia test results if not taken right away. After that one needs to allow prime to clear the system before testing.
 
Here is what I would advise. Do a big water change to clear out ammonia and nitrite. Dose the prime and then test right away before the prime starts to affect results. You should see 0/0 by then. If not, change more water until you do. Then wait 36 hours for the prime to clear out and then add ammonia sufficient to produce 3 ppm in your tank. he wait 24 hours and test for ammonia and nitrite. Hopefully, you will get 0/0 and be cycled. if you do not get 0/0 then following the end of the cycle directions in the article for how to proceed.

 

[l_l_l]

Just did a really big water change and tested at 0,0, an 0-0.25 ppm for ammonia..
Will wait another 36 hours and add the 3 ppm ammonia. Hopefully I'm cycled. It would be really nice

 

[l_l_l]

Ok I have tested my tap water Kh and GH with API . Results: KH of 89.5 and GH of 125.3.
Not sure what that means..

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Those readings are in ppm. divide them by 17.8 to get degrees. So your KH is about 5 dg which is fine. Your GH is about 7 dg which is is toward the soft side but not real soft.
 

General Hardness GH

0 - 4 dH, 0 - 70 ppm : very soft
4 - 8 dH, 70 - 140 ppm : soft
8 - 12 dH, 140 - 210 ppm : medium hard
12 - 18 dH, 210 - 320 ppm : fairly hard
18 - 30 dH, 320 - 530 ppm : hard
higher : liquid rock (Lake Malawi and Los Angeles, CA)

from http/fins.actwin.com/aquariafaq.html

 

[l_l_l]

thank you I have read a few articles about KH and GH and it really is interesting!
Can't wait to add ammonia and see if I'm cycled

 

[l_l_l]

added ammonia yesterday at about 11:30 pm for 3ppm
now it's 8:35pm and I tested my water and here are the results, still confusing me.

0.25-0.50 ppm ammonia
0 ppm nitrites
5 ppm ammonia
I'm lost.

edit: so sorry about this. I misread the importance of waiting 24hrs before testing ammonia.
I'll test later tonight.

 

[l_l_l]

Guys, I'm cycled!!!!

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I was going to suggest that your ammonia reading of about .25 ppm was likely test kit error rather than actual ammonia. As a general rule a tank can not process all the nitrite to nitrate as long as one still has an ammonia reading.
 
It is simple bio-chemistry at work. The nitrite oxidizing bacteria start to build up after the ammonia levels are already coming down plus the nitrite eaters take longer to reproduce. This is why ammonia should completely vanish from a system ( as far as out test kits are concerned) before nitrite does. All the needed ammonia oxidizers are present before all the needed nitrite ones are.
 
The upshot of this is it most unusual for one to be able to add ammonia, have it mostly, but not all, get converted yet not show a nitrite reading. If a tank can not process all of the ammonia added, then it also should not be able to handle all the nitrite either. Note, this is all relative to a cycle having gotten closer to the end than to the beginning.

 

[l_l_l]

I was going to suggest that your ammonia reading of about .25 ppm was likely test kit error rather than actual ammonia. As a general rule a tank can not process all the nitrite to nitrate as long as one still has an ammonia reading.
 
It is simple bio-chemistry at work. The nitrite oxidizing bacteria start to build up after the ammonia levels are already coming down plus the nitrite eaters take longer to reproduce. This is why ammonia should completely vanish from a system ( as far as out test kits are concerned) before nitrite does. All the needed ammonia oxidizers are present before all the needed nitrite ones are.
 
The upshot of this is it most unusual for one to be able to add ammonia, have it mostly, but not all, get converted yet not show a nitrite reading. If a tank can not process all of the ammonia added, then it also should not be able to handle all the nitrite either. Note, this is all relative to a cycle having gotten closer to the end than to the beginning.

Yes! Exactly what I was thinking!
This is why I was really wondering why in hell I had .25 ppm ammonia but no Nitrites, but had Nitrate readings..
 
Then I tested my tap water as well, to compare colors, and same color pattern, a bit under the 0.25ppm color, but not full yellow like the API card shows.
 
Googled : stuck at 0.25ppm ammonia, API test kit, and boom! Lots of people talking about the kit having stupid colors even if there are no ammonia present in the tank. Contacted API, they told me that they are aware that the color match is not the best.
 
I'm so excited!