Cycling - Nitrites Stuck At .5ppm - What To Do?

[jiffy]

My tank is nearing the end of it's cycle. The tank can clear 5ppm of ammonia in less than 20 hours (not sure how much less) but NitrItes have been stuck at .5ppm for a few days now (3 or 4).

I am getting new fish shipped, they should be here Tuesday. Should I let the cycle continue undisturbed longer till the nitrites go down, or should I attempt a water change at some point?

 

[dthoffsett]

Sounds like you're doing a fishless cycle, if this is the case, by all means let it finish the cycle. In general, nitrites will take twice as long to fall to zero than ammonia did. For example, ammonia went to zero in 10 days, nitrite will take 20. Although this is just an approximation, if you seeded your tank, it'll go faster, but better to let the tank finish cycling than interrupt it and possibly stall it.

 

[Rick]

The nitrites will drop literally overnight. I was having the same issue and I checked the next day and it was at zero.

 

[newfishaddict]

My tank is nearing the end of it's cycle. The tank can clear 5ppm of ammonia in less than 20 hours (not sure how much less) but NitrItes have been stuck at .5ppm for a few days now (3 or 4).

I am getting new fish shipped, they should be here Tuesday. Should I let the cycle continue undisturbed longer till the nitrites go down, or should I attempt a water change at some point?

I would not add fish untill nitrites are 0ppm

But if you get fish and need to put them in the tank then I would do daily 10% water changes untill nitrites are down.