Cycling readings

[Apwhite]

Right now I’m cycling my first 10g saltwater tank. I’m about a week into the cycle right now. I’ve been testing the water every other day and today the readings seem a bit strange. Ammonia is zero and nitrite/trate seems pretty high. I wasn’t sure exactly how high so I attached an image. Obviously these levels are unsafe fire fish. What should I do about them? I read that adding too much ammonia can cause levels to spike a ton so could this be what happened? Should I stop adding ammonia for a little while (I added a mere three drops two days ago, 20 drops a few days before that, and 40 drops initially)? If I should stop adding ammonia, how long should I wait before adding it again and how much should I add after that? And will nitrates naturally lower or will I have to do a water change? And for that level of nitrates, will I have to do multiple water changes?

 

[Colin_T]

A bit late for this but hopefully the info can be used by someone else. This thread could have gone in the cycling section too, but never mind.

Disregard the nitrate reading and don't test for nitrates until the tank has cycled. Nitrate test kits read nitrite as nitrate and give you a false reading.

If the nitrite is above 5ppm (and it looks close to it, maybe a bit above), it can stall or slow the cycling process. Same deal with ammonia, if the ammonia level goes above 5ppm it can stall the process. 3ppm of ammonia is all that's normally needed.

Let the tank run until the ammonia and nitrite are 0ppm, then check the nitrates.

After the ammonia and nitrite have gone up and come back down to 0ppm, you can check the filter by adding enough ammonia to get the level up to 3ppm, then see how long it takes to come down to 0ppm. If the ammonia and nitrite are 0ppm after 24-48 hours, then the tank is cycled.

Once the tank has cycled, do a huge water change to remove any nitrates, wait 24-48 hours and then add some fish.

 

[itiwhetu]

A bit late for this but hopefully the info can be used by someone else. This thread could have gone in the cycling section too, but never mind.

Disregard the nitrate reading and don't test for nitrates until the tank has cycled. Nitrate test kits read nitrite as nitrate and give you a false reading.

If the nitrite is above 5ppm (and it looks close to it, maybe a bit above), it can stall or slow the cycling process. Same deal with ammonia, if the ammonia level goes above 5ppm it can stall the process. 3ppm of ammonia is all that's normally needed.

Let the tank run until the ammonia and nitrite are 0ppm, then check the nitrates.

After the ammonia and nitrite have gone up and come back down to 0ppm, you can check the filter by adding enough ammonia to get the level up to 3ppm, then see how long it takes to come down to 0ppm. If the ammonia and nitrite are 0ppm after 24-48 hours, then the tank is cycled.

Once the tank has cycled, do a huge water change to remove any nitrates, wait 24-48 hours and then add some fish.

You say add some fish. I thought the idea was that you could add all your fish at the end of this process.

 

[Colin_T]

You can add all the fish at the same time if you like, but if the aquarium isn't properly cycled, or the person is new to fish keeping and hasn't got much/ any experience, it's safer to add a few cheap fish and see how they go, rather than add hundreds of dollars worth of fish and possibly watch them all die overnight.