Cycling....

[rust81]

So i have been cycling (fishless) now for 11 days, ammonia is now clearing down to 0ppm in 12 hrs or so, but my nitrites are through the roof. Nitrates are appearing - but these seem to be stuck around the 10ppm at the moment. What i am wondering is whether there is simply too much nitrite in the tank now for the small amount of nitrobacter bacteria to process. Would it be wise to do a 50% water change to drop these levels down and give the bacteria less to process?

 

[xxBarneyxx]

So i have been cycling (fishless) now for 11 days, ammonia is now clearing down to 0ppm in 12 hrs or so, but my nitrites are through the roof. Nitrates are appearing - but these seem to be stuck around the 10ppm at the moment. What i am wondering is whether there is simply too much nitrite in the tank now for the small amount of nitrobacter bacteria to process. Would it be wise to do a 50% water change to drop these levels down and give the bacteria less to process?

I would leave it as it is, Nitrites tend to take awhile to go down and then all of a sudden will disappear very quickly. I would only do a water change during cycling if you start getting very high nitrates and this is only to help cut down on any algae blooms caused by the excess nitrate.

 

[orange shark]

no, leave it until the nitrites drop to 0. then do a water change to drop the nitrates

 

[backtotropical]

no, leave it until the nitrites drop to 0. then do a water change to drop the nitrates

Agreed.