Do You Get Confused Over Strange Chemical Balance?

[scorphonic]

Ok so the cycle of the biological system in your tank is simply this: Ammonia is consumed and metabolised into Nitrites. These nitrites are then metabolised by a different bacterial colony into nitrates.

Sounds simple doesn't it!!

I think my bacteria are drunk!!

I checked the water conditions tonight (or should I say this morning...its three in the morning here!!)

The ammonia levels had gone from about 2ppm two days ago to about 1 yesterday and when I got home tonight it was near zero....so I quickly tested the Nitrites and got 0ppm and now after about three hours (after the addition of more ammonia) I tested the Nitrites again and still 0ppm....but get this...the Nitrates are at about 10 to 20 (the colour is difficult to completely distinguish...probably about 15!!)

So whats the story? Last week my Nitrates were definately 0ppm (and so I didn't bother checking them again!), my Nitrites were 0ppm (didn't really bother checking this either coz I was more interested in the reduction of ammonia!) and my ammonia was mostly kept at 4ppm until the day before yesterday or so!!

 

[Mako Man111]

Ok so the cycle of the biological system in your tank is simply this: Ammonia is consumed and metabolised into Nitrites. These nitrites are then metabolised by a different bacterial colony into nitrates.

Sounds simple doesn't it!!

I think my bacteria are drunk!!

I checked the water conditions tonight (or should I say this morning...its three in the morning here!!)

The ammonia levels had gone from about 2ppm two days ago to about 1 yesterday and when I got home tonight it was near zero....so I quickly tested the Nitrites and got 0ppm and now after about three hours of adding in more ammonia I tested the Nitrites again and still 0ppm....but get this...the Nitrates are at about 10 to 20 (the colour is difficult to completely distinguish...probably about 15!!)

So whats the story? Last week my Nitrates were definately 0ppm, my Nitrites were 0ppm and my ammonia was mostly kept at 4ppm until the day before yesterday or so!!

I guess your cycle might be done?

 

[Puffdaddy]

Sounds normal to me if your ammonia is at 0 ppm, your nitrite is at 0 ppm and your nitrate at 15 ppm. I would say your tank is done cycling. Having some nitrate is normal although you will want to keep it below 40 ppm. Live plants and water changes will help keep the nitrates down.

 

[scorphonic]

I guess your cycle might be done?

I wish it was...the ammonia still stays high for a few hours...about 20 I'd say. How come there were no Nitrites though?

The tank has been cycling for about 10 days. Tomorrow I'm getting a big bag of bacterial sludge from an estabilished tank so I'll see what happens then!!

 

[blabadie]

I guess your cycle might be done?

I wish it was...the ammonia still stays high for a few hours...about 20 I'd say. How come there were no Nitrites though?

The tank has been cycling for about 10 days. Tomorrow I'm getting a big bag of bacterial sludge from an estabilished tank so I'll see what happens then!!

Don't ever say that again

 

[scorphonic]

I guess your cycle might be done?

I wish it was...the ammonia still stays high for a few hours...about 20 I'd say. How come there were no Nitrites though?

The tank has been cycling for about 10 days. Tomorrow I'm getting a big bag of bacterial sludge from an estabilished tank so I'll see what happens then!!

Don't ever say that again

haha...having breakfast?

 

[scorphonic]

I got alot of dirt and sponge squeezings from an established and mature tank on Tuesday. I added in my ammonia as usual each day but then had to add in ammonia twice daily due to it being consumed quite quickly. The Nitrite levels have increased steadly to a maximum of 2 - 5...(hard to tell on the API test). That nitrite peak happened over two to three days...and reached its peak yesterday. Last night I decided not to add in ammonia as I had added in twice the usual amount earlier in the day. Waking up at 7 this morning I decided to run down and check the levels. I got ZERO ammonia, ZERO Nitrite and 40ppm nitrate.

Is it usual for a nitrite peak to go down that quickly....could it be down to the bacteria that I got the other day? Now long do these two bacterial colonies live without Ammonia and Nitrite?

More questions but I just know that the answers will be so much more useful to me!!

 

[rdd1952]

I don't know if you are using any of them or not but products like nitro-zorb and zeolite can remove ammonia, nitrite and nitrate and prevent a tank from cycling properly. Unless you somehow ended up with a very quick colony of bacteria to process the nitrite, something is wrong. They are generally much slower to develop that those that process ammonia. Your nitrite should definitely go off the chart high.

From your last reading though, it definitely sounds as if things are in order as the nitrates are up and everything else is 0. I would still keep adding ammonia when it drops and keep testing until it is processing 3 to 4 ppm of ammonia to 0 readings in 10 to 12 hours.

 

[scorphonic]

I'll definately do that...thanks!!

How long can the bacteria survive for without ammonia and nitrite?

I'd say the reason why its going so fast is because I got bacteria from an established external filter the other day...about 10L of it!! All this went into my external and internal filter and was only out of its original external filter for maximum 20 minutes before going into mine. I'm running both my internal and external at the same time so there should be quite alot of bacteria there!

 

[rdd1952]

I don't know how long they can survive. I do know that I have left my filters unplugged before for 8 to 10 hours without any problems though. The key is that they don't dry out. And since you got the media from the other tank, I would say you are probably cycled. That is the reason you didn't see the big spike that is normal.