Dropping Nitrates And Stable Ammonia?

[iankent]

Hi everyone - had strange water test results that dont seem to follow what should happen in a fishless cycle. my ammonia has stayed stable in the past 24 hours (~2ppm) and my nitrites have gone up, but my nitrates have dropped from 10ppm to 5ppm. I was expecting to get rising nitrites, falling ammonia (until I add more), and eventually rising nitrates, but my results seem to be a bit all over the place!

is my aquarium doing ok, and are these results normal, or am I making a stupid mistake somewhere?

edit: is it worth doing a water change? the water is barely moving, probably because of the snail slime (apparently they make silk to walk on!), so could that be affecting water readings etc?

thank you!

 

[waterdrop]

Do you have live plants?

Yes, things will go up and down, sometimes in bewildering patterns but usually you just need to be patient, keep testing and logging each day and watching for the major turning points of ammonia dropping, nitrite spiking and then both ammonia and nitrite dropping.

If you think of it as a chem experiment where some quantities go up because others went down, you will get confused and be wrong often. The problem is that the bacteria are living cells and don't behave like a chemical reaction and also the short looks you get when you do your tests do not give you a smooth graph that might be less confusing.

 

[iankent]

Do you have live plants?

Hi waterdrop - yes, I have quite a few plants in there - about 10 or so taller plants, 8 leafy plants and about 15 smaller grassy/leafy plants. I was wondering if that had something to do with it! It's a shame the water readings arent a bit more accurate it's sometimes difficult to work out exactly where the colour is on the chart!

the water is also looking quite thick - mostly with the snail slime - so is it worth considering a water change (the filter doesnt look as effective as it did a few days back), or should i just leave it as it is for now?

thanks

 

[waterdrop]

You're just seeing the classic signs of plants enjoying eating up some of your ammonia and nitrates. Plants will take some of those two things, but not the nitrites (IIR.)

You should be able to review the RDD fishless article and just keep in mind that with a well-planted tank, anywhere ammonia or nitrate amounts are mentioned, your plants might be stealing some, thus changing what your test results (and your bacteria) get. Unless your plantings are super-heavy it usually just slows down cycling, doesn't actually stop it.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[iankent]

You're just seeing the classic signs of plants enjoying eating up some of your ammonia and nitrates. Plants will take some of those two things, but not the nitrites (IIR.)

You should be able to review the RDD fishless article and just keep in mind that with a well-planted tank, anywhere ammonia or nitrate amounts are mentioned, your plants might be stealing some, thus changing what your test results (and your bacteria) get. Unless your plantings are super-heavy it usually just slows down cycling, doesn't actually stop it.

~~waterdrop~~

thanks for the reassurance - first time nerves and all that, just keep thinking something must be wrong I've been referring back to RDD's article which has been really helpful, but just keep worrying about things too much!

 

[waterdrop]

Well, stuff goes wrong for me too. RDD's article keeps holding up quite well though. There are extra details you can learn and play around with but his article is so good because too much of that would just confuse beginners all the more I think. Most importantly it seems to be a recipe you can pretty much just do if you have trust. Plants are pretty darn hard - I was reminded of that this weekend.

 

[iankent]

thanks waterdrop you've put my mind at rest. water results are looking better again today - we did do a water change after, more info on my blog, but the ammonia is disappearing quickly and the nitrite is rising!