Fishless Cycling Of Course

[jaclynl]

I know there are a million posts on this subject but I can't seem to find what I'm looking for. I set up my tank just after the 1st of Jan and started my fishless cycle on the 4th of January. I have a bottle of pure ammonia and added enough to take it to 6ppm, then I tested every day. I have the API master test kit but I also bought some test strips so that I could test strip every day while the levels were really high, and then use the liquid test kit as the levels started to drop and I wanted to be more precise.

A week ago my ammonia level dropped to 0ppm (and there was much rejoicing) and I started testing for Nitrites every day. Of course the levels are off the charts. I also followed the same strategy, I bought a tube of test strips so that I could dip every day and see if the level was still off the charts, if not I would switch to the liquid kit (it's all about the time saving). I also check ammonia every day, right now it goes from 3-4ppm to 0ppm in less than 24 hours, actually about 12, I top it up to 3-4ppm every morning.

Every 3 or 4 days I have been doing the full liquid test just to see my levels. Yesterday I did the liquid Nitrite test and the drops turned purple immediately (from the guide this means it's off the charts) but then as I did the other tests it changed to light purple (0.5ppm) which was at the 5min reading mark. My test strip still says it's off the charts. I re did the test today and got the same results....now I don;t know what my Nitrite levels are (Nitrates are 20ppm)

Where should I go from here??

Thanks for the help

 

[Miss Wiggle]

keep doing what you're doing!

don't fret over not knowing exactly what the nitrite reading is at the moment, take this reading to mean you have 'some' nitrite, when you're down to 0 it'll go clear sky blue more or less straight away. just keep plugging away until that happens.

if you're desperate to know what the nitrite is then do a 50% water change then test again, obviously you'll only have half reading so double it and that's what you were on before.

 

[jaclynl]

I guess I just wanted ot know if it was going down or not. This fishless cycle is trying my patience

Thank you

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, agree with MW. Actually your fishless cycle sounds like its doing really well! That's exactly the sort of behaviour you see from the nitrite test while its still jumping around and when it finally decides to go "sky blue" on you one of these days, it will be very clear, you'll know it!

Then you can start watching for the nitrite to be able to go sky blue at 12 hours just like your ammonia has accomplished. When it gets close to doing that you'll want to be careful to try and be sure your ammonia adds are right at about 5ppm, so that the colony sizes will be good and strong. There is often a frustrating wait for the nitrite(NO2) to truly drop within the 12 hours, so be prepared for potential frustration waiting for that.

When ammonia and nitrite both finally drop from 5ppm to 0ppm in 12 hours then you can immediately start your "qualification week," which just means to keep adding ammonia and watching it drop within the 12 hours for the rest of the week, while you also finalize your fish stocking plans and be sure the first fish you want are really available that weekend and then when the weekend comes and your filter has "qualified(!)" you do the big water change and acclimate the new fish! Finishing out the week like this just ensures no more "blips" of mini-cycling.

~~waterdrop~~