fishless cycling

[schizo_fish]

ive been cycing my tank for two weeks now and i recently saw a rise in nitrites, but my ammonia didn't change.
2 days ago my readings were
Ammonia: approx 5
Nitites: 5 +
i just checked again and my readings were
Ammonia: approx 5
Nitites: 0-1
Nitrates: approx 5

whats going on? is this even possible?

 

[schizo_fish]

does anyone know what could have gone wrong?

 

[canarsie11]

Check your tap to see if there is ammonia is in it. If not, ammonia should begin to drop as nitrites get higher.

 

[fishstix101]

It might be easier to cycle your tank w/ some feeder fish!!!

 

[canarsie11]

It might be easier to cycle your tank w/ some feeder fish!!!

No it would not , cause if tap water contains ammonia will just kill feeders. And I dont reccomend you put any feeders in your tank , cause they can easily bring disease to you tank!



Also, when you begin to nitrites in fishless cycle, you are supposed to cut the amount of ammonia to half of what you was giving it daily, have you done that?

 

[luxum]

Yes, did you cut the dose in half when you saw nitrites?

Edit: and yes it is possible, nothing is wrong, and will all drop to zero shortly, don't panic.

 

[schizo_fish]

yes, i did cut it in half
im going to check my parameters in a bit

 

[mrV]

Do you still add ammonia?

It should go something like this:

(concentration in y-axis and time (days) in x-axis)

When nitrate level start to increase, you can cut down ammonia level: If you add ammonia, add only about to get values "1-2 mg/l" (if you see some changes in nitrates).

What are those parameters today?

 

[canarsie11]

Very nice graph!

 

[schizo_fish]

i have a 40 gallon tank, the ammonia source im using is 8% ammonia and 92% water. how much would i need to be adding after a nitrite spike?
can anyone work out a rough amount, i would have thought about 10ml

 

[luxum]

I assume you were adding enough to initially get to 5ppm. So then you'd be adding half of that. I've never calculated the concentrations so i can't really help you there. I know in my 20 gallon it took me about 1 and 1/4 teaspoons to get it to 5ppm using household ammonia of unknown concentration.

 

[schizo_fish]

luxum, how long did it take for you to completely cycle your tank?