Help Please, Am I Cycled?

[mark.w.jones]

Totally confused now....
Tank cycled 2days ago, still doing checks every day Ammonia: 0, Nitrites: 0
Have added ammonia each day (as no fish yet), drops back to 0 in under 12hours

Did a 30% water change this morning to clean the tank up a bit, Will be doing a large water change tomorrow morning.

Tested for Nitrates 2hrs after water change expecting them to have gone down a bit (was around 90/100) but they have now gone up off the chart.

Any explanations WHY?

Was going to put my fish in tomorrow or Monday.

The main way to drop nitrate levels is by diluting them with water changes. They won't go away until you do your 90% water change just before you stock your fish. Also what level of nitrate is naturally found in your tap water?

 

[Watersprite]

I've checked my tap water for nitrates and it is zero. I'm just confused why the nitrates would go up when I did a water change. I know I only did 30% but surely that should lower it slightly. Will do big water change in the morning and see what happens. Thanks.

 

[OrganizedChaos69]

Well if you have live plants, they use nitrates to grow. Most water sources have fairly high nitrates, near 80 ppms from the tap. It will go down once it's put in a tank with plants which use the nitrates.

 

[Watersprite]

Well if you have live plants, they use nitrates to grow. Most water sources have fairly high nitrates, near 80 ppms from the tap. It will go down once it's put in a tank with plants which use the nitrates.

The nitrates didn't go down when I did the waterchange, they went up. My tap water reads zero to nitrate testing.

 

[OrganizedChaos69]

Yeah i didn't see the post before, i responded to the original. Maybe your test kit is screwed up. I've never honestly heard of a water source with zero ppms, it's nearly impossible. De-ionized water would be the only one with absolutely no nitrates.

 

[rdd1952]

Most likely, the test you did for nitrate before the water change was wrong. After a full fishless cycle, the nitrate level should be totally off the chart (probably 150+) and nothing less than a 50% water change should get it back to a measureable level. Nitrate tests can get lumpy. That is why you have to shake bottle 2 for 30 seconds or so before using it. If you don't get it shaken up good, the results will be wrong.

 

[Watersprite]

Most likely, the test you did for mitrate before the water change was wrong. After a full fishless cycle, the nitrate level should be totally off the chart (probably 150+) and nothing less than a 50% water change should get it back to a measureable level. Nitrate tests can get lumpy. That is why you have to shake bottle 2 for 30 seconds or so before using it. If you don't get it shaken up good, the results will be wrong.

Thanks rdd1952.
I have always shaken the bottles after adding the water from the tank as per instructions, but had no idea that you had to shake bottle 2 of the nitrate test for 30seconds before using it, usually just give it a quick shake. Could explain some of the weird readings I've had for nitrates over the last few weeks. I'm definately learning lots on here!