High Ammonia And Nitrite, 0 Nitrate.

[Daigle107]

I have a 29 gallon freshwater aquarium and I have been cycling it for 6 days and my ammonia reading seems to be off the charts with no sign of it lowering, my nitrite is at 3 ppm, and I still have no reading for my nitrate. My first instinct was to do a 50% water change, but I'm worried this will only slow the cycling process... The tank is at 80 degrees, pH of 7.2, alkalinity is at 120 ppm, chlorine is at 0, and I have a hardness of 75 ppm all of these are measured with the 6 in 1 quick dip strips produced by Jungle. Any tips on what I should do next would be greatly appreciated.

 

[mattlee]

the first thing you should do is chuck the test strips in the bin... they are pretty much useless and inacurate. you will be much better off buying a liquid based testkit like the API masterkit. these are much more accurate and alot of people on here use them so will know what the readings are all about
try ebay for a masterkit as its much much cheaper than lfs

 

[OldMan47]

You will need to give me a clue on what you are doing Daigle.
Off the chart for one kit is a low reading for another. What value are you seeing and what are you doing? Are you in a fishless or a fish-in situation?
If you have fish in and are trying to cycle a tank, do huge water changes until the ammonia is almost undetectable by whatever method you are using. The cycle will move along just as fast that way as at sky high ammonia values, the difference is the fish will survive it. As Mattlee suggested, get a liquid type test kit, the strips are worse than useless since they can mislead you to do the wrong thing.

 

[Daigle107]

I am doing a fishless cycle as I've heard that a fish-in cycle is cruel to the fish that are used, I plan on ordering a liquid test kid as Mattlee suggested, but at this point all I have is the test strips and I am very impatient on getting my tank ready for its fishy inhabitants. I don't want to have to start over or waste 3-4 days for the API master test to come in the mail. I just rechecked my water, and although the strips are hard to read I got a reading somewhere between 1.0 and 3.0 ppm for ammonia, nitrite around 3.0 ppm and my nitrate has finally risen to somewhere between 0 and 20 ppm however my pH is down to 6.8. I will recheck in the morning, before adding any ammonia and repost those results. Thank you for any input anybody has to this issue. I can't wait to get my fish!!

 

[waterdrop]

Hi Daigle, sounds like you've got a decent dose of ammonia in there. The first dose is not particularly critical as long as its not way up around 8ppm or something like that. It can often take about 3 weeks before anything happens to that first dose anyway. Its the easy period of basically doing not much of anything!

In order the enjoy the hobby, one of the most helpful things will be to try and shed that feeling of impatience! The tropical fish hobby is very special in that its one of the only things in our lives these days that's the *opposite* of fast, online, energetic.. all that stuff of modern life. The hobby is all about relaxing, decompressing and letting the beautiful tank take you away from all that for a while. Now I know you're going to say, "That's why I want to hurry up and have fish!" lol, I understand. But it turns out that *all* the aspects of the hobby.. the -process- itself, can be enjoyed in this same slow deep way that will eventually be your reward at night looking at the beautiful environment you've created. Taking your time creating the environment and coming to a deeper understanding about -all- of it, the water chemistry, the bacterial species, the plants, the skills you will need... all these things are part of the joy of the hobby and all can be better appreciated by taking your time on a forum like this and soaking up some of the unusual things you can learn from people. The fishless cycling time is perfect for learning about many of these things and getting a handle on the somewhat tricky skill of stocking your tank with the right fish. I'm sure the members will help you keep your fishless cycle on track - they're great!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Daigle107]

I completely understand all of what you're saying. My girlfriend thought I was weird today because even though there are no fish in the tank I was able to sit and watch it for 15 minutes, and I feel like it was a great way to unwind. I'm getting the chance to grow some of my plants from bulbs, and they are doing great. I'm afraid my initial dose of ammonia may have been too high, if that is the case maybe I will just let it sit until this drops, I realize now that as long as I can continue to stock it with plants I can wait as long as it takes to get fish in the water. My pH seems to be dropping quickly, is that something I should worry about, or should I wait it out and wait for the cycle to stabilize itself? Thank you all for your help. I think that a community like this for people with similar interests is such a great thing.

 

[mattlee]

a pH drop in a cycling tank is quite a common thing i wouldnt worry too much about it as it will come back to normal once the cycle has completed and you do your final water change
what temp is the tank at?
i ask this as it seems beneficial to run a cycling tank at about 29 degrees as the bacteria seems to grow slightly faster in most cases

 

[Daigle107]

I have the aquarium running at 80 degrees Fahrenheit, I read that this is a good temperature somewhere on this forum I believe. I checked my specs again this morning and the ammonia is still quite high, not sure on the number as I wasn't able to match it up to anything on the strip, and the nitrite and nitrate have both risen, I'm feeling much better about the cycle than I was before, now if I could just get the ammonia to come down to a readable level I will be happy. I test twice a day now with the thought that the faster I use up the test strips that I have the faster I can get a new API master test kit. Haha. Thanks again for helping me out with this.

I just did a quick check and 80 degrees is around 26.7 degrees Celsius, should I raise the temperature a little bit?

 

[mattlee]

I have the aquarium running at 80 degrees Fahrenheit, I read that this is a good temperature somewhere on this forum I believe. I checked my specs again this morning and the ammonia is still quite high, not sure on the number as I wasn't able to match it up to anything on the strip, and the nitrite and nitrate have both risen, I'm feeling much better about the cycle than I was before, now if I could just get the ammonia to come down to a readable level I will be happy. I test twice a day now with the thought that the faster I use up the test strips that I have the faster I can get a new API master test kit. Haha. Thanks again for helping me out with this.

try testing 4 times a day and those strips will soon be gone

 

[Daigle107]

Woooo!!!!! Ammonia is finally down to 0, Nitrite is over 10 ppm and Nitrate is at 40 ppm. Can someone here direct me on my next step? Until I hear back I will not add any ammonia or do anything to the tank...

Thank you.

Justin.

 

[arobinson1984]

Hi Justin,

I believe you are in a fishless cycle situation?

If so you now need to top up the ammonia daily to 4-5ppm (presuming your ammonia is now dropping to 0 within 24 hours?)

Topping up the ammonia will continue to feed the bacteria feeding the nitrites, without topping up the ammonia the cycle won't continue.


Andy