How Far Off Am I?

[The Duke]

Three weeks into fish less cycle and ammonia is dropping to zero everyday after being dosed to 4.0. Nitrite is still off the chart but nitrate is now showing a reading of 5.0. Does this sound like I am far off?

 

[paulyoung666]

Hard to say but it is going in the right direction , keep an eye on the pH , mine crashed and stopped my cycle , dead , had to do a water change and add a little bicarb of soda to get it going again , keep at it , its worth it

 

[Alex.]

I found doing a massive water change at this point speeded up. The back log of nitrites is an unrealistically high level, so that will bring it down and I found when I did this it was all 0 (apart from nitrates obviously) within a few days...

 

[OldMan47]

Add up all of the ammonia you have added to that tank and then recognize that each 1 ppm has been converted to about 2.7 ppm of nitrites. I must agree with Alex. that a large water change often helps speed things up. On average the second part of a cycle, the part that moves from ammonia processing to nitrite processing, often takes twice as long to complete as the first part.

 

[Aqua Tom]

I have to agree with all of the above. A water change is the way forward & just in case you have never done one, here is how.


Turn off your filter.

Do a 100% water change using temprature matched dechlorinated water.

Dose your ammonia.

Turn your filter back on.





Tom