How Long For Nitrites To Drop?

[sjolliff]

Since my nitrite spike iv gone down to adding 2ppm ammonia till they drop, all the ammonia is gone in 12 hours, but my nitrites are still high/off the chart?

iv been adding 2ppm for about a week now should i have seen a drop?

also my nitrates keep goin up and down 80-5-20-5-60ppm?
fishless cycle
just sand and water in tank

 

[three-fingers]

So you have taken the plants out?

 

[sjolliff]

Yeah coz seen a few threads saying they can help to remove ammonia and eat nitrates

 

[three-fingers]

Good, well done research .

Unfortunately my answer is going to be just to keep waiting. One of the reasons I'll never bother with a fishless cycle is that every tank is different, and its not unusual for a cycle to just stall a bit at times, I'm too impatient .

Just keep on doing what you are, could try a 50% water change before the next time you add ammonia, and test for nitrite right after to try give you an idea of how high it actually is and how far away you are from finishing.

 

[yasinullah]

i got really fed up of the nitrites not changing at all, because twice previously I had reached 0ppm after 24hours, then had a pH crash, changed water and nitrites remained off the charts for over a week. I got impatient so I did a 40% change and started dosing very little ammonia, below 2.0ppm to check whether any nitrite was being processed, and very very slowly it did appear to be processing. So I started dosing every 36 - 48hours and it appears to be processing today was around >1-2ppm, at least now I have peace of mind that I do have some N-bacs, and will continue to add just under 2ppm of ammonia every 24hours now.

But I'm just a bit mad its not so much that I am very impatient, I just dont understand why I could get 0's before and now I can't...

Hope you start seeing a drop soon.

 

[sjolliff]

Just tested now and nitrites still high and not many nitrates
should i still and the 2ppm of ammonia,
is leaving it 36-48hrs a bit too long to leave it?

i hear that not doing a water change is better until last just to bring the nitrates down

 

[OldMan47]

The water change will not affect the progress of the cycle but will affect both the KH of the water and your ability to monitor the nitrites. The idea of dosing every 24 hours is to not allow the A-Bacs to be reduced much while you are waiting for the N-Bacs to develop. Do the water change if you want to or don' if you don't want to. Either way it will take about the same time to move to a double zero and be ready for fish. The biggest benefit that I have seen from the big water change early is that it lets people who are just too impatient, watch what is happening in their water. For some people that is a huge benefit.

 

[waterdrop]

These all sound like the kind of details one gets wrapped up in during the long boring periods of waiting for the slow-growing N-Bacs. They're just slow.. quite normal I believe.

When you say 36 or 48 hours I presume you're saying you're waiting longer after ammonia has reached zero before adding more ammonia, so you can perhaps see more nitrite movement? Or perhaps you're not doing Add&Wait method?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[sjolliff]

Cheers oldman47
iv topped up to 2ppm of ammonia,

iv been raising the ph up to 8 using baking soda

Hi waterdrop,
the ammonia gets to 0 in 12hrs, but i only top up 2ppm at the same 24hr stage,
this allows time for the nitrites to lower but still keeping thw a bacs alive

 

[yasinullah]

how long has it been since your nitrites have been off the charts?

i only reduced the ammonia dosing to 36 - 48 hours to work out whether there were any N-bacs at work, as teh nitrite levels hadn't been changing whereas previously they had. I don't think its recommended at all to do this, but for my peace of mind I wanted to determine whether nitrites were being processed, and if this means it will take a bit longer to build my A-bacs then so be it.

I'm not even that fussed when I get my fish now, I just want my cycle to progress to that level I was at before.

edit: I was doing exactly what waterdrop said above, just wanted to confirm nitrite movement

 

[waterdrop]

Yeah, you both sound fine. There's lots of leeway as long as one doesn't totally starve the bacteria to death. -wd-

 

[sjolliff]

About a week ago it got to the point when i was doin the nitrite test the drops went dark when they hit the bottom of the tube (api)
then i changed to 2ppm,
not sure if they spiked or just got high the tests have always been 5ppm or above

i also so more nitrates when i was dosing 4-5ppm of ammonia

 

[sjolliff]

Just done a nitrates test,
and iv noticed this before that a few hours after dosing mu nitrates are higher than they are just before dosing?

 

[sjolliff]

Just done a test and looks like the nitrites have dropped slighlty drops took a lot longer to turn purple in the bottom then once shook it went to a lilac ibstead of purple (API)

nitrates test has stayed aroung 30ppm for the second time when they normally drop abit,

my PH was 8 now looks like its gone to 8.2,
I though nirites used KH leading to a PH decrease?

 

[yasinullah]

good news, looks liek the N-bacs are slowly building up hopefully not long now
mine currently stays purple for a couple of mins or so, then turns purple-pinkish (fuschia like colour)