I Have No Ammonia

[tigerchilly]

so im in my cycle..its been a month everything was ok until i dosed ammonia the third time...and now im not getting any readings for nitrite...
ammonia-4ppm
nitrite-0ppm
nitrAte-5ppm
its been like this for 2 days.

 

[The chilly dipper]

so im in my cycle..its been a month everything was ok until i dosed ammonia the third time...and now im not getting any readings for nitrite...
ammonia-4ppm
nitrite-0ppm
nitrAte-5ppm
its been like this for 2 days.

Even though it has been 2 months things will surely still be taking place in your tank how many litres is your fish tank and how much are you dosing ? and also whats the percentage of ammonia? you could use the oldmans calculator pinned to the top of the Newbie section.

 

[tigerchilly]

its 120l....im dosing like 3ml just to keep it around 5ppn

 

[tigerchilly]

ok so now ive got ammonia readings but nitrites dissappear overnight to 0.
is this normal?
any suggestions.

 

[kazc31]

Do you get any nitrite indication what so ever? The fact u have nitrAtes showing means u must have had nitrites present, unless nitrAtes are present in ur tap water. After dosing do a test say 6 hours later! Just incase the nitrites are disappearing before u test. Once ammonia and nitrites go down in around 10-12 hours do a full water change and ur good to go.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Once again I will suggest that the proper time frame for dosing and testing to get to a 0/0 reading is not 10-12 hours, it is 24 hours.
 
But its too early for this here. Do a large water change- move the ammonia down as much as you can.
 
When ammonia reads .25 and nitrite clearly reads under 1.0 (this would include 0) dose the tank with 3 ppm of ammonia. Use the ammonia calc as a guideline, but use a bit less than suggested. If that doesn't get you to 3 ppm, add some more ammonia to get you there, Don't dawdle doing this, so the bacteria will not remove much ammonia while testing and dosing.
 
Wait 24 hours and test for ammonia and nitrite, come back and report the results. This will tell us in what state of the cycle your tank really is. Too much nitrite can stall the cycle. High nitrite levels can show up on test kits as 0 ppm when they are off the charts. The water change may also make nitrites show up on you test kit if this is an issue.
Watch here http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPiDRid_Km8

 

[tigerchilly]

yes i do get nitrite readings but it dissappears..the last time i had it ammonia 5ppm and nitrite was really high and the day zero.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

5 ppm is likely too high. The best I can suggest is to follow the above course of action. You need to reset the tank and get it in good ranges. Once you do, you can work to figure out where you are. Right now from the limited information, I really have no idea what is actually going on or where your cycle might be.

 

[tigerchilly]

yeah i think ill just start again

 

[eaglesaquarium]

You aren't really "starting again" just dropping the ammonia levels (and possibly the nitrite) to a lower level.  5ppm ammonia is a bit high to dose honestly, 2-3 ppm is plenty. 
 
The nitrite test can be difficult to read at very high levels, the 'off the chart' color is a grayish blue for the API test kit, which isn't much different from the zero reading to some people's eyes.  The key is if its off the chart, you'll notice upon initial drop of test reagent into the test tube will immediately purple in the bottom of the tube before you shake it.