Nitrates And Nitrites Up....but Ammonia Not Dropping Much

[Spanerman]

Hey, i have a 64l tank which has been cycling for around a week, last night i added some mature media from ''spesh'' on here (your a star mate) before i added the media i had a little nitrates and a little nitrites...the lower end of the scale... ammonia was at around 5ppm..maybe more

i just did a check, and nitrates and nitrites are off the scale...but ammonia isnt down much..maybe to 4ppm... where did they all come from?! maybe my test kit wasnt reading right and i had alot more ammonia than i thought?

should i do a water change? or just wait?

 

[rdd1952]

With those kits being as difficult to discern colors as they are (at least for me), its possible that your ammonia was much higher than 5 ppm and that even though it is being processed now, it has just gotten back on the chart. Keep in mind that ammonia to nitrite to nitrate isn't a 1 to 1 to 1 deal. It's a 1 to 2.7 to 3.7 ratio. So 1 ppm of ammonia will lead to 2.7 pppm of nitrite and eventually 3.7 ppm of nitrate.

You can certainly do a water change if you want and then raise the ammonia level up to about 3 or 4 ppm so you know for sure it's on the chart and then see how quickly that processes.

 

[backtotropical]

Hi,

Sounds like you had more ammonia than you thought. Nitrites and nitrates don't just appear from nowhere.

I'd leave it and see if the 4ppm of ammonia disappears within 12 / 24 hours. If it does, theres no problem, if not then a water change would be a good idea. Sometimes a water change will just kick-start a cycle again if it has stalled.

Keep us updated.

BTT

edit: beat me to it, RDD!

 

[Spanerman]

well im free for a few hours now so i think il do a water change...and only add a smaller amount of ammonia...how much should i do? 80%? and just keep the filter in tank water while i do it?

 

[backtotropical]

80% should be fine.

Does your ammonia have the % of ammonia on it? If so you can use the Ammonia Calculator to work out exactly how much to add.

Try not to let ammonia stray too much over 5ppm as at around 8ppm, it will mess up the cycle. Levels this high encourage a different type of bacteria which will subsequently die when you add fish and ammonia production decreases.

BTT

 

[rdd1952]

I dont think you really need to do one since things do appear to be moving. If you do one, I wouldn't do more than 25 to 50 percent. Basically, just enough to get all levels back on the chart so you can see changes as they occur.

 

[Spanerman]

^ok il do that first...

 

[Spanerman]

right did a 50% water change, topped up amonia to 4ppm nitrites are at 3ppm nitrates at 15ppm and ph is 6-6.5 same as my tap water

what am i looking for a spike in nitrites, then a drop in ammonia and a massive raise in nitrates...all within 12hrs..lol....

 

[rdd1952]

Ultimately, you want the ammonia and nitrite to be back to 0 within about 12 hours. Obviously, nitrate will climb.

 

[Spanerman]

will check at 2:30 tomoro morning then....lol....or maybe just when i wake up in the morning lol

 

[backtotropical]

Many members have found that it is beneficial to set times to attend to their fishless cycle.

For example, add ammonia at 8pm then test at 8am to see where the stats are after 12 hrs. Add ammonia again at 8pm.....

Make sense?

BTT