Nitrates

[Zachary1941]

Liquid kit Nitrate(NO3) tests (most of them) also measure nitrite(NO2) to some extent, therefor they are more accurate at showing you nitrate(NO3) *after* the filter has cycled and you are getting readings of zero for nitrite(NO2.) What this means is that trying to interpret the nitrate readings during the second phase ("nitrite spike") of fishless can be confusing at the least. Even though the nitrite(NO2) appears spiked to you (because of the ceiling of the nitrite test), in actuality its bouncing around out at higher numbers and the nitrate(NO3) test will be bounced by this, thus the back and forth numbers.

OK, so what to do? Pay attention just to your ammonia, nitrite(NO2), pH and your timings, those are the important indicators of fishless cycling progress and conditions. In fishless cycling its always ideal to be able to "just leave it" as far as water changes go, but during the "nitrite spike" phase and beyond, its not necessarily a setback to do the occasional water change. What you do in this case is a large (90%, as of course small water changes have "no meaning" during fishless) gravel-clean-water-change and then recharge with ammonia (and baking soda if you happen to be having to use that.) Sometimes we refer to this as a "kickstart" for the people who have low KH/pH. What it also accomplishes is to make the nitrate(NO3) measurements more accurate for a while.

~~waterdrop~~

Thanks WaterDrop.. Will leave the water change go then for a while as hopefully the cycle is continuing normal..Have come this far with no problems , would love to go the last lap the same without water changes etc.. Regards Zac

 

[Dogson]

Sorry to sound a Dumbass. But to put it in terms I understand are you saying do a 90% change, recharge with ammonia, wait the 12 hours and retest for ammonia, nitrite and PH.
I'll let you know a bit more of my cycle.
I have some mature biorb media in one fo my filters.
It took about a week to get my ammonia down to 0.15, my nitrate peaked to the max (API deep red) and nitrite went dark purple a the bottom of the tube without having to shake it.
My PH has been a steady 7.6 throughout the cycle.
My Nitrate i'm a little unsure of the reading using API as the fluid is a dark yellow and my result indicates 5 but this is very close to the testing fluid colour?I've read the instructions and know what and when to shake.
This is my 10th day and the last 2 days 4-5ppm ammonia has been processing in 12 hours so my nitrite spike has not come down in 3 days? I'm now experiencing the brown algae over my pebbles and plants and the tank is starting to smell occupied!
Should I just leave it until the weekend or would the kickstart be needed?
Thanks Waterdrop for the advice I was hoping you'd turn up

 

[gaz gun man]

dont worry about the nitrate at the minute.

Like WD said, 'Pay attention just to your ammonia, nitrite(NO2), pH and your timings'

Dogson, sometimes the Nitrite spike can take longer than the ammonia one to clear, so just keep an eye on it and it'll come down eventually! Brown algae is common in new tank set-ups, I had alot of it too when I set up my tank, looked horrible! It took about 6 months in total to clear!