Nitrite Chart

[HayzH]

Hiya..i know you lot are sick of my whining by now...but i have a question....
Since i ran out of Nitrite API test bottle, i bought a replacement one from LFS...it came with a seperate colour chart, which actually has more realistic colours on it...bright purples, like i've been having, that aren't on the complete colour chart.
Now my question is this.....
On the new chart my reading was 1.0ppm...on the old chart its more like 1.5-2.0....which one do i go by?
If i chose the smaller seperate chart and its not correct my readings will be wrong and give me false hope?

I would love to think it was a 1.0ppm...and it was EXACTLY that colour on the chart, not a guess somewhere in between why dont they do ALL charts the same colour???

I was also under the impression my Nitrites would "disappear" overnight...mine seem to be coming down slowly...then spiking...then go down slowly again? is this normal too???

Trust me to have weird cycles?

 

[Tizer]

I've had to do the same as you a few months ago, its quite stupid how the colours differ :\

Quite honestly, i've given up on being fussy over readings and i've basically become very "black and white" now.

In a sense that if its 0, its white, if its anything else its black. I try not to read into it much any more.

I know im not cycling filters any more, but i still have to monitor my fry tank quite closely and do test it regularly, it just makes life more simples to be less accurate.

 

[HayzH]

thanks Tizer...
So annoying...im sick of testing now...dont even bother with the 24 hr ones now.
55 days is just stoopid!! grrrr

 

[Tizer]

I would have given up by now and chucked some fish in, call me impatient and irresponsible but i've no fears of fish in cycle. If you got time to test the water every day you got time to do a water change. The only reason you are spiking is because you are dosing it. Fish dont suddenly pump out 4ppm of ammonia, its done slowly over time. if you chucked a few platies or mollies in there now and carried on testing and water changing as necessary for a few weeks i dont think anyone could blame you. The filter is probably quite capable of supporting fish now, you would just have to go easy and not stock heavily.

Mind you, if you cave in and do the above, dont blame me if they snuff it

 

[the_lock_man]

The thing about fishless cycling, is that you build up enough bacteria to fully stock when the cycle is finished.

Now it's obvious that you build up the bacteria over a period of time, it's not a sudden "kaboom, I've got bacteria" moment. Therefore, logically, you can see that there must be some bacteria in there, just not necessarily to fully stock.

Here's a suggestion

Keep on cycling Tanks 2 & 3 as you are.
Stop dosing Tank 1, wait until you see Double Zeros (a day or two), then pop a platy or two in there. Keep testing, see what your levels are like. If, as I suspect, you'll continue to see Double Zeros, (a) you can up the population gradually and (b) you can try the same thing with Tank 2 and/or Tank 3.

But if it goes pear-shaped, please blame Tizer, it was his idea.

 

[HayzH]

The thing about fishless cycling, is that you build up enough bacteria to fully stock when the cycle is finished.

Now it's obvious that you build up the bacteria over a period of time, it's not a sudden "kaboom, I've got bacteria" moment. Therefore, logically, you can see that there must be some bacteria in there, just not necessarily to fully stock.

Here's a suggestion

Keep on cycling Tanks 2 & 3 as you are.
Stop dosing Tank 1, wait until you see Double Zeros (a day or two), then pop a platy or two in there. Keep testing, see what your levels are like. If, as I suspect, you'll continue to see Double Zeros, (a) you can up the population gradually and (b) you can try the same thing with Tank 2 and/or Tank 3.

But if it goes pear-shaped, please blame Tizer, it was his idea.

lol....i WILL blame Tizer.....
Guess what i just done....

 

[the_lock_man]

Pray tell?

 

[Tizer]

I hope it included a water change before hand to get those nitrates down a bit ;D

 

[the_lock_man]

I hope it included a water change before hand to get those nitrates down a bit ;D

I bet you a tenner she did a 50% change. Take me on?

 

[Tizer]

denied, i read the other thread too ;/

 

[the_lock_man]

denied, i read the other thread too ;/

What other thread?

 

[HayzH]

was that the right thing to do???