After a little help here, as I'm non-plussed. I'm mid-fishless cycle with a 450l (120 us gallon) tank and my nitrite readings are making no sense to me.
I started with adding Dr Tim's ammonia a couple of weeks ago, plus "one and only" bacteria. I know there are mixed views on whether it does anything, but figured nothing to lose and I've had seemingly good results with it in other tanks.
I followed the dosing instructions for the ammonia on the bottle, which should have been for 2ppm. Half an hour later I tested, and it was reading about 8ppm. I understand there have been some issues with the new concentration Dr Tim's ammonia being labelled with the old concentration instructions so figure this may be one such problem.
Anyway, I left it. Over the course of the last couple of weeks, that's gradually come down, to 0.5 on the 23rd, almost zero on the 24th and zero on the 25th.
Since the 25th, i.e. the last couple of days, it has remained zero, as you would expect without adding any further source.
Nitrite of course went up over this time. Because of that high dosing of ammonia, it kept going up and up and then off the charts. Knowing that too high nitrite levels can stall the cycle, I did some water changes. Over the course of two days I did three 50% water changes and then a 75% water change, which eventually lowered my levels yesterday morning to 2ppm nitrite. God knows how high it must have been to take that much changing to get it readable.
Anyway, yesterday was 2ppm nitrite and ammonia of course on zero. Today nitrites have risen to 4ppm.
How is that possible without a source of ammonia to convert from? I've been using both an API test kit and NT Labs test kit simultaneously (I wanted the assurance given the accidental high dosing of ammonia at the start) and they have both been showing the same, so it's not a kit issue.
Ammonia has been zero for a couple of days, so in another couple of days it will need a top up to keep those bacteria going, but with nitrites somehow going up not down, they'll only get worse?
Thanks.
I started with adding Dr Tim's ammonia a couple of weeks ago, plus "one and only" bacteria. I know there are mixed views on whether it does anything, but figured nothing to lose and I've had seemingly good results with it in other tanks.
I followed the dosing instructions for the ammonia on the bottle, which should have been for 2ppm. Half an hour later I tested, and it was reading about 8ppm. I understand there have been some issues with the new concentration Dr Tim's ammonia being labelled with the old concentration instructions so figure this may be one such problem.
Anyway, I left it. Over the course of the last couple of weeks, that's gradually come down, to 0.5 on the 23rd, almost zero on the 24th and zero on the 25th.
Since the 25th, i.e. the last couple of days, it has remained zero, as you would expect without adding any further source.
Nitrite of course went up over this time. Because of that high dosing of ammonia, it kept going up and up and then off the charts. Knowing that too high nitrite levels can stall the cycle, I did some water changes. Over the course of two days I did three 50% water changes and then a 75% water change, which eventually lowered my levels yesterday morning to 2ppm nitrite. God knows how high it must have been to take that much changing to get it readable.
Anyway, yesterday was 2ppm nitrite and ammonia of course on zero. Today nitrites have risen to 4ppm.
How is that possible without a source of ammonia to convert from? I've been using both an API test kit and NT Labs test kit simultaneously (I wanted the assurance given the accidental high dosing of ammonia at the start) and they have both been showing the same, so it's not a kit issue.
Ammonia has been zero for a couple of days, so in another couple of days it will need a top up to keep those bacteria going, but with nitrites somehow going up not down, they'll only get worse?
Thanks.