Nitrite Question To Those In The Know

[upsy daisy]

Hi,
I have tried to cycle our family aquarium, but a couple of things went wrong and I have not been able to get hold of any mature media, so I got 5 glowlight tetras fully realising that I will have to do many water changes. Now anytime I test, ammonia seems in check, nitrates seem to be on 5 but it is the nitrites I don't fully understand about.

For a 0 reading the nitrites need to be turquoise, but anytime I test, it seems to have just a slight hint of blue. I am guessing the reading would be 0.1 or probably even less. Maybe it's a stupid question and most of you will think it was a terrible thing to get fish in an un-cycled tank, but I wonder why readings seem to be mostly fine and there is just a slight elevation in nitrites. Does it signify anything and what?

Thank you all!

 

[chrisbassist]

it tells me that your test probably isn't right.

nothing magically disappears. the fish waste forms ammonia, so thats the first one you should see. then bacteria process that and form nitrite, which is still toxic to fish, then more bacteria process it and form nitrate. if nitrate in't going up then nitrite isn't being processed. if the nitrite isn't going up, then the ammonia isn't being processed, which would mean ammonia is building up. so one of your tests along the line is wrong i would imagine...

just to check, when you say ammonia seems to be in check, do you mean, it's staying at 0, or it's below 0.25? or what?

one possible reason could be the size of tank? is it a really big tank wiith only a few fish in? that would mean absolutely tiny changes which our tests wouldn't measure.

 

[upsy daisy]

My tank is 54l, it's probably half-way cycled if that makes any sense (I started cycling it in March). Really, there is no visible elevation in ammonia, in my estimation is pretty much at 0. I tested de-chlorinated water for ammonia and it was the same yellow as when I test from the tank. Yes, nitrates are at 5 and nitrrites just under 0.25, like about 0.1. I keep doing frequent water changes to keep them happy.

 

[Ryefish]

when you add the drops of nitrite test into the tube do they stay the same colour or do they change to a darker blue or even purple colour?

The levels of ammonia may not be going up if you didnt change the filter media after you attempted to fishless cycle the tank. There may have been enough bacteria in the filter to handle the fish load that you put in the tank but not enough to clear 4/5ppm's of added ammonia - which 5 tetras wouldnt realistically make(if this makes sense).

I had the same issue, my tank couldnt clear the nitrites from the 4ppms of ammonia i was adding to the tank daily after 40+ days, so i eventually went fish-in and there has been no issue at all

 

[chrisbassist]

Ok, well that's the tank size issue gone.

Sounds like you're doing the right amount of water changes then. Just keep going and it'll get easier. The numbers of bacteria will go up and your water changes will go down. It can seem like it's never going to stop, but just be patient and it'll get there.

 

[waterdrop]

Another thing you can do if you have issues with your tap water for showing you the baseline zero ppm look from a test kit is to pick up some distilled water from the grocery store. Distilled water should let you see what the nitrite test "thinks" is zero and you could compare that to what you are getting in terms of looks.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[upsy daisy]

when you add the drops of nitrite test into the tube do they stay the same colour or do they change to a darker blue or even purple colour?

No, when I add t drops and shake the vial at first it looks turquoise but with time there is just a hint of change towards more of a blue colour, it is really just a slight change. I have tested dechlorinated water and water from the tank and there is just the slightest change in the hue.

Thank you for your support everyone!