nitrite spikes

[MaddEnemy]

"then add that amount daily until the nitrite spikes. Once the nitrite is visible, cut back the daily dose of ammonia to ½ the original volume"

WTH?

Add daily till Nitrite spikes but next line says until visible.

Now I am really lost here. So once nitrite spikes or once it is visible cut it back?

 

[xXMrBonesXx]

i guess once the ammonia breaks down to nitrite and the nitrite gets a high reading your supposed to switch to half of the amount of ammonia that you've been adding, so if you've been adding 2 scoops you switch to 1, that kind of deal, then eventually you'll get 0's for ammonia and nitrite ... thats when you stop adding ammonia and be proud with yourself for cycling a tank

 

[MaddEnemy]

so what reading should I take as a N, spike?

 

[xXMrBonesXx]

i have no clue ive never cycled a tank in my life .... all i do is put my water in with my chemicals and everythings 0 the next day except nitrate

i can check for you though 1 sec ... according to my test kit Nitrite moves into the caution stage at 1-5 ppm so anywhere in there i would assume would be considered a spike

 

[luxum]

Basically, as soon as you see nitrite, cut back to the half dose. The reason for this is that the colony that converts nitrite is inhibited by high nitrite levels, and all your ammonia is about to be converted to nitrite and the levels will spike off the chart, but you have to keep feeding the ammonia so the first colony doesn't starve, but you don't want to overwhelm the second colony which is forming. We call it a "spike" because of how the graph looks, there is no nitrite for a long time, and the suddenly the nitrite level "spikes" upwards.