Nitrite

[mackay55]

I've been cycling my tank now for 9 days.im seeing the ammonia drop from 4ppm to o.25ppm in 15 hours but my nitrite all ways says 5ppm and should I keep added ammonia daily.

 

[HayzH]

I've been cycling my tank now for 9 days.im seeing the ammonia drop from 4ppm to o.25ppm in 15 hours but my nitrite all ways says 5ppm and should I keep added ammonia daily.

yes....your tank goes through the first stage...ammonia drops to 0...
then it goes to stage 2 .....nitrite spikes to 5+ppm for about twice as long as it took the Ammonia to drop to 0
Then stage 3 .....both AMMONIA and Nitrite needs to BOTH go to 0 in a SET 12 hr period (so dose and test at the same time daily...eg - 9am test and dose ..... 9pm just test (to see 12 hr results) HTH

 

[Mowbz]

Some go quick, some not so, your lucky.

If it really is doing 5ppm inside 15 hours, you need to switch to 12 hourly testing, but drop those dose to 3ppm, or else the nitrites will be overloaded, you need to give them a chance to catch up now. Once it can happily handle that inside 12 hours, go back to the full dose of 5ppm of Ammonia, and keep that up until you have solid zeros for a week for both Ammonia and Nitrite.


By that time you Nitrates will probably be off the chart, so do a big (90-100%) water change, and your ready for fish! If your not going to put fish in as soon as its cycled, feed it 4ppm of Ammonia every day until the day before you pick them up.

Congratulations