Nitrites High

[The Duke]

Week three of fishless cycle. Nitrites are now off the chart and ammonia is dropping every day but not achieving zero ammonia in a 24 hour period yet. Should I be letting the ammonia level go down to zero before dosing the tank with ammonia or should I maintain ammonia at a steady level say 3.0 ppm? I have been doing the latter, tonight it was down to 2.0 ppm so dosed it back upto 3. Does this sound about right?

 

[OldMan47]

Let your ammonia go to zero and then just dose back up to 2 ppm. There is no good reason to go higher since it just means you will end up with more nitrites and more nitrates. People doing a fish-in cycle take almost the identical amount of time as those doing a fishless one although they intentionally lower the ammonia and nitrites to less than 0.25 ppm every day. It is not the exact concentration that matters but rather that some ammonia is present to be processed.

 

[The Duke]

Excellent, thank you