Nitrites Off The Chart...

[bymauldin]

The article on fishless cycling says "Your nitrites will go off the chart" What exactly does that mean? Does that mean that they'll be so high it won't match anything on our color card from a Master Kit? Or just that the nitrites will simply raise some? I'm on day 14 of fishless cycling and my nitrites have only raised to .25 ppm and they've held steady for a few days now. My nitrates are up to about 20 ppm. I was just curious if I could expect my nitrites to raise any more or if I'm just looking for them to drop back to 0 now?

 

[Benauld]

Hi,

I think it means the nitrites will shoot up, possibly to the extent that your kit will only ever read the maximum that it can go to.

Im currently on day 9 of my first cycle and my nitrites are holding steady at about 1.6 for now. Although the bacteria are still reducing 25ml (6-6.5ppm) of ammonia to a zero reading well within 24 hours. I am becoming curious as to why my nitrites haven't continued to rise either - in fact I think the colour change was a fraction paler today. What's happening to all that reduced ammonia?

**************EDIT*****************

P.S. Despite reading the cycling instructions on this forum, and doing a test bucket, I still managed to overdose a little with my ammonia to start with, I had the best intentions of diluting it with a water change, but before I could do that, on about day five my ammonia readings went back to zero, so I've continued adding probably slightly more ammonia than would be the usual.

 

[bymauldin]

I started out with the Add Daily method. I added enough ammonia on day one to bring it to 5 ppm. Then every day thereafter I added a few drops less than what I had originally put in on day one. (I know it says to continue putting in the same about of ammonia until your ammonia finally drops to zero, but I was afraid of overdosing my tank and stalling it). After a week of Adding Daily when it hit 5ppm I left it to drop to 1 ppm then raised the ammonia back up to 5. It took until just a couple of days ago to see any increase in the nitrites at all. My nitrates have been climbing for about the past 4-5 days. I even used mature filter media and some mature gravel.

It sounds like your tank is starting to processing ammonia really quickly. I'm just curious as to whether our nitrite levels will go up anymore than they have or if they'll drop to zero from where they're at now. I can't imagine that anyone would consider .25ppm off the chart. So, I guess I'll keep on watching and waiting...I guess I just expected my nitrite to be at 0 and then spike really high... I dunno!

 

[Benauld]

Ah,

I am using the Add & Wait method. How often have you been testing? Is it possible that you missed the nitrite spike? Then again having used some mature filter media in your tank perhaps the existing bacteria are just dealing with the amount of nitrite you're producing. I've heard that the nitrite reducing bacteria are a lot slower growing & generally harder to cultivate, but if they were already present in your old media that may go some way to explaining it.

 

[thegnu]

i think you are both doing great for first timers. sounds like you are getting it sussed. just carry on as you are. i'm no expert, but have been there many times, so for what its worth i agree with everything you say

 

[Benauld]

Thanks thegnu,

It's always reassuring to hear some words of encouragement! I can hardly wait to get some fish in my tank, bl*%dy nitrites!

 

[bymauldin]

Well, I just thought I'd let you know that I got my nitrite spike today. It's not "off the charts" but it did jump from .25ppm to 2.0ppm. I imagine it'll spike even higher in the next day or so. My tank isn't turning over ammonia very quickly yet (it dropped from 4ppm to 0ppm in 24 hours) so I imagine I still have a ways to go. I just wanted to let you know that my nitrites did finally spike. I guess now, instead of complaining because I can't get my nitrites to spike I'll be complaining because I can't get them to go down!! Bl*%dy nitrites!!