Nitrites.

[HD65]

Good morning all.

Am I right in thinking that during a fishless cycle if the nitrites are off the chart I should do a water change.

 

[paulyoung666]

it wont do any harm by all accounts , what is your pH ? .....

 

[HD65]

PH is 8
Ammonia Ive kept at 4ppm over the last week
Nitrates were 40 ppm but went down to 5 ppm.

I did a 25% water change and the nitrates have gone back up to 40 ppm ?
The nitrites are now 5 ppm

Why all the change.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

You don't really need to dose your ammonia up to 4ppm - 2-3 will be fine IMO

I personally didn't do any water changes during cycling I just let it run its course!

 

[HD65]

You don't really need to dose your ammonia up to 4ppm - 2-3 will be fine IMO

I personally didn't do any water changes during cycling I just let it run its course!

Whats confusing me is the jump in nitrates after the water change, If a water change is the normal way to lower the nitrates every week why has mine increase ?.

Im using API master test kit and its all in date.

Ive just tested the tap water in the house and the nitrate levels are 30ppm, so that solved my issue.
Now I just need to find the best way to reduce these levels after cycling without doing water changes every other day.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Try testing the nitrates in you tap water, I've got nitrates in mine but my plants help to eat them up.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Also, your nitrates aren't something to worry about really, they can be very high and still be of no harm to your fish. For example my nitrates are at somewhere around 40 from my tap so before I got plants I was staying somewhere around 80 (before a water change). Now that I have plants (and a bigger, understocked tank) they are at 10-20.

 

[OldMan47]

Here we go. I have found, based on observations of many peoples' cycles, that a high nitrite concentration is not a good idea. I now recommend that people reduce their ammonia dosage to no more than 2 ppm daily and that they reduce their nitrite concentration so that they can monitor it, which means a huge water change to bring the nitrite concentration into a range that they can monitor, less than 5 ppm. In that situation, we seem to get the best results during a cycle.

 

[Prime Ordeal]

Here we go. I have found, based on observations of many peoples' cycles, that a high nitrite concentration is not a good idea. I now recommend that people reduce their ammonia dosage to no more than 2 ppm daily and that they reduce their nitrite concentration so that they can monitor it, which means a huge water change to bring the nitrite concentration into a range that they can monitor, less than 5 ppm. In that situation, we seem to get the best results during a cycle.

It's good to see that despite your rather insulting put down of my cycling method in previous posts that your now doing a complete 180 and accepting my method of cycling!

 

[CezzaXV]

I found that during the later stages of my cycle, doing water changes every day to keep my nitrite within readable levels helped keep me sane. It's nice to be able to see what's happening, and it's always exciting when you can see that it's processed more than it did yesterday.

 

[OldMan47]

PO, I do not accept your method of cycling but I do know what we have observed here in the past.