?'s About Levels

[newfishgirl]

Me again... Lol
Quick refresher: 10g fishless cycle that unfortunately had fish at first. I rehomed the fish. Had massive amounts of ammonia which were taken care of by a huge water change.
Reading before PWC on 3/29
pH: 7.6
Ammo 8
Nitrite .25
Nitrate 0
Massive WC around 90%
New reading:
Ammo 1-2
I then put in a friends mature filter let it sit and retested.
Ammo 2, Nitrite 0 and Nitrate 4-5.
They've stayed the same except today they read:
Ammo 2-4, Nitrite 0 and Nitrate 5-10.
The tap water does have around 4ppm of nitrates.
Why are my nitrates going up but there are no nitrites. Plus the ammo went up a smidge. Any ideas as to what is going on and what to do?

 

[Metka]

My first question would be: What tests are you using? Are they the API drip tests, or paper strips?
If paper strips, get the drip tests. If drip tests - are you shaking the bottles to hell  and back (especially the second Nitrate bottle) before using them? They can give false readings if not shook up correctly.

 

[DrRob]

No nitrites is a good thing, it means that the cycle is starting up. Nitrate rising with 0 nitrites means that all of the detectable nitrite is being made to nitrate in the filter, so you're winning. Now you just want the ammonia to convert all the way across and you're a winner.

 

[newfishgirl]

I'm using the api drops. Hmm, I've only been shaking the #2 nitrate bottle since it's the only one that said to. I'll try shaking them all. I guess I'm just concerned that the nitrates are converting the nitrites before they can convert the ammo. Is that even possible?

On a side note, I wanted to have some bottom feeders but read here that they don't do well on gravel and that's what I have. Should I switch to something else? Recommendations and when?
Thanks!

 

[Arcticfox1977]

I'm using the api drops. Hmm, I've only been shaking the #2 nitrate bottle since it's the only one that said to. I'll try shaking them all. I guess I'm just concerned that the nitrates are converting the nitrites before they can convert the ammo. Is that even possible?
On a side note, I wanted to have some bottom feeders but read here that they don't do well on gravel and that's what I have. Should I switch to something else? Recommendations and when?
Thanks!

I also shake nitrate bottle2. Should we be shaken all bottles???

 

[the_lock_man]

I guess I'm just concerned that the nitrates are converting the nitrites before they can convert the ammo. Is that even possible?

 
That's not how it works. The chemicals don't convert each other. Bacteria converts ammonia into nitrite, then another bacteria converts nitrite into nitrate. If the ammonia wasn't being converted into nitrite, you wouldn't have any nitrite to be converted into nitrate.
 
On this forum we often use the term A-bacs to refer to the first colony of bacteria, and N-bacs to refer to the second colony.
 
What seems to have happened is that when you put the mature filter media into your filter, you introduced a large enough colony of N-bacs to completely process all of the available nitrite into nitrate. This is why you see no nitrite, but increasing nitrate. However, it would appear that you didn't get much in the way of A-bacs, which is why there doesn't seem to be much movement.
 
The A-bacs colony usually grows quicker than the N-bacs, so hopefully you should see some downward movement on the ammonia level soon.
 
Re the bottom dwellers, sand is ideal, but so long as your gravel is smooth, most bottom dwellers will be ok. If the gravel has sharp edges, then bottom dwellers are a no-no.

 

[newfishgirl]

Great! Thank you so much. I'll just shut up and be patient, lol.
I don't think my gravel is smooth enough. I'd prefer to stick with a type of gravel though, any recommendations on brands?

 

[Zikofski]

okay shake the ammonia bottle really badly may help the results i saw in another post, that adding more ammonia will help the situation good luck