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BillS

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Hello everyone

I'm on Day 52 of fishlessly cycling my new 72 gallon tank. Everything has gone as I expected but I can't get down to 0 nitrites. I'm adding ammonia each day to about 3ppm and it's dropping to zero each day. Nitrates and nitrites have spiked. I thought I had made it three days ago and did a 90% pwc; then back to nitrites!

Any thoughts would be welcome. I'd like to move onto keeping fish...

Thanks,
Bill
 

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It's the usual case of the large water change nuking your currently very fragile nitrite-eating bacteria. When you make such a large water change you have to match temperature and if possible pH, failure to do so often results in the predicament you now find yourself in. Thee good news is that they should recover in a few days. Make sure your pH never falls below 6.5 if possible and preferably keep it at 8.2 by adding bicarbonate of soda.
 
Prime Ordeal said:
It's the usual case of the large water change nuking your currently very fragile nitrite-eating bacteria. When you make such a large water change you have to match temperature and if possible pH, failure to do so often results in the predicament you now find yourself in. Thee good news is that they should recover in a few days. Make sure your pH never falls below 6.5 if possible and preferably keep it at 8.2 by adding bicarbonate of soda.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. It's curious that all the instructions on fishless cycling insist on a 'massive water change' at the end of the process and just before introducing fish, but no-one mentions the dangers of doing so. What's the alternative as you try to bring down the nitrates, multiple smaller water changes?
 
BillS said:
What's the alternative as you try to bring down the nitrates, multiple smaller water changes?
Click to expand...

You could run some zeolite in your filter and that would eventually remove the nitrate or there are some bacteria-in-a-bottle products that will remove nitrate. Or you could have used a denitrification media in your filter from the start such as Seachem Matrix or their product that is specifically for nitrate removal Seachem De-nitrate. But a water change is still the quickest and easiest way as long as you're careful about matching parameters.
 
Prime Ordeal said:
BillS said:
What's the alternative as you try to bring down the nitrates, multiple smaller water changes?
Click to expand...

You could run some zeolite in your filter and that would eventually remove the nitrate or there are some bacteria-in-a-bottle products that will remove nitrate. Or you could have used a denitrification media in your filter from the start such as Seachem Matrix or their product that is specifically for nitrate removal Seachem De-nitrate. But a water change is still the quickest and easiest way as long as you're careful about matching parameters.
Click to expand...
Great, thanks!
 
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