Did my cycle crash?!

Hello everyone. I have been dealing with really high nitrites while fishless cycling my 5 gallon tank. They’ve been really high for the last 3 weeks and I was getting frustrated. I posted on a forum 2 days ago about the problem and some people were telling me to buy seachem stability to help add more beneficial bacteria. I’ve only used it for 2 days now. 2 days ago, and yesterday. These were my levels yesterday, and these are my levels today. My ph is suddenly so high and I don’t know why. It is usually 7.4...

My tank is 80 degrees, I have plants, and a large air stone.

EDIT: i added 1ppm of ammonia 2 days ago. I didn’t add some yesterday because I still had a little ammonia left.

How much ammonia have you added so far, and how often? Are you following this method? https://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/
If too much ammonia is added it makes so much nitrite that the cycle stalls. The method in that link was written so that if you follow it, nitrite can never get high enough to stall the cycle.

If you have been adding ammonia regularly, the simplest thing would be to drain the the tank, refill it and add enough ammonia to get a reading of 3 ppm. Then follow that method in the link from the 'dose #2' point since you've already grown a lot of ammonia eaters.

essjay said:

How much ammonia have you added so far, and how often? Are you following this method? https://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/
If too much ammonia is added it makes so much nitrite that the cycle stalls. The method in that link was written so that if you follow it, nitrite can never get high enough to stall the cycle.

If you have been adding ammonia regularly, the simplest thing would be to drain the the tank, refill it and add enough ammonia to get a reading of 3 ppm. Then follow that method in the link from the 'dose #2' point since you've already grown a lot of ammonia eaters.

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I’ve been using the method on this site. I’ve just had to add a couple of snack doses because the bacteria that converts my ammonia grew quickly due to the fact that I added some seeded gravel from another tank. How should I lower my ph?

That's fine, you shouldn't have too much nitrite. it's now just a case of waiting. It does take longer to grow the nitrite eaters than the ammonia eaters. But don't add more ammonia till you've reached the targets in that method - ammonia needs to be zero at two tests 2 days apart before adding another snack dose (that's minimum of 4 days)

The pH is fine, the bacteria multiply faster at high pH.

essjay said:

That's fine, you shouldn't have too much nitrite. it's now just a case of waiting. It does take longer to grow the nitrite eaters than the ammonia eaters. But don't add more ammonia till you've reached the targets in that method - ammonia needs to be zero at two tests 2 days apart before adding another snack dose (that's minimum of 4 days)

The pH is fine, the bacteria multiply faster at high pH.

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I just redid my nitrate test and got this... what does this mean for the tank now? Is it cycled?

also, my nitrites were really high yesterday and are now at 0... shouldn’t I add ammonia?

If the nitrite reading has dropped to zero, it's time to add another 3 ppm dose of ammonia. Then if both are zero after 24 hours, the cycle has finished.

essjay said:

If the nitrite reading has dropped to zero, it's time to add another 3 ppm dose of ammonia. Then if both are zero after 24 hours, the cycle has finished.

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Okay! I added some ammonia and I’ll see tomorrow if it brings the nitrites and ammonia to 0. When I change out the water, will my ph lower as well?

The pH will only lower if your tap water has lower pH.
Freshly run tap water often has a different pH from water which has stood for 24 hours. While you are waiting to see tomorrow's results, you could test the pH of freshly run tap water now, then leave a glass to stand and test that tomorrow when you check the ammonia and nitrite.

Unless you added something to the tank to raise the pH during cycling?

essjay said:

The pH will only lower if your tap water has lower pH.
Freshly run tap water often has a different pH from water which has stood for 24 hours. While you are waiting to see tomorrow's results, you could test the pH of freshly run tap water now, then leave a glass to stand and test that tomorrow when you check the ammonia and nitrite.

Unless you added something to the tank to raise the pH during cycling?

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The normal ph in my tank is usually 7.2-4. I don’t know why it even went up. The only think that I added that I haven’t added in the past was seachem stability, which I added 2 days ago. I did have a large air stone that was running non stop for 2 days straight so maybe that is the reason for the high ph... I don’t know

Seachem Stability is a bacterial start which should not affect the pH.

I would just continue with the cycle, then when it's finished you will need to empty virtually all the water and refill. That will reset the pH.

essjay said:

Seachem Stability is a bacterial start which should not affect the pH.

I would just continue with the cycle, then when it's finished you will need to empty virtually all the water and refill. That will reset the pH.

Click to expand...

Should i continue to add the seachem stability? I added 2ppm of ammonia yesterday and these were my numbers today. My ammonia was at 0, and these were my nitrates and nitrites. My ph also lowered back down to 7.2