18 Days Into Cycle

[trace1]

hi guys
right i'm 18 days into my fishless cycle on my 240 uk litre tank, the readings are as follows:
ammonia kept around 3-4ppm
nitrIte is about 5ppm highest my test kit goes
nitrAtes are only just registering between 0 + 5.0 ppm very hard to tell as colours similar
now is this normal & will nitrAtes suddenly start to rise soon
had nitrItes in there for about a week now maybe bit longer the tank is quite heavly planted so is this the reason nitrAtes arnt showing up
i would be grateful for any advice on this
thanks all trace

 

[rdd1952]

I'm sure that the plants are using some of the nitrates but definitely not all. When I cycled my 75 gallon, it was heavily planted and my nitrates were still off the chart by the time it finished. Is your ammonia reading dropping back to near zero daily before you add more ammonia? If so, then your tank is cycling. How long has it been since the ammonia first dropped to zero? Since you say you have had nitrites for about a week, I would assume that means your ammonia dropped in about 10 to 12 days. It usually takes about twice as long for the nitrite to drop (say 10 days for ammonia and another 20 for nitrite as an example).

 

[kathleen]

trace, what kind of test kit do you have? The reason I ask is because the one I have gave false nitrate readings due to the high levels of nitrite. Mine is by Hagen/Nutrafin. Once my nitrite levels finally dropped to zero I got more accurate nitrate readings. I also think your plants are using up lots of the nitrates.
Other than that I would just wait a few more days

 

[trace1]

its the api master test kit & its fine for testing the other tanks
ammonia is dropping to about 1ppm before i add more ammonia but it take about 2 days for it to drop, i knew the nitrItes take longer to drop than the ammonia, just can't get my head round way i've got no nitrAtes.
now if this was a cycled tank i would be chuffed to sh*t that i've got very low nitrAtes lol.
thanks for the replies thou hopefully they will start to climb in the next couple of days & then it will nearly be done, got loads of time as no fish are going in till the tank is perfect

 

[trace1]

hi all
thought i would update this a bit, well i finally got the nitrAtes i've been waiting for this weekend & the nitrItes went to 0 yipee at last so i was thinking that the ammonia would also now go as well & i would just have to keep it topped up till i got fish in there
now i've not added any ammonia for a goo couple of days now & the level of ammonia is still on 2ppm & no i didn't put loads of it in there only got it upto 4/5ppm to cycle it.
so its like omg why is this happening to me
so as it stands now my tank is almost cycled & i'm desparate to change the water due to the fact it looks green & i want some new fishys in there

 

[trace1]

right i've put an air stone in now cos i've just read that the higher temp i've got the tank running at will reduce the oxygen levels which i didn't think of.
if any1 has any other ideas as to the reason the ammonia won't go down now i would like to hear them, maybe i just need to be more patient but think that nearly 4 weeks is long enough now lol )

 

[kris-b-]

The lack of oxygen could be one of the reasons as the bacteria will need oxygen. It seems odd why it has stayed at 2ppm when you haven't added any more ammonia and your nitrtites have dropped to 0. Try testing you nitrites again because if the ammonia that is in your tank is being processed then your nitrites should rise up again.

I'm in the middle of mine, can't wait for it to be over!

 

[trace1]

right just run throu the tests again & these are the results:
ammonia 2ppm confused about this as been like this for the last 4/5days
nitrItes 0ppm dropped saturday morning
nitrAtes above 160ppm but not worries about them as the end water change will sort them out

as you can see this is very confusing & i can't get my head round it at all

 

[kris-b-]

The only thing that I can think of is that no ammonia must be being processed at the moment as if it was you would definately have nitrites I'm confused with the results!

 

[trace1]

yeah thats what i thought. will se how it goes now with the air stone in over next couple of days, only other thing i can think of doing is a water change & then re adding some ammonia to see if that sorts it out was hopin i would be getting fish now. was well excited on saturday when the nitrItes dropped.

 

[rdd1952]

I'm also confused as to why the ammonia is going down. At the point that the nitrite drops to zero, the tank should be able to process 2 to 4 ppm back to 0 in about 12 hours. Obviously, if you have nitrate at 160 ppm, your tank is cycling (or finished) I would suggest going ahead with the large water change, about 75%. The raise the ammonia back up to about 3 ppm and see how long it takes it to drop.

 

[trace1]

thanks rdd, right i will do the water change now, kinda glad you said to do as i was very unsure.
will let you know what happens

 

[IMCL85]

start stucking fish the hardy one like cory and some livebearer .

 

[rdd1952]

start stucking fish the hardy one like cory and some livebearer .

Actually most corys aren't very hardy and need a fully cycled tank and good water conditions.

 

[trace1]

right i did 75% w/c last night & then raised the ammonia back up to 2/3ppm althou there was still some ammonia in even after that big change around 0.50ppm.
just checked levels again now & still no nitrItes & ammonia is about 2ppm, really hard to tell on api master test kits as the colours are so close. will check ammonia again later on to see if it has dropped anymore.
but i'm still confused with the results of the test