Ammonia Processing But Nitrites Still High

[sjolliff]

im currently doing a fishless cycle and my nitrites are off the chart. iv been advised to top up 2ppm of ammonia every 24 hours but my tank is processing the ammonia within 8 hours . should i do a water change to lower the nitrites but still keep adding 2 ppm of ammonia?

 

[Harlequins]

From my gatherings you don't need to do a water change during fishless unless your ph drops to low,my nitrites spiked really high whilst showing ammonia had cleared,nitrites take longer to go down.

Experts will help more

 

[sjolliff]

From my gatherings you don't need to do a water change during fishless unless your ph drops to low,my nitrites spiked really high whilst showing ammonia had cleared,nitrites take longer to go down.

Experts will help more

not done any water changes at all i sorted the ph out with baking soda.

 

[martinking]

Hiya Mate,

it sounds like your in the Nitrite Spike phase, its a part of every cycle. It means your progressing well.

It will probably last about a week.

Cheers

 

[Tropical_Fish]

yep just wait - it will come back down all of a sudden

 

[m00se]

I'm sure you've read the article here on Fishless Cycling. Your cycle will naturally go through a phase of having nitrites off the chart.

Basically, you want to bring your tank to 5ppm of ammonia (there's a calculator that will tell you how much to add at the bottom of this page). The ammonia will slowly process off into nitrites (thanks to your friends in the filter Nitrosomonas). The nitrites will stay high until the slower-growing Nitrospira (friends #2 in the filter) multiply enough to bring it down.

The only thing you need to worry about in these initial stages is the ammonia concentration (but keep testing for nitrites, too - it still comes in very handy for us to see how your cycle is coming along). When the ammonia concentration drops to 0ppm, add enough ammonia to bring the tank back up to 5ppm. Then wait again until it drops to 0, and then do it again. There will come a point in a few weeks when the ammonia is dropping to 0 in under 24 hours. When this time comes, only add ammonia once every 24 hours (even if it's processing in 12). Eventually, you'll get to the point where your ammonia and nitrites are processing to 0ppm in 12 hours. When that's the case for a week, you're officially cycled.

The short answer, then, is no; don't do a water change. Just keep adding enough ammonia to bring the tank up to 5ppm every time it drops to 0, or 24 hours after you last added any, whichever is the later.

 

[sjolliff]

ok
a few other members told me to add only 2ppm till the nitrites come down, when they drop then add 4-5ppm till i get to the point where they both 0 in 12hr
but my ammonia drops really fast and they will got like 14hours with non if i do that

 

[sjolliff]

Iv added 4ppm, just tested the nitrates and there getting lower each day? there down to about 5 now, where as a few days ago they were around 80ppm?

 

[jmkgreen]

Nitrates shouldn't really decline without a water change, definitely not by a significant value.

By adding 4ppm of ammonia you have increased your nitrites by nearly 12ppm. Had you done 2ppm it would have been a nearly 6ppm increase (2.9x multiplication factor roughly if I am not mistaken?).

I do feel for you - my situation is the same. I can process a "splash" (can't be bothered to measure accurately on a large tank) of ammonia inside 12 hours but nitrites have been off the chart for 2-3 weeks now. 5-10ppm of Nitrates say my nitrifying bacteria have yet to develop much if at all. pH is 8.2-8.4 so no worries there either. I've dropped the ammonia top-ups to roughly 2ppm every 48 hours to let the nitrites calm down a little.

 

[fatheadminnow]

^Agree, there is good info above!^

You are in the second phase of the cycle where you experience a large nitrite spike. Since for every 1 ppm of ammonia that is processed it turns into about 2.7 ppm of nitrite, that just goes to show it is going to take longer for your nitrifying bacteria to colonize enough to process all of the present nitrite. But trust me, your nitrite will go down!

As for the nitrates, they should not really be going down unless you have plants in your tank. Plants will use ammonia and nitrate as a source of nutrients. So, do you have plants in your tank?

Also, you always add ammonia in a fishless cycle at the 24 hour mark, regardless of when your ammonia goes to zero. Don't worry about loosing any autotrophic bacteria in that time period of no ammonia.

Our test kits, when they show zero for a certain value, are only so accurate. Even though our test kits show zero, there are still trace amounts of ammonia, in your case, present in the water that your bacteria are still using.

Also, there is one thing that 'may' speed up your cycle a bit, and that is a large (90%) water change! Sometime a large water change will help the bacteria colonize a little quicker right after the water change is performed. Remember, these bacteria live in the filter and not in the water column, so doing a water change is not going to take any of the bacteria out.

Helpful tips: A pH of 8.4 and a temp of 29C/84F is optimal for the growth of these bacteria!

-FHM

 

[sjolliff]

Done a nitrate test today and its about 60ppm think i might of done the test wrong

yeah iv got plants but not much or over the top,


my ammonia is down to just below 0.50ppm
so i leave it for now then toight ill add 2ppm

iv not done a water change since starting, just used baking soda for ph

i might do a change if its goin to help

 

[jmkgreen]

There is no way that having plants will cause a drop from 80ppm to 5 or even 60ppm - instead you're more likely to see a reduced rate of increase as a result of the plants consuming some (but not all) of the nitrates as they are produced.

There is absolutely no reason to do a water change at this point except to reduce ammonia / nitrites / nitrates or if there is something else you specifically want achieve. Unless your nitrites are so off the chart (and you can't tell - obviously) that they are way above what will normally be produced in a living tank there's no point in changing the water in this case.

 

[OldMan47]

If you want to do a water change to reduce the nitrite levels it will not hurt anything. Just dose the ammonia back up after the water change and continue on with the testing. A light planting will not affect nitrates very much but will have an effect. A heavy planting is used by some people instead of a cycled filter because enough plants growing quickly will drive the nitrate levels all the way to zero and can work in place of a biological filter. I use that method in one of my tanks and in other tanks I find it necessary to add in nitrates to get good plant growth because the plants remove all of the nitrogen that the fish produce. There are far more than one method for controlling the poisons in a tank JMKGreen but the simple cycled filter is definitely the easiest to maintain in good condition.
The daily only dosing is plenty to maintain a biological filter's growth. Even if all of the ammonia was gone n the first hour, a bit unusual, there are high levels of nitrites feeding your growing colony of nitrite consuming bacteria. Meanwhile, a small fluctuation in the levels of ammonia consuming bacteria will have no effect once you have enough bacteria to process the ammonia in 12 hours. If the levels drop a bit, it may take an hour or two more to process the ammonia until the bacteria rebuild but with that extra hour or two of growth time every day, the bacteria will rebuild so it is not a problem to worry about.

 

[sjolliff]

Been adding 2ppm of ammonia the last couple of days and has been been 0 in 12hrs,

i think my nitrites are dropping the take a few seconds to start turning deep purple in the bottom of the tube (api)
and look below 5ppm not really dark purple,

got some more plants today but im keeping them in a small tank, im goin to add when i do the final WC

all my co2 set up is here, all ready to go lol

i know you can add a full stock off fish but im goin to do them in 5's

3 corries, a plec would like a flash or princess, and two other fish not decided yet, i will have a look when i get to my LFS, plus rabbut worjs there so hiopefully he will advise me

just like to thank you to everyonr who has helped me understand more
cheers steve