Confusing Test Results

[GJF]

Good Afternoon Everyone!

So I think I'm finally getting somewhere in terms of cycling my tank.

Today is day 11 of my fishless cycle. I carried out a water change on Monday after which my test results were approx 3ppm of Ammonia and .5ppm Nitrite. At this point I didnt test for Nitrate.

Today i decided to carry out tests for all three and i found that my ammonia is approximately still 3.0ppm, however Nitrite has now increased to 1ppm and more interestingly for myself Nitrate is present at around 10ppm.

I am very confused now as to where I am in the cycle and what to do now.

It's probably worth mentioning that I do have live plants in my tank which appear to be doing well and growing nicely. When I began my cycle I did add Fluval Cycle to try and kick things on and other than that the only thing I have added is 2.5ml of Seachem flourish 7 days ago.

I have attached a pic of my test results showing what I have described above.

Thanks in advance for advice!

 

[Guppy10]

Hi, if it was my tank I would just keep it running. I don't think water changes are needed at your low nitrate levels ( so bacteria are growing ) , wait for ammonia to drop down to 0 before adding any more ammonia and nitrate should go up and up. When am and nitrite is 0 and nitrate is up its done. Nearly there, use the quick start and increase the temp if you can.

 

[Colin_T]

Nitrate test kits read nitrite as nitrate, so don't bother testing for nitrate until the ammonia and nitrite have gone up and come back down to 0.

 

[CB008]

Good Afternoon Everyone!

So I think I'm finally getting somewhere in terms of cycling my tank.

Today is day 11 of my fishless cycle. I carried out a water change on Monday after which my test results were approx 3ppm of Ammonia and .5ppm Nitrite. At this point I didnt test for Nitrate.

Today i decided to carry out tests for all three and i found that my ammonia is approximately still 3.0ppm, however Nitrite has now increased to 1ppm and more interestingly for myself Nitrate is present at around 10ppm.

I am very confused now as to where I am in the cycle and what to do now.

It's probably worth mentioning that I do have live plants in my tank which appear to be doing well and growing nicely. When I began my cycle I did add Fluval Cycle to try and kick things on and other than that the only thing I have added is 2.5ml of Seachem flourish 7 days ago.

I have attached a pic of my test results showing what I have described above.

Thanks in advance for advice!

FluvalSmart cycle, according to the instructions, needs adding on a regular basis. More of this added equals more bacteria to increase the cycle rate