Cycing Complete?

[fUbAr]

My 20G tank's been fishless cycling for 2 weeks now using the add and wait method.

My ammonia drops from 4ppm to 0 in about 14 hours. Today my reading was:

Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 5ppm

My ammonia took about 1 week to drop from 6 to 0... and the same with the nitrite, suddenly dropped last night to 0...

I thought i was supposed to see a hugh rise in Nitrate levels? I did a large water change about a week ago to clear the yellow tinge from my wood... but the Nitrate wasnt being produced then...?

Ta, Dan.

 

[Cheffi]

My 20G tank's been fishless cycling for 2 weeks now using the add and wait method.

My ammonia drops from 4ppm to 0 in about 14 hours. Today my reading was:

Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 5ppm

My ammonia took about 1 week to drop from 6 to 0... and the same with the nitrite, suddenly dropped last night to 0...

I thought i was supposed to see a hugh rise in Nitrate levels? I did a large water change about a week ago to clear the yellow tinge from my wood... but the Nitrate wasnt being produced then...?

Ta, Dan.

Sound like it's cycled and another case of the mysterious disappearing nitrates. Try testing again tomorrow and see what they are. Which test kit are you using?

 

[fUbAr]

im using API freshwater master test kit... as recommended on here

 

[Egmel]

Do you have plants? They use up Nitrates. Mine were up at around 80ppm yesterday but are down to 5ppm today (l double checked because it seemed a huge drop). The only things I can think of are my plants establishing themselves or the kit not being able to cope with such high volumes & doing something strange with the colours. (The latter seems unlikely to say the least).

 

[fUbAr]

no plants, they're all plastic for the time being...

 

[Don155]

Does the Nitrite test start out purple and go to a clear or almost light green state? If so, then the reading is offscale high. You can bring it back down to a readable level by diluting the sample with fresh tap water before you add the test drops.

However if it stays a light blue the whole time then the read is zero.

-Don T.

 

[fUbAr]

the test starts off purple yes, but then quickly becomes clear afer a few minutes...?

 

[fUbAr]

anyone else know what could be going on?

 

[Cheffi]

the test starts off purple yes, but then quickly becomes clear afer a few minutes...?

If you have zero nitrItes the test will start off pale blue and stay there. If it's going purple then clear I would suggest that it is off the chart which would explain why you have hardly any nitrAtes.

I was assuming that your NitrIte reading on your first post was correct at zero however the fact that it starts off purple etc means you have a spike. Now you have to wait for it to come down to zero and you will see your NitrAtes go up high. This can happen overnight but there is no set time for it. Just keep testing, there is no mistaking the zero reading, blue when you add the liquid and will be blue after the 5 minutes is up.

 

[fUbAr]

thanks a lot... will keep on testing then

 

[Egmel]

If you have zero nitrItes the test will start off pale blue and stay there. If it's going purple then clear I would suggest that it is off the chart which would explain why you have hardly any nitrAtes.

Now why don't they write that anywhere in the instructions? I was about to give my tank the all clear and call it cycled! Thanks for averting a catastrophe!

 

[Cheffi]

If you have zero nitrItes the test will start off pale blue and stay there. If it's going purple then clear I would suggest that it is off the chart which would explain why you have hardly any nitrAtes.

Now why don't they write that anywhere in the instructions? I was about to give my tank the all clear and call it cycled! Thanks for averting a catastrophe!

The only reason I know this is because it happened to me and I thought my tank was cycled. I mailed API and the response I got was that if the colour isn't on the chart and appears clear it's because the nitrItres are so high they can't be registered on the chart.

If you want to see how zero should read just test your tap water (assuming like mine there are no nitrItes in it). I did this just to put my mind at rest that what API were saying was true and you will see that it goes blue and stays blue. If you reading this has averted a catastrophe thank goodness you read it. Good luck!!

 

[Egmel]

If you want to see how zero should read just test your tap water (assuming like mine there are no nitrItes in it).

Funnily enough that's exactly what I did, I also did a test of 1/4 tank water 3/4 tap water and it came out around 2ppm so I'm guessing my actual levels are over 8ppm.

Maybe we ought to see if we can get this added to the start of the fishless cycling thread (if you just post about it in that thread then most people will never get around to reading it )

Cheers again
Helen

 

[Cheffi]

If you want to see how zero should read just test your tap water (assuming like mine there are no nitrItes in it).

Funnily enough that's exactly what I did, I also did a test of 1/4 tank water 3/4 tap water and it came out around 2ppm so I'm guessing my actual levels are over 8ppm.

Maybe we ought to see if we can get this added to the start of the fishless cycling thread (if you just post about it in that thread then most people will never get around to reading it )

Cheers again
Helen

The only problem I can see is that this is applicable to the API test kit, I don't know if anyone has had problems with other test kits.