Cycle Diary... Finished @ Day 127!

[martinking]

ok so I added the bicarb tonight and interestingly my pH rose back up to 7.5 and my ammonia has nearly processed so I topped it back up and my nitrites have dropped but the strangest thing is my Nitrates seem to have REALLY dropped!

They went from 110 to 20! I thought the only way to remove Nitrates was with a water change?

Should I add a little more bicarb to bring the pH up a little more?

Cheers

PS. I've updated page 1 with tonight's results...

 

[martinking]

Day 26 now updated, everything seems to have settled down a bit now.

I stupidly forgot to put the ammonia in on day 25. But I remembered tonight!

Cheers

 

[waterdrop]

 

[martinking]

Day 26 and 27 updated...

Its starting to look better!

Cheers

 

[waterdrop]

Lookin ok to me! -wd-

 

[martinking]

Another update on Page 1...

Well its starting to get there! eventually!

 

[waterdrop]

 

[martinking]

Thanks WD... any guess on how long is left?

 

[waterdrop]

I think the whole reason all these discussions exist is because there are so many variables that its extremely unpredictable, which, combined with the patience needed, makes it really hard for many people to get through it without some encouragement ( I should be more encouraging, right?)

How do those peaks of nitrite=3.3 compare to the max nitrite your test will measure? Its hard to tell whether you've had a clear nitrite spike phase, looking at your data.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[martinking]

3.3 is the top of my scale!

 

[waterdrop]

o good!! Then those really have been spikes! very good

 

[martinking]

Days 29 to 33 updated.

Im going to put a little more Bicarb in to bring the pH back up to 8.0-8.4.

Cheers

 

[waterdrop]

You are definately in the "nitrite spike" phase. Those 3.3 entries are very regular.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[martinking]

Great news, I just hope it continues to grow and grow!

Unfortunately I have just ran out of Nitrate tests, i'll just have to try and pick one up tomorrow!

Thanks

 

[martinking]

ok I ran out of all my tests except for pH so I had a few none results days but now im back on the straight and narrow with my new API Test Kit, im finding it a lot easier to read and a lot more accurate!

Ive updated days 33-39 now. Something isn't quite right, its not even clearing the ammonia now within 24 hours never mind 12 hours!

Im tempted tomorrow PM once my ammonia is back down to 0 im going to top it back up with a bit less and test 30 minutes later just to make sure I havent been putting more ammonia than required in. I just have the feeling that my old test kit wasn't relaible enough. The top score was 5ppm on my old kit, so there is half a chance it could have been over.

I was using the correct ml though which was worked out from the Ammonia Calc at the top...

Any ideas?

Cheers