Cycle Gaps?

[SkiFletch]

Question for all you cycle geniouses out there as this is my first time monitoring a cycle with a testkit. Been doing a fished method with a dwarf gourami (yes, not reccomended, but too late now). We're on day 10 of the cycle and I've seen my first major ammonia drop. The tank was a constant 4.0ppm NH3, and no Nitrites. Today however its down to at MOST 2.0ppm. The color indicationlooks like it might be somewhere betwen 1.0 and 2.0ppm but I'll call it 2 to be on the safe side.

My question is, are there often times significant lags in the creation of Nitrite between the drop in ammonia?. My nitrite is only 0.1ppm which is up from the usual level of 0 so it looks like it might be building up, but I'm not sure yet. Should I be wary that the nitrite is so low, or should I wait till tommorrow's readings before I make any real conclusions?

Thanks as always for your help

*crosses fingers*

 

[rdd1952]

As ammonia starts to drop, nitrite should start to rise. They aren't necessarily proportional though. If amonia drops from 4 ppm to zero, it doesn't mean that nitrite will rise to 4 ppm. You should try to keep ammonia and nitrite below .5 ppm during a cycle with fish. Do daily water changes to keep them down.