Cycling Question

[Paavn]

so my tank now reduces the 5ppm of ammonia to nitrites in 8hrs.... the only problem is im seeing no nitrates. the highest they've gone is 20ppm and that was last week. now it doesn't go over 5ppm
is this normal or am i having a weird problem?

 

[waterdrop]

We're lazy, so you probably have to remind us of information we've forgotten. Its a fishless cycle, right? How many days?

And so you're saying you think you've begun the second phase where you're seeing the nitrite(NO2) spike, right? (Somewhere in the first 21 days or so you've gone from 5ppm ammonia hardly dropping for days, to dropping every day and now to dropping to zero ppm from 5ppm in 8 hours after the ammonia was added, is that what you're saying?)

Are you adding ammonia once each 24 hours if it dropped to zero within that last 24 hours?

Have you got plants in there and if so, a lot?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Paavn]

We're lazy, so you probably have to remind us of information we've forgotten. Its a fishless cycle, right? How many days?

yup, it is a fishless cycle and im at the 30th day today

And so you're saying you think you've begun the second phase where you're seeing the nitrite(NO2) spike, right? (Somewhere in the first 21 days or so you've gone from 5ppm ammonia hardly dropping for days, to dropping every day and now to dropping to zero ppm from 5ppm in 8 hours after the ammonia was added, is that what you're saying?)

Are you adding ammonia once each 24 hours if it dropped to zero within that last 24 hours?

Have you got plants in there and if so, a lot?

~~waterdrop~~

yea thats where i am right now, the ammonia drops from 5ppm to 0 in 8 hrs, it never really got to every day, it was at about two days then sped up to almost every 12hrs. i top up the ammonia to just under 5ppm every 12 hrs, should i reduce it to once ever 24hrs? i test my pH, nitrite, ammonia and nitrate (just every so often) and i havnt had a pH crash, the pH has dropped from 8.2 to about 7.4 now, but its been there for about 2 or 3 days now.

i wouldnt be worried much if i had plants, but i dont.... so im curious as to where all the nitrate is going or if its even being made. i thought it might be algae eating it up but my glass is really clean lol

sorry about that i should have elaborated a bit more in the begining

 

[OldMan47]

You only need to top up the ammonia every 24 hours. In the meantime you need to try measuring your nitrites. At first ammonia will be converted to nitrites, not nitrates, so a nitrite spike is to be expected. When nitrites eventually start processing, the nitrate levels will go up but not before that.

 

[Paavn]

i've had this spike in nitrite for a couple of days now, the drops turn a deep purple as soon as they hit the bottom of the tube. i just thought that there would be some nitrate to measure since i had some earlier in the cycle (i guess theres a possibility that i got bad readings the first few times)

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, *Now* you're in the "nitrite spike", the beginning of the second phase of fishless cycling. These signs we talk about are -big-, not subtle! And 30 days sounds just about perfect for having finished the first phase (ammonia goes from not dropping to dropping regularly and quickly) and started the second phase (nitrite spike like you're seeing.) As OM47 says, you only add ammonia once in 24 hours, doing it twice will build up way too much nitrite. In fact, during the nitrite spike you might as well drop back to only adding 3ppm of ammonia when you add. Then, once nitrite starts dropping to zero within 24 hours you can ease it back up to 5ppm per ammonia add.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Paavn]

thanks waterdrop i'll do that from now on