Cycling Question

[Bruno]

So our first tank started a fish in cycle on March 24.  The first couple of weeks we took water samples in to the LFS but after that bought a Nutrafin test kit and I have been checking daily. I watched ammonia go up, then nitrites, then ammonia go down and nitrates appear and nitrites have been less each time as well. I have been doing water changes every 2 to 3 days depending on the results of those tests. On Saturday I tested and everything was almost zero, actually ammonia and nitrites were reading zero and nitrates were hardly registering. I did a water change and since then every day has been the same. So today I went and bought an API kit as I was worried that the levels weren't reading right. It too says everything is almost zero, though I can't read the color on the nitrate as clear to tell if it is zero or 5. I expected that when my tank finished its cycle the ammonia and nitrite would be zero, but I expected some nitrates... Do these numbers mean I am cycled for this bio load? Or is something else going on? I am attaching my nitrate reading to see if I am reading it right. Till now I was reading about 40ppm on nitrates...
 

 

 

[NeonBlueLeon]

Careful with your nitrites (with an I) and your nitrates (with an A).  It gets confusing for us reading it if you mix them up.  Once your tank established ammonia consuming bacteria, there should have been nitrites, not nitrates that formed.  Once the nitrite consuming bacteria formed, then your nitrates should have gone up.  I'm assuming that's what you meant.
 
Do you have any live plants in the tank?  Live plants consume nitrates.  Also, if you have been doing water changes without resupplying an ammonia source, then obviously eventually your nitrates will go to zero (as well as everything else).
 
Give your nitrate bottles a 30 second shake and re-test.  They are known to need vigorous shaking once and a while.  It just depends how long the test kit has been sitting.

 

[Bruno]

Thanks for catching the i vs a I fixed the orginal post so it reads correctly. I'll go shake the #2 nitrate bottle real good and test again...


Oops, I just did about an 80% PWC so I guess I will wait till tomorrow night and test again, this time REALLY shaking that nitrate bottle. Thanks for the tip.

 

[snazy]

Test after shaking the hell out of the 2nd nitrAte bottle
Also, presuming you don't have fish in the tank and you are still doing fishless cycle, then I guess you dosed ammonia after the 80% water change? Otherwise there won't be any nitrAte by tomorrow...

 

[Bruno]

No, it is a fish in cycle as I hadn't found this site till after getting bad advice at other sites SO there are 6 danios in there providing ammonia for me, and last week I was seeing some ammonia, a fair amount of nitrites and 40ppm or more of nitrates. The ammonia read zero for the first time late last week so I had hoped it meant we had passed another bench mark, but expected to see nitrites for a little longer. I am happy I don't, but confused as to why I am also not seeing nitrates like I was the last few weeks... I am hoping I just messed up the nitrate test and that I am close to being fully cycled for this bioload.


Oh, and we have stated another tank, a 37G and that is a fishless cycle this time, but it is only on day 3 so still lots of ammonia and nothing else in it.

 

[snazy]

Keep in mind that in order to test nitrAtes, the tests convert them to nitrItes and then measure the total amount. So if you've had nitrItes during cycling, it's pointless measuring nitrAtes because the test will be positive at that stage. And then not shaking the bottle doesn't help either
And another thing is that the nitrAte test is one of the most useless ones. It isn't accurate so it's a waste of time. Just keep testing ammonia and nitrIte, do large water changes if any are still showing up or if you see the fish stressed, then once cycled, proceed with weekly water changes.

 

[Bruno]

so shook the hell out of both the Nutrafin and API nitrate agents and seen slight nitrates in the tank. Again, I did a large water change yesterday so maybe that is not surprising now. But on the plus side no ammonia or nitrites either.

 

[snazy]

It's not surprising at all. You seem to have been doing water changes often and large, so nitrAtes didn't get a chance to accumulate.
It's great that there's no ammonia and nitrItes.