Fishless Cycle - Nitrite Disappeared!

[richw]

Ok so I've been running this for another week - at one point I had ammonia and nitrites at 0 after adding 2ppm of ammonia 24 hours earlier - all was looking good.
 
Unfortunately that doesn't appear to be the case anymore - the ammonia is now sitting at around 0.2-0.3ppm and there's 0ppm of nitrites.
 
I did a 90% water change yesterday, the ammonia dropped from 0.4 to 0.25ppm. The pH is also worrying - when I first setup the tank it read at 7.3ppm, it's now at 8.4ppm and going up by 0.2ppm on a daily basis!
 
What's happened? What do I do?

 

[Mamashack]

Sorry if I've missed it but what tests are you using?
As TLM said API ammonia tests can be misleading at 0.25ppm (as well as the nitrAte one) - it's the most popular brand it seems on here, but at TLM's suggestion I'm now going for the Salifert brand and some of which are suitable for FW use tho they are primarily for marine water.

 

[richw]

Yep using API tests - why the heck they've picked colours that are so similar beats me.. the only one I find easy to read is High Range pH, only because each colour in the scale is completely different. What really doesn't help is the fact I'm colour blind and struggle to identify shades - I end up having to ask my girlfriend to check everything and I think she's starting to get annoyed with having to do this every day!
 
I'll definetely check out the Salifert brand, even if I can just get a better ammonia one..

 

[eaglesaquarium]

They don't really 'pick' the colors - the colors happen more as a result of the chemical reaction between the reagent and what you are testing for (more or less) so there are limits to the color options they can come up with.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

In fact, the more expensive and more accurate ammonia tests use a colorimeter or other optical reader to determine the actual color based on the wavelengths. You get much more accurate results this way. The results are displayed in the actual ppms. One could be 100% color blind and use one.

 

[gemzisace]

hello,
sorry to interrupt this convo but i have a question about cycling.
i have just set my tank back up after moving, the filter had been unused for about 3wks, it's been cycling for 2days now!
I have 2 african clawed frogs in a little tank but wanting to put them in the big tank, my question is, if i was to replace some of the water out of the big tank with their water would this be ok?

 

[Blondielovesfish]

hello,
sorry to interrupt this convo but i have a question about cycling.
i have just set my tank back up after moving, the filter had been unused for about 3wks, it's been cycling for 2days now!
I have 2 african clawed frogs in a little tank but wanting to put them in the big tank, my question is, if i was to replace some of the water out of the big tank with their water would this be ok?

 
You would really need to use some filter media as the water doesn't really contain very much of the beneficial bacteria. You could take about 1/4 of the filter media from the smaller tank's filter and put that in the bigger tanks filter. Continue cycling though as this will only speed the cycle up, not eliminate the cycle. The only way to immediately cycle the tank would be to use all of the filter media from the smaller tank, which could be an option.