Fishless Cycle

[rodeo-clown]

I'm 3 weeks into a fishless cycle. I noticed nitrites going up about a week ago and reduced the amount of ammonia I was adding from 10 drops down to 2-5 drops.

Today my readings are;

Ammonia - 0
Nitrites - .50
Nitrates 10
PH 7.

Things don't seem too bad, but the nitrites have been at .5 for a while now. How many more days until I see this go down, and should I still be adding 2-5 drops of ammonia? Also, is there any benefit in a water change?

 

[breezer40]

Looks to me like your cycle is doing great but you will need just a little longer to get the nitrites down to 0. Leave the water change and let things run their course.

 

[WILDER]

It's on it's way, but not past the finnish line yet.

 

[Squirrelbuddies]

My nitrite was stuck on 2.0-5.0ppm for 15 days and then one day it dropped to .50 and to .25 the next. From what I have read this is common. So hang in there it's almost done!

I actually did a 20% water change when it was stuck. Mostly just to drop the water level so I could clean up some of the algae, prune the plants and remove the snails that hitchhiked their way in the tank on some of the plants. At 20%, it really did not affect the nitrate reading but it made the tank look better which made me feel a LOT better!!

 

[Webbie48]

Just keep going the nitrate will all of a sudden disappear I have just finished my first fishles cycle.
I'm a newbie and never thought it was going to happen it seemed to last for ever in fact it was about 7 days ( I never helped myself as I kept testing morning and night would suggest just testing each 24hrs)
The cycle looks on course to me
Good luck
Webbie

 

[juiceball1]

I've just completed cycling my 125 gal fresh water tank. It took 19 days for my tank to cycle. I did a 75% water change to get the nitrates down to 5-10ppm. I plan to purchase fish for my tank this weekend. I plan to start a community tank.

Note: my nitrites dropped from 2-5ppm to .25ppm in one day, so hang in there!!