Guidence Needed With Api Nitrite Test

[simonmac2]

hi all,

i think i may have finally completed the cycle, but need to confirm with some knowledgable ones on this forum.

for 10 days or so, i've been adding 5ml of ammonia to the 180l tank, to take it from 0ppm to 3ppm. The nitrite test has always gone (and stayed) dark purple.

tonights test have got me confused.

ammonia as normal, 0ppm, added 5ml, hour later tested, 3ppm - fine.

nitrite tested, sample went pale purple when dropped in, and over the 5 mins, lightened up to the palest green. Definately NOT blue (or any shade thereof)

i'll keep adding the ammonia over the next couple of days, and see if the nitrite result is the same, but i have repeated the test 3 times now, with the same results (1 hour apart)

a calming sentence or two would really help.

Regards

Simon

 

[Miss Wiggle]

close your eyes, take a deep breath feeling the sensation of how it goes in and out of your body, take 3 deep breaths each time focusing on the sensation of just breathing. visualise a ball of light above your head coming down towards you, as it reaches your body feel the warmth and light spreading through you, relaxing every muscle as it travels slowly down your body. empty your mind of all thoughts, count slowly to 10 thinking of nothing else but the numbers. when you are done take a deep breath and just sit still for a moment then gently open your eyes.

it's a relaxion technique you use before meditation, that should calm you down


guessing you'd rather some actual advise though

how are you reading the results, are you holiding them up to the light and against a white background, may sound silly but even things like the colour the room is painted can affect how you view the colour, so if you have a nice light bright white room then hold the test up to the light in there and see if the results look any different.

secondly make sure that the test tube is clean.... again could sound silly but you can get residue of all sorts built up which can screw with the results. give them a good blast out and make sure you have clean test tubes.

all that being said i have heard of people reporting a pale green colour before, sorry to say but i think this is just one of the variations of a small nitrite reading, just got to persevere and you will get that treasured pale sky blue soon enough.

 

[simonmac2]

hmmm, thanks MW. i'll run the tests tomorrow evening BEFORE i add the ammonia to take it up to 3ppm.

if it HAS gone, back to the wierd pale green, i'll do the nitrates as well as they only registered 10 today but i did do a partial water change a couple of days ago due to some weird manky stringy bacteria (looked like long brown hair)

i must be close now.

if Ruth wins anything at the school sports day tomorrow i am a dead man...

Simon

 

[Miss Wiggle]

lol, the good thing being you are very very close now

there is some discussion regarding when a cycle is finished, some people do think it's safe to add fish if the nitrite is dropping in something like 14/15 hours rather than the generally agreed 12, but if you do this it's best to stock lightly because the filter isn't quite up to full capacity

 

[simonmac2]

i'll make sure we have consistent results over the next couple of days and then maybe have a trip in to Douglas after swimming on Saturday. got my list of garish fish

means i can do a big water change friday night, ready for everything if all goes well.

Simon

 

[Miss Wiggle]

mmmmmmmm garish fish can't beat it!!!

well good luck, make sure you let us know what your results are for the next few days

 

[LionessN3cubs]

hate to tell ya mate...but the pale green for me meant nitrites were off the chart high.


Im NO expert..Im a newbie. Im just sharing what I just went through with my 12 week long cycle.

When my nitrite test was going purple and staying purple, the next step after that was purple to pale green. I did a BIG water change at that point just to start with a clear fresh slate. I did that so that I could know for SURE that I wasn't just dealing with a backlog of nitrite. Several on here have suggested a big water change at this point because of the reason of the big backlog of nitrites that can build up...plus from MY personal experience, a big water change at this point seemed to boost my cycle. miss wiggle, if I am wrong here please by all means say so...I shouldnt be handing out advice at all being so new...dont want to go even further out of my box and be offering bad advice. I just dont think the pale green this person is speaking about is a nitrite trace...not from what he said about it going from purple yesterday to that pale green today...sounds like his/her nitrite hasn't started dropping yet and instead just crossed the line (barely) between test measurable and off the charts.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

hate to tell ya mate...but the pale green for me meant nitrites were off the chart high.


Im NO expert..Im a newbie. Im just sharing what I just went through with my 12 week long cycle.

When my nitrite test was going purple and staying purple, the next step after that was purple to pale green. I did a BIG water change at that point just to start with a clear fresh slate. I did that so that I could know for SURE that I wasn't just dealing with a backlog of nitrite. Several on here have suggested a big water change at this point because of the reason of the big backlog of nitrites that can build up...plus from MY personal experience, a big water change at this point seemed to boost my cycle. miss wiggle, if I am wrong here please by all means say so...I shouldnt be handing out advice at all being so new...dont want to go even further out of my box and be offering bad advice. I just dont think the pale green this person is speaking about is a nitrite trace...not from what he said about it going from purple yesterday to that pale green today...sounds like his/her nitrite hasn't started dropping yet and instead just crossed the line (barely) between test measurable and off the charts.

not at all Lioness, please feel free to share your experiences, I'm always happy to admit I am only human and do make mistakes.

I've never personally experienced the pale green and you have so your experience in this is more valid than mine, I just thought i remembered it being one of the shades you get to just before completion. If anyone else can chip in with their experiences or opinions then please do!!

At any rate, it's always safest to wait until you get the clear sky blue.

 

[waterdrop]

I have never experienced anything that could be remotely called pale green with the API Nitrite test. At extremely high nitrites (say, beginning of "nitrite spike" phase) I have experienced a few tests exactly as I believe RDD describes them in his fishless cycling article, namely that immediately as the 5 drops go into the test tube, you see a very dark weird blue-green form in the bottom of the test tube.

Sorry to be of no help. I do agree that large water changes, starting with the beginning of the nitrite spike phase and moving forward is something that helps overall.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Tag2008]

Hi,
I was reading your thread and in the pinned tutorial it mentions this if its the same test kit you use and colours the article says

"Every time the ammonia drops back to zero, raise it back up to 3 to 4 ppm and continue to check nitrites. The nitrite reading will go off the chart. NOTE FOR API TEST KIT USERS: When you add the drops, if they immediately turn purple in the bottom of the tube, your nitrites are off the chart high. You do not need to shake the tube and wait 5 minutes. If you do, the color will turn green as the nitrites are so high that there isn't a color to measure them with. "

I hope this is on the right track but seems your possibly way Hi and your kit cant measure ?

Tag

 

[simonmac2]

hi all,

i did all the tests again tonight, and pretty much the same as yesterday. Ammonia @ 0, Nitrites @ pale green and nitrates @ 10; temp @ 28

if i do a 50% water change tonight, wouldn't that remove the "food" for the growing bacteria? i'd rather not disturb the little beggars - they do seem a bit recalcitrant in my tank.

I don't want to stall, but am happy to keep doing the tests if in a couple of days the nitrite plummets [like Harold]

how "wide" is the nitrite spike? i.e. if it is still going pale green in 4 days and therefore off the scale, is that normal? or should it have come down by then.

i had read the API/nitrite/purple piece in the guide, but have also read on the forum to wait the 5 mins. My nitrite tests have been going purple and staying there for ages, the pale green thing is new. The weird thing is that it starts off purple, and then fades up the chart (getting lighter all the time) - that was the bit that confused me.

Thanks to all guides...

I swear i am going to write this all up once i get cycled.

 

[waterdrop]

I say you shouldn't be afraid to do large water changes during fishless cycling, especially during the second phase after you've had the nitrite spike. Doing partial water changes doesn't have much meaning for growing bacteria. A large water change is much more useful, clearing out a lot of nitrites and nitrates. In your case it should be even more useful because if the pale green really comes from very high nitrites, then doing a large water change should get you back down into a purple range that makes more sense. If nitrites are actually very low, then perhaps it would help you get pale blue.

No need to worry about a water change causing a food shortage for the bacteria - you just recharge ammonia back up to 4-5ppm right after the water change. Also, the bacteria can go a long time without ammonia - only a very small die-back begins after a day or so without ammonia.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Miss Wiggle]

No need to worry about a water change causing a food shortage for the bacteria - you just recharge ammonia back up to 4-5ppm right after the water change. Also, the bacteria can go a long time without ammonia - only a very small die-back begins after a day or so without ammonia.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[littlest]

I've had the very pale green nitrite test result with API and for me it did indeed mean that nitrite was off the chart.

I would hold off on plans for buying fish (sorry, I'm sure you don't want to hear that) and instead do a large waterchange. The waterchange should enable you to see where you are with nitrite (you should hopefully get test results which relate to a number on your chart) and it will help clear the big backlog of nitrite.

 

[simonmac2]

ok, i'll do a 75% change tonight and re-feed with ammonia afterwards.

How "wide" is this spike going to be? I has been a week so far.

Regards

Simon