Help With Reading Test Results

[kathleen]

Well here I am at day 23 in the fishless cycle of my 10g. All was going well until 2 days ago. Ammonia levels are now at 0 after daily additions of about 2 ppm so that's on track.
Nitrites appeared on day 5 and have obviously risen to 3.3 ppm which is the max my test kit measures and is a very dark pink (test kit is by Hagen/Nutrafin). Nitrates appeared about 3 days later and have risen to 110+ ppm (also a very dark pink colour) as this is also the max this test measures.
Now 2 days ago the tests for both nitrites and nitrates have turned a lighter reddish brown which isn't even a colour on the colour chart
My first thought was that my nitrite levels finally peaked and were dropping but that wouldn't account for the different nitrate reading because those levels won't drop withou a water change which I haven't done.
My other thought is that both my nitrite and nitrate levels are so high they are off the charts and the test isn't able to measure them properly.
I have an extra set of test kits for both nitrite and nitrate and the readings are the same so I don't think the tests are faulty.
So my question is does anyone have any experience with this brand of test kit and have you ever experienced these results? In the meantime I have emailed the company to see if they could give me some info but I'm wondering if they will be familiar with fishless cycling.
If anyone has any ideas let me know. Thanks!

 

[laurasmithuk]

if i was you i would just keep going til water readings are on the chart.

 

[modernhamlet]

Do a 50% water change and see if that gets your nitrites and/or nitrates at least back into a more reasonable/measurable level.

 

[kathleen]

A water change at this point won't interupt the cycling? Also, can you go a day without adding any ammonia? Will the established bacteria survive without any "food" for a day or so?

 

[modernhamlet]

A water change at this point won't interupt the cycling? Also, can you go a day without adding any ammonia? Will the established bacteria survive without any "food" for a day or so?

A water change shouldn't prevent the tank from cycling. In fact, if your nitrites are too high, that may be one reason for the slow cycle completion.

You should always keep ammonia above 0 during the fishless cycle. Otherwise, while the nitrite bacteria get established, the ammonia bacteria die off. I don't know how long the bacteria can go without ammonia before die off occurs (lack of oxygen kills them much faster), but it shouldn't be for longer than a day.

 

[kathleen]

Thanks modernhamlet!
I will do a 50% water change and see what that does and keep up with my daily ammonia doses. Hopefully I am nearing the end of this cycling. I also have my 50g fishless cycling but it's about 10 days behind this tank. With any luck I'll have fish soon!
Thanks again.

 

[SkiFletch]

day 23 is getting there. It took me 32 days

I ran into the exact problems you did, my nitrites and nitrates spiked WAY off the chart and turned a shade of purple I didnt know exhisted . I did what modern hamlet said and did a 75% water change actually and got my nitrite down to 2ppm and nitrate down to 20ppm. 2 days later it was maxed again, but 3 days after that nitrites were zero and after a big water change the nitrates went away too. now my live plants keep my nitrate low and my tank is running happily. only lost one out of 13 fish initially but not to a disease so my tank has been healthy. I'm very glad I did a fishless

 

[kathleen]

Thats good to hear SkiFletch.
Upon further investigation (at Hagen's website) it seems that the high nitrite levels may be interferring with the nitrate readings. Once NO2 drops I should have a better idea of NO3 levels.
Before I do a large water change I am going to test 50% tank water and 50% tap water (keeping in mind that my tap water has NO2=0 and NO3=5) to see if the levels will read back on the charts again. If they do then I know it is just a case of really high nitrite and nitrate levels and the water change will be good.

I figured I'd have another 10 days or so until my cycle finished. I've got to get busy now and decide which fish I want to have first. I was thinking a nice school of harlequin rasboras which I can then relocate into my 50g when it is finished it's cycle.

ETA - SkiFletch, at what point did you add your plants?

OK, so a 50 tank/50 tap water test shows readings on the charts again so a large water change is in order for the AM. I've never done one yet so this should give me some practice.

Thanks again, this site is awesome!

 

[SkiFletch]

glad we can help

I added my plants somewhere around day 25 of my cycle only because it took me a while to research and plan what I want (allready started cycling before I decided I wanted plants ). You can however add plants whenever you like during the cycling process. If you use hardy plants, a decent amount of light and some nutrient addition usually keeps them just fine. Glad to know thigns are going well for you on the cycling

 

[modernhamlet]

Thanks again, this site is awesome!

No problems, kathleen. I couldn't agree more!

 

[kathleen]

Well I just received a response to the email I sent to Hagen, the company that makes the test kits. Their suggestion was to shake the reagent solutions better otherwise test colours can be distorted. While I appreciated the fact that they responded within a day I doubt the funky colours I was getting was due to my testing methods which have never changed. My test results for my other tank are fine and read normal and up until a few days ago so were the ones for this tank.

I did a 75% water change this morning (my first EVER - go me!) and retested. I still have very high nitrite and nitrate levels (NO2 = 3.3+, NO3 = 50-110). Should I just hang tight a few days or do another water change?
I'm leary of adding plants at this point due to the high nitrate levels.

 

[SkiFletch]

You can do another water change if you feel up to it. Try maybe 50% this time. As for the plants, they use nitrates for nutrients. Nitrate is a fertilizer