High ammonia and nitrite level.

[myfrint]

Well... it has been like almost 2 weeks since i started fishless cycle with my 10 U.S. gallon tank with plants.

I've added 2 ml of ammonia and when i saw a nitrite spike, i began to add only 1 ml of ammonia.

Right now, my tank has WAY high ammonia and nitrite level. This has been for like 3 days or so.

I heard that ammonia should go down to zero before nitrite goes down to zero, but i don't see any going down of ammonia.

Is there something wrong with cycling?

And, i also heard that i should do like 90% water change after the cycle is finished.

Um, my question is.. when i do the water change, what water should i use? The instruction said that i shouldn't use dechlorinizing stuff with tap water. Well, i use StressCoat for dechlorizing. Is that gonna be okay to use for water change? or do i just use tap water?

Any replies will be appreciated.

 

[FishDan]

You have to dechlorinate the water. Otherwise the bacteria you are spending all this time "feeding" will be killed. Fishless cycling can take as long as 6 weeks on average, so don't rush things. Do you know if you have nitrAtes yet? Once you start seeing nitrAtes and your ammonia and nitrItes go down (helped with water changes) your cycle will be complete. If you don't have a nitrAte test kit, you should get one, so you know when your cycle is complete.

\Dan

 

[semper fi]

once you added the ammonia and got the spike in the reading did you continue to add ammonia? i was confused by this. once you spike the ammonia you should stop adding and let the level go down and the nitrites raise.

 

[Bol]

When you added 2ml of ammonia, what was your ammonia reading, in ppm, on an average day?
When you say "saw a nitrtite spike", what was the nitrite level?
What exactly are the "WAY high" current levels of ammonia and nitrite?

 

[myfrint]

um.... when i added 2 ml everyday, my ammonia level was ~5ppm.

And when i saw the nitrite spike, the nitrite level was over 1ppm. (my test only can test up to 1 ppm)

Yes. After the nitrite spike, i kept adding the half amount (1ml) of ammonia every day.

So, should i stop adding it?

 

[Bol]

I think I would (stop adding, that is).

But, keep an eye on it -- when either the ammonia or nitrites gets below 1ppm, I'd start adding (1mL) doses of ammonia again.

 

[myfrint]

Today, i didn't add any ammonia, and at night, i did the water test and i got 0 ammonia level suddenly.

Do i need to add ammonia (1ml) ?

And, am I going to see nitrite level dropping soon? Just wondering.

 

[myfrint]

My ammonia level dropped to 0 yesterday.

So, i added 1ml of ammonia today and my ammonia level went up to like 5 ppm again.

And, i still have above 1ppm nitrite level.

Is this normal? or should i do some little water change?