nitite levels

[schizo_fish]

i've been fishless cycleing my tank for 16 days now.
I tested my nitrites with a test kit that you add a solution to some tank water, and at first when the solution mixes it looks like i have high nitrites, but when i wait for 5 minutes (like it says in the instructions) the colour changes to a light green, but this isn't even on the colour chart, which ranges from light blue to purple.
what could this be?
also, i test my ammonia and it shows as being quite high.

 

[heresmike]

I remember another member on this forum who was also getting some funky colors when the levels were off the scale. Chances are, the nitrites are off the scale of your test kit. Are you using the Aquarium Pharmeceuticals kit?

How much ammonia are you adding per day, and how big is your tank?

 

[schizo_fish]

im using a master test kit i got from my lfs.
since yesterday ive cut the amount of ammonia down to about a teaspoon.
My tanks a 40 gallon.
even so, shouldn't my ammonia drop to 0 due to the bacteria at work?

 

[tstenback]

The ammonia will drop to zero when there is enough of the bacteria to consume that amount of ammonia every day. Until then the ammonia level will gradually drop. Once it gets to zero then it should not go positive again unless there is a greater amount of ammonia added to the water. Same for the nitrite only when nitrite comes down it comes down very fast. HTH